While Extremists Change the Rules We the People can Still Overcome

OK. Having watched the last two years and working hard not to hyperventilate and or go completely insane, I have a simple question for the Democratic Party; “What would it take to get legal identification for every registered voter in the US who currently needs one in time for the midterms?   

Do we put together a GoFundMe® campaign to get the resources to transport voters who are being disenfranchised to the nearest place they can go to get a legally accepted ID? Do we go out into the communities and work with Americans to help them get their required documents (birth certificate, proof of citizenship, proof of address, driver’s license etc.) or whatever other information is required for an official ID? Whatever their state, city, county, district, territory, parish, or other area name requires?   

Do we go to mayors and councils and whoever else we can assist in setting up venues/appointments and a workforce who can go out to their jurisdictions and set up events and other ways to get Americans the information they will be required to provide when they arrive at their voting place?   

Is there a way to amass a volunteer workforce who can go out into the distant rural areas and offer ways to get them transported safely to where they can register to vote? Would we organize it like the creative teams at ABC’s Wheel of Fortune or The DC Lottery throughout the country to provide resources to allow the isolated, immobile, and elderly or anyone else who requires assistance to get the required identification card necessary to vote? What would the timeline be to accomplish such an effort—if we began today?  

Having been listening to pundits and politicians jumping up and down about everything being an absolute travesty and crisis, this issue seems so much more solvable than some. Helping Americans jump through the required hoops and overcoming what could loosely be called a poll tax to vote (which is for a different blog post on a different day!) to ensure that all Americans who want to vote can do so, seems like a very simple solution to the problem that has the Congressional majority wringing their hands and woefully pessimistic about the upcoming midterms indicating that the past historic data indicates they can do nothing to change it. It is simply untrue.   

Let’s think about how we can work as a nation to overcome the voter suppression that is so blatant currently that it is terrifying to watch. Rather than fighting one another about what to do, recruit volunteers to go into the field to help those in need schedule appointments and be transported to register to vote. Georgia, Florida, Texas, Ohio, state by state until we cover all 50 and then territories to ensure Americans can vote.   

If successful, there is always the risk that the voting population will potentially be more right-leaning than left, but even that is better than the current scenario where deliberate efforts to suppress US voting have become so rampant. It is also possible that the American voting population may turn out to be more centrist than commonly thought and wants to support both law enforcement and food stamps; cyber security and combatting cyber bullying; term limits for everyone and requiring all who work directly for one of the three branches as an elected official to submit their income and taxes and pass some basic remedial tests to be in office. The real majority may support having our legislators and executive leadership and judges be unable to invest in any stocks or corporations during their time in service with access to information that includes. It is even possible that as both parties discover that the right (not the privilege) to vote will be beneficial to the country and everyone in it; that would be a good start. 

We cannot really predict the result of an election after we work together getting voters the ability to prove their right to vote, but the result is likely to be a good one. Perhaps the true majority of Americans can begin to overcome the very small but loud portion of the violent, seditious (and yes, for a small portion of them, treasonous) population who have been the tail wagging this proverbial dog for years now. Americans may be encouraged and willing to behave like citizens working together to repair the damaged connections and could even become undivided (as Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard put it), to reestablish a re-United States of America.