Reply to stop whining about voter ID requirements

Forum Index » Political Discussion

Reply to "stop whining about voter ID requirements"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Is the thought that poor folks don’t have IDs? [/quote]

I think the thought is that people shouldn’t be denied their constitutional right if they don’t have an ID.[/quote]

I’m glad you’re in favor of the right of everyone to buy an AR15 without ID. [/quote]

False equivalency.

The second amendment explicitly states the right to keep and bear arms, not the right to purchase them. It mentions nothing about the purchasing aspect. (Before you even try to go there: the lack of mention doesn’t mean the government cannot impose restrictions, as there is something called unenumerated powers. In addition, let’s not overlook the “well-[b]regulated[/b]” part of the second amendment; and I’m not referring to the often used but weak argument of what “militia” means here, in which the definition is open to interpretation. The definition of “regulated”, however, is not.) Purchasing a gun is a business transaction between the buyer and seller. In the context being discussed here, voting is not a transaction, nor is it between the people and anyone [i]other than the government[/i]. It is, quite literally, always a situation that includes both the people and the government in all instances. Meaning, one without the other cannot exist because both rely on each other [i]to exist[/i].

Furthermore, by your logic, you’re basically implying that the constitution requires the government to distribute arms to the people. This a gross misunderstanding of not only the constitution itself, but also the very purpose of it.

The constitution does not [b][i]grant[/b][/i] rights; the constitution [b][i]protects[/b][/i] rights. This is rarely ever pointed out, though it needs to be.

Clarification: voting is considered a natural right. Natural rights are comprised of both civil and political rights. These rights ensure one’s entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of society and the state [b]without discrimination or repression.[/b] Specifically, the right to vote falls under the political rights’ category of natural rights. (For transparency’s sake, so is the right of self-defense. However, before you attempt to twist and obliterate it to fit your own agenda, let me remind you that ‘the right of self-defense [i]with a gun[/i]’ is not an equivalent statement to ‘the right of self-defense’.)

These natural rights are protected under the constitution. Therefore, since voting is a natural right, it’s protected under the constitution. Adding strength to the argument, the Supreme Court has also found that unenumerated rights include the right to vote. Voting-but-only-if-you-can-provide-ID implies not only that voting is not a natural right but also that it’s something granted by the government despite the fact that it’s not. Again, the constitution grants no rights; it protects them. But just to satisfy the ones who love to shift the goalposts all the time with their constant “what-ifs” or the ones always “just asking questions” aka the Tucker Carlson types: even if the purpose of the constitution was to grant rights, a natural right is not one of them because — operating under the premise that ‘grant’ means the people wouldn’t have access to it without it being granted to them — you cannot grant something the people already possess. If something has the ability to be granted, it also has the ability to be taken away. Taking this right away, and yes placing restrictions on it does take it away from certain individuals, implies that it’s something to be granted in the first place. Again, it’s not.

Once again, the constitution does not [b][i]GRANT[/b][/i] rights; it [b][i]PROTECTS[/b][/i] them. Repeated, because it needs repeating. I don’t care how many times people need to recite this to themselves to understand it; they need to do it. The lack of basic understanding of this concept at the forefront of the constitution is the single biggest problem when it comes to debates over the constitution. Too many people think the government exists to grant us personhood. This logic implies that we wouldn’t exist without the government and the last I checked, the debate over creationism vs. evolution does not include, let alone [i]mention[/i], government at all. Rights are not granted by the government, and the constitution’s entire purpose is to ensure it stays that way.

Most important of all, though, is that if we start interpreting the right to vote as anything other than a natural right — such as, a right granted to us by the government; one that the government can also take away at any point in time for any reason  — then technically, our government ceases to exist. Not government in general, [i]our[/i] government. The government in this country is chosen by the people. This is not some philosophical dilemma such as is the case of the chicken-and-the-egg. Our government doesn’t exist without the people voting. Since the government’s existence is dependent on the people, the people have to come first, logistically. Further, if the right to vote starts being interpreted as a right that’s granted rather than a natural right, one could possibly argue that our current government has no legal footing to grant anything, because our current system of government was not founded on such a principle, therefore rendering them illegitimate, or rather nonexistent, under the new proviso. Turning our government’s existence into its own chicken-and-the-egg would be a vicious cycle of infinite regress, a catastrophic disaster that would not steer us in the direction of, but rather launch us with full force, onto the path of democratic destruction. So if anarchy is what you desire — anarchy in the sense of lawlessness and complete and total public disorder and not anarchy in the sense of non-hierarchy — then by all means, support the GOP’s indirectly implied narrative that they own you.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics