Summer is upon us, and children out of school are breaking into their happy dance. It’s the time of the year when we can all anticipate glorious, sun-drenched days of rest and relaxation.
What better time to take stock of our political achievements and failings.
First the good news! The same Supreme Court which gave us Citizens United took a sharp turn to the left advancing the cause of civil rights for the LGBT community.
It is now legal in all 50 states for persons to marry whomever they love regardless of gender. They also preserved the Affordable Care Act which, lest we forget, provided coverage for 16 million uninsured Americans and helped up to 129 million who no longer had to worry about being denied coverage because of a pre-existing condition.
And in a less heralded but equally important five to four decision, the Court upheld the constitutionality of Congressional districts drawn by independent commissions as an alternative to those drawn by partisan legislatures.
By way of explanation, Congressional district boundaries are mapped out by the 50 state legislatures based upon the population of the state.
Whichever party controls the legislature can draw the lines so as to favor their party. The practice is called gerrymandering.
The bad news is that after winning the 2010 elections, Republicans redrew the maps so that in 2012 they were able to retain control of the House of Representatives despite the fact that Democrats received a million more votes.
If this is all too “wonky,” the point is gerrymandering is undemocratic and having independent commissions draw the lines is one solution to the problem.
Recently, there have been a variety of controversial statements from the endless field of Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination.
Donald Trump’s rant about illegals being “rapists” may have lost him the Latino vote; Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin believes that “government has no higher purpose” than fighting to outlaw abortion; and Senator Ted Cruz, (he’s the gift that keeps on giving) has called Social Security a “Ponzi scheme.”
What is interesting is that Republicans seem hell-bent on self-destruction. They ignore what a majority of Americans favor, e.g. abortions and Social Security, and are simply on the wrong side of history!
Some more bad news for liberals…. since 2010, a total of 21 states have passed voting restriction laws.
This means that millions of elderly, minorities, and students (most of whom would cast their vote for the Democratic Party) are being disenfranchised.
The ostensible reason for such laws is that “voter fraud” is rampant. This is not the case, so what we have is a proposed solution for a non-existent problem.
The state of Texas has one of the strictest photo ID laws in the country.
More than 600,000 registered voters in Texas do not possess the required papers.
How ironic is it that Texas accepts as proof of identity a concealed handgun license, but not an ID issued by a public university.
One federal judge has already determined that the legislature designed the law purposely to discriminate against Latinos and African Americans.
The Republicans and the Supreme Court already stole one election (Bush v. Gore-2000) and are hoping to do the same in 2016.
We have a long history in this country of expanding the right to vote.
In 1868, the 15th amendment was ratified giving blacks the franchise.
In 1920, the 19th amendment gave women the right to vote.
We have encouraged voting through practices such as mail-in ballots and same day registration, but now Republicans want to reverse the trend.
Combating their efforts, this past June, Hillary Clinton called for “universal, automatic registration” at the age of eighteen. As 2016 draws closer, who is allowed to vote may become a hot button issue.
The past few months have been heaven for political junkies.
We’ve had a spate of important Court decisions, some very controversial issues looming on the horizon, and a president who seems rejuvenated. During his magnificent Charleston eulogy, he broke into song leading the faithful in “Amazing Grace.”
One can only speculate as to what will come next. Stay tuned!
Dr. Hal Sobel
Great Neck
