Republicans Plotting to End Universal Sufferage

It was probably inevitable after passage of the 15th Amendment. It became certain after their dreams of a Thousand Year Reich Republican Century went down in flames. Republicans are beginning to dream of a time when tens of millions of Americans are forbidden the right to vote.

They have been nipping at the edges of this dream for some time with their Voter ID proposals - force poor people to jump through onerous hoops to be able to vote. Texas Republicans are the latest to attempt this crime. Mike Huckabee was in Virginia earlier this month publicly advocating thuggery, physically stopping people from voting, calling it "the Lord's work." For several years now, conservatives have been threatening Democratic voters with prison if they attempt to vote. The reality is that if it were not for all these voter suppression efforts (Milwaukee 2004) Republicans would win very few fair elections.

Over at RedState there is a lot of chatter about making it illegal for anyone to vote who does not pay a federal income tax. This blogger goes one better and want to restrict the vote only to people who pay more in taxes then they receive in government services. Then there is this person who want to rebuild the Republican Party on a platform that only property owners may vote.

For balance, here is a little information about how well these programs worked back in Selma, Alabama in the middle of the 20th century.

Part of election day communication from a Florida restaurant owner to her employees, November 4, 2008.