VOTE. DAMMIT!

If minorities and the poor would vote, we'd never have another Republican president. Voter registration isn't glamorous and it isn't fun, but it also isn't fun when your social services are cut that you desperately need to stay afloat. Or when your government and police forces, like the ones in Ferguson, Missouri, see it as within their duties to stop & frisk or kill you.

Take Georgia, a red state that could turn blue if blacks would get out and vote. SLATE: "Georgia has roughly 700,000 unregistered black voters. If Democrats could cut that number by less than a third—and bring nearly 200,000 likely Democrats to the polls—they would turn a red state purple, and land a major blow to the national Republican Party. Or, as Michelle Obama said during a campaign rally on Monday, “If just 50 Democratic voters per precinct who didn’t vote in 2010 get out and vote this November—just 50 per precinct—then Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter will win.” Given 2,727 precincts in Georgia, that’s just 136,350 new voters."

However, Georgia's Republican party is alarmed by minority voter registration efforts because they know the power of harnessing the black vote. So the GOP governor is accusing the voter registration organizers of fraud, with 28 allegedly forged documents. But Georgia is only one state. There have been active voter suppression in many states aimed at people of color, the elderly and students by passing laws which force everyone to have state IDs. I realize that those of you who travel or drive may not understand why anyone wouldn't have an ID, but a lot of people are poor and the powers that be are also shutting DMVs where IDs so that they become harder to reach. And if you don't have a lot of money or a car, how are you going to get there?

Republicans know that America is turning a darker hue and that because they've aligned themselves with white bigots, they are eager to squash groups of voters who if registered, would vote democratic. In fact, if Republicans are seen as actively suppressing minority votes, it actually revs up their often prejudiced base. Are you going to let them get away with it? If you don't cast your vote, then you have no right to complain. Sadly, those whose lives would benefit most from a democratic government's policies choose not to even participate in the democratic process of voting. What will you do about it?

THIS TUESDAY, Sept 23, is National Voter Registration Day!

MORE:   Go to NATIONALVOTERREGISTRATIONDAY to register to vote or find out how you can join voter registration efforts near you.