A coup of dollars

Less than a year is left until the 2012 national election, and nonbelievers in democracy are taking no chances. Right now, North Carolina is one of twenty-one states that have passed or are trying to pass legislation to close the early voting period. Many in the NC General Assembly are still trying to pass a bill that would add North Carolina to the auspicious list of states that require a voter ID to combat nonexistent voter fraud. In every state where this legislation is present, the goal is the same: to make voting more difficult.
Apparently insecure with the idea that elections should be in the hands of the electorate, certain moneyed interests and the legislators that they bankrolled in 2010 have been hard at work making sure that the election process is anything but fair. Every single anti-voting provision in every state where this is happening targets areas and voting practices that strongly favored the president and other Democrats in 2008.
Presumably in the interest of thoroughness, these very same legislators bankrolled by the Koch brothers, Art Pope, and their associates, are also taking this oppurtunity to redraw congressional destricts in the states where they won a majority, including North Carolina. These new district maps almost invariably stack people who are unlikely to vote Republican into as few districts as possible. Here in NC, the redistricting was so egregious that the state is being sued by a coalition of nonprofits headed up by the NAACP, and including groups like Democracy NC and the League of Women Voters. This lawsuit has the right of it. This campaign against voters has gone on far enough, and there is precious little time to fix the damage that has been done before election season. No matter where you live, it is vital that you let your representatives know that this is unacceptable. Or we may lose control completely.