Could Jesus Vote in Texas?

Photo by pncsmith

The Texas Senate enacted a law to require a photo ID before you can vote. The majority says it is to prevent voter fraud. This, of course, is not the purpose. The purpose is to disenfranchise the old, the poor and the disabled; all of whom would not vote as the majority in the Senate desires. The House is now considering the bill.

Why do I believe this?

Because I was raised in Texas and remember the poll tax. My Yankee grandmother moved to Texas with my native Texan mother after WWII. My grandmother was shocked to discover she had to pay to vote. I can remember my mother explaining the pernicious nature of the poll tax. The poll tax was designed to keep the poor and especially African Americans from voting. The poll tax was successful.

The 24th amendment to the constitution of the United States was passed to end the poll tax. President Lyndon Johnson, a Texan, said, "There can be no one too poor to vote." The Texas Senate is determined to put lie to that. Voter identification is a Republican scam to reduce the number of voters more likely to vote Democratic.

Now, to vote you will need a driver's license or state photo ID to vote. This means you must be able to pay for those documents. In addition, you must be able to go to your local driver's license office and wait a considerable length of time to have your photo taken. If you are old, infirm or poor, especially if you don't have a car, this becomes a daunting task. Just as in the past, when the poll tax could only be purchased in the courthouse downtown, now the modern poll tax will be just as hard to access for the portion of the population that the majority of our Senate want to disenfranchise.

Texans should be ashamed, but like their senators, too many would rather not see these people vote. "Afterall, if these people were fit to vote, they could get an ID, " is now the mantra.

Jesus said what we do to the least of these, we do to Him. Could Jesus vote in Texas?

Struggling to Survive

I agree with Shirley Sherrod that the problems of American are not black or white, but that of have-nots and the prosperous.  As a country, we like to think of our nation of wealth.  We choose to ignore those that struggle on the fringes of our society.  Just as Republicans claimed that unemployment insurance payments are incentives to not to seek work and that most of the unemployed are just deadbeats, we believe those that cannot make it in our society are failures through their own doing.  We believe we owe such deadbeats very little.  We are so afraid that someone will game the system that we punish those who are poor all the more.  The great sin in America is to be poor.

In evangelical pulpits, the message is wealth.  If you obey God, tithe to the church, to the tel-evangelist, God will reward you.  No good Christian will be poor for long.  "You cannot out give God."   If that message is true, then it follows that the poor are sinners.  Sinners must be shown the error of their ways, not abetted.  Hence government programs that help the poor are simply something that enables sin.  Kill those programs and the poor will start to work, will cease to sin.  This is the underlying philosophy of  the religious wing of the Republican Party, the Huckabee wing.

Some in America claim we are a "Christian" nation.  I do not agree.  A Christian nation would remember Christ's teaching on caring for "the least of these brothers of mine."  This is the time for Christians to speak out.  Make this a "Caring" nation.  People of all faiths must come together to help those struggling to survive in our society.

Income and wealth are unevenly distributed in this nation, therefore we need action on the federal level to aid in the distribution of aid. I no longer believe that states are capable of caring for their disadvantaged.  This should be done on a federal level.  The tragedy of America is that it will not be done.  The Republicans have succeeded in striking fear in American hearts, fear of government, fear of losing what they have.  Americans will not help the least because that help might reduce their wealth, might mean that they have to share a small portion of their American dream.  We are not a "Christian" nation, we will not become a "Caring" nation, we are a "Selfish" nation and will remain so to our ultimate detriment.

Photo by Tobyotter