Blood Nationalism

The new voter ID laws proposed in Missouri are, for starters, unconstitutional. They put unfair demands on voters to provide identification that they may not be able to obtain due to economic factors or other mitigating circumstances. Although a similar law has already been upheld in Indiana by the Supreme Court, this in no way proves its constitutionality. A biased and partisan Supreme Court does not follow the spirit of the constitution and certainly doesn't work in the way it was meant to. The Missouri secretary of state himself says that the law could disenfranchise up to 240,000 legitimate voters in a state that has historically been crucially relevant in presidential elections. Many of these voters are the poor and already disenfranchised, which is to say: they'll probably be voting Democrat come November. Or, at least, they will be if they aren't unlawfully barred from doing so. In an election year where the chances for a Republican win look so slim, is it any surprise that these actions are being taken? It shouldn't be.

However, there is an even more frightening side to all of this. By placing ever stricter limitations on who can and cannot vote, we are also limiting more and more who can be labeled a citizen, a member of the nation. What happens to groups within a democracy that have no voice? Who do they turn to? The last time this kind of limitation on voting occurred, it was under a system of laws called Jim Crow. These laws have no place in the U.S., or any country calling itself a democracy. Although, when you think about it, what do you call a country that has as its president a man who lost the popular vote but was bumped into office regardless due to the decision of a Supreme Court staffed by his own father? I'm not sure, but I don't think the term is "democracy."

-The Ambassador