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Will We Still be a Democracy?

The country I was born in was not a country in which legislators could swing elections to their candidates no matter what voters wanted. But today’s Republican Congressmen and women, judging by their behavior, have forsworn the basic principles on which our country was founded in order to hold onto power at any cost. These legislators, with seeming disregard for the consequences of their actions, have sacrificed their integrity, their honor and their credibility in their frenzied rush to uphold dominance over relevance.

Limiting the power of the ballot has long been one of the Republican Party’s favored tools in their quest for power and domination. Lacking in policies that benefit the common man, rather than adapting those policies and platform to better serve the needs of their constituents, they have chosen instead to manipulate the machinery of democracy through schemes designed to suppress voting in regions with large concentrations of minorities who would likely vote in favor of their opponents, through gerrymandering districts in ways that give them political leverage, and through passing legislation on the state level permitting officials to invalidate votes that don’t agree with their agenda.

It’s tragically ironic that Senator Manchin, in his quest to revive bipartisanship in the Senate, has chosen a path that will, if he doesn’t change course, and barring some other unforeseen miracle, almost guarantee its demise.  

Tim Konrad

June, 22, 2021