The American Left is obsessed with voting, to the point of catastrophizing common-sense election law almost to the same degree as they catastrophize climate change. A case in point is a 5/31/22 editorial in the New Jersey Star-Ledger criticizing NJ State Senate President Nick Scutari (D) for opposing Same-Day Voter Registration, which would allow eligible citizens to register to vote on election day. Current NJ law requires citizens to register to vote at least 21 days before an election.
My point here is not to examine the pros and cons of same-day registration, but to examine the Left’s obsessive attitude about voting, and its over-the-top rhetoric. Here are some excerpts from the Star-Ledger Editorial Board (aka SLEB), titled Sen. Scutari, your people would like a word:
A bill that would deliver “democracy in a day” is stalled because Scutari prefers the status quo – which requires New Jerseyans to register to vote 21 days before the election – rather than allowing eligible voters to show up at the polls on Election Day and vote by provisional ballot, as they do in 21 other states.
Scutari did not respond when we asked if he’s evolved on this matter, and that is a problem, because when you support any barrier to democracy, you are obligated to justify it.
The SLEB doesn’t explain how the 21-day rule, which has been in effect for decades, constitutes a “barrier to democracy.”
But if you truly care about democracy, you want every eligible New Jerseyan to have a voice, and we’re still waiting for the most powerful man in our Legislature to explain why this concept eludes him.
This is said at a time that a citizen’s most important “voice” by far—our freedom of speech—is under attack from Left and Right, under the guise of “hate speech,” “misinformation,” “regulation of social media,” "dark money," and other vague rationalizations.
Senate President Nick Scutari continues to ignore the drumbeats for Same-Day Voter Registration (SDR) in our state, and his opposition was the theme for an enthusiastic rally at the Statehouse last week, with good reason: At a time when America is fighting to preserve its democracy, every state needs its leaders to stand up for protecting and expanding the right to vote.
Get that? If an eligible voter has to get up the initiative to register to vote 21 days before an election, we can’t preserve our democracy, and our very right to vote is imperiled. This is said on the heels of a serious attempt by the Federal Government to create a Disinformation Governance Board (AKA "Ministry of Truth")—and, frighteningly, inside the Department of Homeland Security, a law enforcement agency wielding criminal prosecutorial powers. How does a 21-day registration rule compare with the danger of a state agency that can decide what is true and what is false, as a threat to the democratic process? What good is democracy under a regime that can empower politicians and government bureaucrats to effectively stifle dissent and public debate? If the SLEB spent a fraction of their energy on defending freedom of speech as they give to harmless mundane election rules, they’d be truly preservers of democracy.
The SLEB apparently believes that any effort required to cast a vote is a “barrier to democracy” and a threat to our right to vote. Well, I guess such efforts like going to the polling place or to a mailbox to deposit your mail-in ballot are also barriers to democracy.
So, why this obsessive attention to minor voting rules? That’s what you get from thought leaders who believe that voting is a free society’s most fundamental right—that, as President Biden openly proclaimed, “the fundamental right to vote is the right from which all other rights flow.” This premise is in diametric opposition to a free society, and to America's Founding understanding of individual rights—to wit, that the right to vote derives from our unalienable rights to life, liberty, and property—rights that precede government. That was not just another instance of Biden misspeaking. That totalitarian premise is at the heart of the Biden Justice Department’s lawsuit against Georgia’s new election law.
The Star-Ledger’s hyper-ventilating over voting rules is more than just rhetorical flourish. It is rooted in a dangerous reactionary view of rights. As I’ve explained before, the idea that all of our precious rights are at the mercy of elections is a totalitarian concept. As long as the Left hold’s this dangerous view of democracy, as compared to the limited rights-protecting view of the democratic process, we will continue to endure these Chicken Little attacks injected into the debates over election laws, including the constant democracy catastrophizing over “voter suppression”, “Jim Crow 2.0”, and the claims that democracy and/or the right to vote is somehow imperiled in America.
They are not. In truth, our genuine fundamental rights, like freedom of speech, bodily autonomy, privacy, and property, are definitely threatened. To protect the rights that matter most, and without which the right to vote is meaningless, we must recognize that Voting Rights are Not the ‘Most Fundamental Right’—or Even a Fundamental Right.
Related Reading:
Jesse Jackson’s Big Lie: ‘American Democracy is Under Siege’.
Voting Rights are Not the ‘Most Fundamental Right’—or Even a Fundamental Right.
Joe Biden—the Real Protégé of Jefferson Davis
Mesmerized by Elections, the NJ Star-Ledger Forgot that Tyranny is Tyranny
America; Democracy or Republic or Both--Why it Matters
Senator Mike Lee is Right: America ‘is not a Democracy’
Constitutional Republicanism: A Counter-Argument to Barbara Rank’s Ode to Democracy
On This Constitution Day, Remember the Declaration of Independence
Rights are Inalienable, Not an Electoral Privilege
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