“Make voter suppression toxic!”
I heard a voting rights activist say that in the news, the other day, reacting to legislators, in a growing number of states, introducing new laws, apparently, aimed at disenfranchising various voters.
That got me thinking about a couple of words I hadn’t thought about, in some time. The term — ‘universal suffrage’ — which I had to look up, to refresh my memory. “Universal suffrage… gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, political stance, or any other restriction…” according to Wikipedia.
Over many years, here in America, folks were getting a handle on voting rights, regardless of one’s “wealth, income, gender, race…” and so on. The concept of universal suffrage dates back to 1870, during the nation’s Reconstruction era.
So, why muck around, now, with voting rights? That’s a question activists might consider using in their messaging about voter suppression… considering the meaning of ‘muck around.’
‘Muck around’ is an idiom, defined in the Free Dictionary as doing “something without much purpose.” Legislators mucking around with well-established voting rights… is that worth their time, and taxpayers’ money?
There’s something else, increasingly in the news, that legislators seem to be engaging in, without much purpose. Trolling.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines ‘trolling’ as “the act of leaving an insulting message on the internet in order to annoy someone.” There’s plenty of that, not only on the internet, but on TV and in newspapers, as well, with federal and state government legislators, in particular, going at each other.
In other words, mucking around. Annoying one another. Without much purpose?
Harvey Radin is former senior vice president in charge of corporate communications and media relations, Bank of America Western Region. He makes his home in Redwood City, CA.