By non-citizens, Ron Hayduk of Jacobin means illegal aliens, and really exposes what the Democrat agenda is all about
Why Non-Citizens Should Be Allowed to Vote
Imagine: what if today, instead of being consigned to the shadows, the more than 22 million noncitizen immigrants in the US were heading to the polls? Sound preposterous?
Voting by non-citizens is actually as old America itself. From the founding of the American Republic, voting rights were determined not by citizenship but by other criteria, such as race, gender, and property holdings. When women, post-emancipation African Americans, and poor white men were denied voting rights, it was due to elite antipathy — not because they lacked citizenship. Non-citizens in those years picked electoral winners and losers, and even held political office. What brought this period of “alien suffrage†to a close was simple nativism.
The case for noncitizen voting remains compelling: all residents are part of the political community in which they live and should therefore have a say in the local, state, and federal laws to which they’re subject. Without the means of choosing representation, non-citizen immigrants are a non-voting caste — disenfranchised pariahs in their adopted country. Noncitizen voting is a logical step to correct this injustice, and to make the ideals of American democracy more of a reality.
Today, about one in fourteen people in the US are noncitizen immigrants (lawful permanent residents, unauthorized immigrants, or legal residents on temporary visas). They live in virtually every state, city, suburb, and town. They’re teachers and students, physicians and nurses, musicians and construction workers. They pay taxes, raise their families, send their kids to schools, and make countless social and cultural contributions every day.
It’s a long, long, long screed which attempts to make the case, but, really, it falls flat and misses an important point: want to vote? Go through the process to become a citizen. You’re welcome to read the whole thing, which ends with
Just as the Civil Rights Movement fought to extend the franchise to African Americans, expanding the franchise to new Americans would empower the excluded and help forge winning voting blocs. It would make American democracy more inclusive and vibrant. And it would tilt political power away from elites.
So ignore the nativists. Let noncitizen residents vote.
So, we’re supposed to let people who are here on short term visas the right to vote, including in federal elections? People who crossed our borders illegally/overstayed their visas? Why? It’s simple: to get them to vote Democrat. Democrats couldn’t really give a damn about these people except in terms of voting blocs, much like they really do not care about blacks except when they need their votes. That’s it. Nothing else.
