Policies … or suppression

Regarding the article, “Democrats launch Senate battle for expanding voting rights” (March 25), two phrases jumped out at me.

One was, “The debate over who has the right to vote.” Why this is even an issue amazes me. Every citizen over the age of 18 and not incarcerated has the right to vote, end of discussion.

Then there was this: “Republicans charge the bill would … cement an unfair political advantage for Democrats.” Republicans are afraid that if voting was easy and if every eligible voter voted the Democrats would have an unfair advantage. Isn’t that what our democracy is all about? If political parties offered policies the public found agreeable, then they would receive a majority of the votes, win elections and then implement those policies.

So rather than trying to suppress Americans from voting by making it harder to vote, Republicans might want to put forth policies the majority of Americans want. Ironically, the fact that a policy platform was not put forth at last year’s Republican convention speaks volumes. They don’t have a platform they can run on, so they are desperately trying to make voting as difficult as possible in an effort to simply retain power.

Peter Sanburn

Spokane