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(A Patriotic Hymn for Republicans)

Despite the fact that incidents of in-person voter fraud in
the United States are exceedingly rare, the GOP has used
the issue to tighten election laws around the country.
                                                            —News reports


American children are all taught in school
That voting’s democracy’s most vital tool.
But in the wrong hands all that voting can bring
A little too much of a very good thing.
Yes, too many voters of darker complexion
Can cause the wrong person to win an election.
And college kids mostly are just in a phase
That makes them left wing and supportive of gays.
To us, each of them is a dangerous blighter
Whose voting should wait till he’s older and whiter.
So we put in laws we have reason to think
Will mean that the strength of these voters will shrink.
We shorten the hours, and ask for a lot
Of picture IDs—more than anyone’s got.
Their votes aren’t the votes that the framers intended.
We only regret that the poll tax has ended.
The voting we need in this land of the free
Is voting by people with whom we agree.

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With the midterm elections now firmly upon us, the question is whether Democratic candidates will do more than merely occupy ballot lines as mild alternatives to the red-hot crisis that is Donald Trump.

As Trump spends over $1 billion a day on a globally destabilizing war on Iran and admits that he doesn’t “think about Americans’ financial situation,” millions across the country are struggling with the surging costs of essentials. Democrats must seize this moment and advance bold, small-“d” populist ideas—not settle for cynical caution that once again snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

The Nation elevates progressive ideas, movements, and elected officials achieving real change across the country into the national conversation. At the same time, our journalists are exposing how crypto and AI-funded super PACs are spending hundreds of millions of dollars to knock out candidates they oppose, reporting on the devastating impact of the Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act, and sounding the alarm on attempts by red states to quickly redraw electoral maps, disenfranchising Southern Black voters.

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Onward,

Katrina vanden Huevel
Editor and Publisher, The Nation

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