The state Republican Party will require voters to sign a loyalty oath in order to participate in the March 6 presidential primary. Anyone who wants to vote must sign a form at the polling place pledging to support the eventual Republican nominee for president. Anyone who refuses to sign will be barred from voting in the primary. During a brief meeting Wednesday at the state Capitol, the State Board of Elections voted 3-0 to approve three forms developed by the election board’s staff to implement the loyalty pledge requested by the state GOP.
Pledges have become something of a fad among Conservative Republicans this year. Evidently not being willing to take politicians at their word (probably wise give their track record), Conservatives from coast to coast are now convincing Republicans politicians to sign pledges…as if that’s going to make a politician any more honest over the long haul.
Virginia’s GOP has taken things a step further, requiring that voters in the state’s GOP primary sign a loyalty oath. No, that’s not a typo; Republicans who want to vote in the Virginia primary will have to sign a pledge committing them to vote for the eventual GOP nominee in the general election. That’s right; no more independent thinking or deciding that you simply cannot support the party’s nominee and must vote otherwise. No more free exercise of a constitutionally-guaranteed franchise. A Virginia Republican, in order to be able to allowed to have a say in the democratic process, must commit to support their party’s nominee regardless of their own individual thoughts on whoever that nominee might be. It’s about lock-step obedience to authority, not the free exercise of one’s constitutionally-guaranteed right.
The prevailing theory seems to be, “Hey, you want freedom? Ya shoulda been a Democrat!”
There’s a pledge in which a candidate commits to ban pornography, another which requires a commitment to appointing only anti-abortion cabinet members, and…well, you get the idea. The basic idea seems to be enforcing conformity of thought and painting candidates into a corner. This isn’t the first time that Virginia Republicans have attempted to travel this path. In 2000 and 2008 they tried the same thing, only to eventually relent over fears of alienating independent voters. There’s a chance that the same thing may happen this year, of course, but that this is part of a very disturbing trend is beyond question. Republicans nationwide are working to eliminate whole blocs of poor and middle class voters by any legal means possible…because they understand that those folks are far less likely to vote Republican. They’re also working to ensure that Republicans vote as party leaders wish them to vote. All the free exercise of the right to vote means is that the “wrong” person might be elected, no?
Is it just me, or are Republicans really as anti-democratic as they’re making themselves appear? Is “one man, one vote” really to be narrowly interpreted as “one (Republican) man, one (Republican) vote”?
As if I need to answer that….
