Regarding George Will’s April 12 column “Plethora of laws putting Americans at risk,” for once I agree with Will. We face a deluge of new laws, seemingly daily:
1) Laws limiting abortion rights. Various states, motivated by theocrats wishing to establish religious domination in our nation, continually come up with new laws making it more and more difficult for women’s clinics to remain open and perform their valuable community services.
2) Laws limiting voting rights. These same states and politicians, viewing minority voters as a nuisance at best and a threat to white domination at worst, invented the problem of “voter fraud.” They’ve passed numerous laws restricting the right of legitimate citizens to vote. If there is fraud, it is the fraudulent counting of votes and the gerrymandering of districts. Yet, the laws proposed do nothing to correct these real problems.
3) Laws punishing the poor — for being poor. The presence of the poor in our nation, especially in such large numbers, is embarrassing evidence that capitalism does not work for many millions of people. Therefore, the poor need to be hidden away. And while these same politicians proclaim a Christian foundation for the nation, they are anything but Christian in the tightfisted, vengeful laws they pass.