Uncivil Rights

My Lord I am getting tired of Democrats becoming aware of the tenets of the constitution and then being amazed and confused about them. It’s as if the constitution is in the way of the America they want. In this article, “Securing the Right to Vote as a Citizenship Right”, by Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., JJ Jr. is flabbergasted that voting is a state’s right. Voting is controlled and legislated by each individual state.

The fundamental reason is this: the U.S. Constitution does not contain a right to vote and therefore Congress fails to establish enforceable uniform standards or a unitary voting system. While it is true that the Constitution does protect against voter discrimination based on race, sex or age and prohibits the use poll taxes or literacy tests, it does not explicitly guarantee that U.S. citizens have a right to vote.
You say "But Congressman, I have been able to register to vote and cast ballots my entire life, what do you mean I do not have a right to vote?" But the fact is that as an American you don't have a citizenship right to vote. Voting in the United States is a "state right", not a "citizenship right."

Is this an eye-opener for a Congressman? Hey JJ Jr., did you know the framers of the constitution specifically wrote the constitution that way? Did you know the framers of the constitution did not want a large powerful federal government? Were you aware the states originally had much more power and control, as was intended? Were you aware the original language also had state Senators being appointed by the state’s legislature, and were not intended to be elected by popular vote? This gave the people and the states voices in the federal government. Hey JJ Jr., I hate to break this news to you but someone obviously has to so here goes; the President isn’t selected by the popular vote. You see we have this thing called the electoral college…well nevermind.
How about some more words of wisdom from the Congressman:

Comparatively, a "state right" is not an American citizenship right, but a right defined and protected by each state - and limited to that state. Therefore, when it comes to voting, each state, each county and elected jurisdiction is different.

There has to be a reason for this new-found enlightenment. I wonder what it could be. Come on JJ Jr. hammer it home:

In other words, our voting system, our house is built on the foundation of "states" rights - 50 states, 3067 counties and more than 12,000 different election jurisdictions, all separate and all unequal. These election jurisdictions can each individually set voting policies and procedures such as ballot design, voter eligibility, which voting equipment is used, polling hours, how to count provisional ballots and what ID requirements are needed.
As a result, more than a million votes in the 2004 election were discarded. In one instance, 4,500 votes were lost forever when a touch-screen voting machine malfunctioned in North Carolina and had no back-up. In Florida and Pennsylvania, two of the most important battleground states in the presidential contest, more than half of the provisional ballots cast were not counted.
Election officials claim most of those were from unregistered voters. The question remains why weren't they registered? Did the local officials make mistakes when preparing voter rolls, a partisan organization simply not mail in their registration forms, or were these voters simply not registered?
Moreover, more than nine million U.S. citizens are permanently or temporarily denied the right to vote they would otherwise enjoy if they lived in a different state. Several states deny voting rights for life to anyone once convicted of a felony. Children of American families living abroad often cannot vote when they come of voting age. American citizens living in Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands can be drafted into the military but are unable to vote for their commander-in-chief. Congress governs the District of Columbia more directly than any other state, yet more than a half-million citizens living in the District have no voting representation in Congress.
The United States stands virtually alone on denying constitutional protection of the right to vote. 108 of the 119 democratic nations in the world have a right to vote in their Constitution - including the Afghan Constitution and the interim Iraqi Constitution. The United States is one of only 11 that do not. At the same time we assist other nations implement democracy, we must also turn the mirror on ourselves and examine what we are doing, what rights we are protecting.

Here we go. Voters were disenfranchised because of the variety of voting systems throughout the various states, and people are too stupid to read directions and punch or poke or select whom they want. So what should we do about this horrendous injustice?

States should have control of many decisions and should be able to set certain laws and standards that are applicable to the responsibility each state has for its citizens. But voting, like freedom of speech, like freedom of religion and due process of law, operates outside of state authority.
Instead of a house on sand, we need to build our democracy and our voting system on a rock, the rock of adding a Voting Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that applies to all states and all citizens. That's why I and 56 colleagues in the House of Representatives have joined to support House Joint Resolution 28 - which in the cause of electoral justice should be the 28th amendment to the Constitution.

So the framers of the constitution built our democracy on sand. Did it ever occur to you, genius, that America is NOT a democracy; it’s a REPUBLIC! The framers must have had people like you in mind when the conceived the constitution. They wrote it, so people like you wouldn’t have to. They wrote it knowing idiots like you could just follow it because you obviously haven’t a clue as to its origins, content, or intent.
The fact is we should have fewer people vote, say only those that pay income taxes, or those that are productive members of society, or those that add to our economy. When you let the uninformed vote, democracy will fail. The fact is you want everyone to vote because the majority of the people do not pay attention and would be more apt to vote for those politicians that promise the voters entitlements from the public coffers. That would be you.
Here’s some advice; walk away JJ Jr., just walk away.