As another voting opportunity approaches this Nov. 5, I offer a few thoughts for those who don’t fully grasp the importance of this precious right.

A common misconception has it that you can’t legislate morality. Hogwash! That is the only thing you can legislate.

Likewise, you can legislate immorality. Witness the dozens of Republican state legislatures that are continually pushing voter suppression laws. I maintain this is tantamount to murder, “democracide,” if I may be permitted to coin a word.

Voting is how a democracy breathes. All these devilish legislative tricks the Republicans employ — strict voter ID, restrictions on voting hours, days, polling places, purging of voter rolls, etc. — effectively serve to choke off the vital inhalation/exhalation breathing function of our republic, i.e., voting. And this disproportionately affects the poor, minorities, rural voters and obviously those tending to vote Democrat.

According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “this is the worst voter suppression we’ve seen in the modern era.” Along with groveling before Wayne LaPierre and the NRA — which strikes terror in the hearts of any aspiring candidates for public office who would dare to vote for any type of sensible gun control — voter suppression is the most despicable action taken by spineless Republican elected officials. I wonder if they stop to think that this is how the seeds of tyranny are sown.

Please be grateful for your right to vote and take the opportunity to exercise that right this November.

Robert Jedrzejewski

Tarentum

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