Georgia Republicans change election rules when they don’t like results
Georgia Republicans’ call to close primaries by party registration is one more outrage to distort political outcomes. Each cycle that Republicans do not get the election result they want, they change the rules again. We have seen a systematic reduction in polling places, voting hours, motor-voter registration, early voting and Sunday voting.
In the 2020 presidential election, Georgians voted 49.5% Democrat and 49.3% Republican. Yet Republican-gerrymandered voting districts favor Republicans 58% in the Georgia House, 61% in the Georgia Senate and 57% in our congressional delegation.
President George Washington, in his 1796 Farewell Address advised, “However political parties may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
STEVE OPPENHEIMER, ATLANTA
Reproductive rights come with responsibilities
The pro-choice proponents talk about the “right of women to control their own bodies” and numerous other feminine “rights.”
“Rights,” however, are not all-encompassing and come with limits and responsibilities. The First Amendment gives us the right to free speech, but one cannot yell “fire” in a crowded theater. We have the right to bear arms but cannot own a bazooka or machine gun.
Why are we not having a serious discussion about women’s responsibilities associated with their reproductive rights?
Contraceptives such as pills, IUDs, and diaphragms are 98% effective and covered by many insurance policies.
If a woman is poor or doesn’t have insurance, numerous federal (Medicaid), state, local and private (Planned Parenthood) resources provide these services. Let’s not forget condoms which are readily available and inexpensive. And as a last resort, the “morning after pill” is available over the counter.
BOB BELL, CUMMING
