Republicans hate democracy.

No, really, they do. They refuse to admit the United States has any. Just ask them. “We are NOT a democracy,” they’ll tell you.

Democracy, you see, equals Democrats in their eyes. We are a “constitutional republic” they argue. Funny, I don’t remember Reagan or Bush or any earlier Republicans parsing over the concept of “exporting democracy” to other nations. Granted, that was mostly at the point of a gun but even they believed it.

To prove their point, Republicans are on the march, trying to restrict the right to vote across this land.

Get busted for a dime bag? Felony charge, lose your right to vote. Old? No special buses to the polls. You need an ID. Paper please basically?

Immigrant? Did you learn about this country, take a citizenship test to PROVE you are worthy of being an American instead of just accidentally being born here? Too bad, no help for instructions in your language. Speek Amurkan furriner!

Are you a college student from out of state spending extra to get an education here? Too bad, you have to go home to vote. Keep your potentially idealistically liberal hands off of the levers of power.

And so on, and so on…

More on the Republican effort to drag styrofoam into the 21st century.

Which makes sense for them really. They love coal. They adore the concept of finding new forms of poll taxes to stop minorities from voting. They can’t wait to ban abortion so they can tell women what to do with their bodies again.

Immigration reform in their eyes is just a great way to corral immigrants into better controlled work camps.

So the children will be down in the mines again. You know, after we defund the EPA and fire all the unionized socialist teachers they won’t have any reason NOT to work.

Bradley Manning committed a crime. He violated military law to release information that showed that this nation was in violation of war crimes laws. He did what he had to because he realized that the United States is capable of cruelty and barbarism just like any other.

So he’s in prison, and he probably deserves to be.

That said, dumping bogus charges on him and making him sleep naked is not helping anyone, except maybe Manning’s case.

How we treat our own is just as important as how we treat “enemy combatants”.

How we respond to news that we are in the wrong is just as important as obeying the law. ESPECIALLY when folks like John Yoo, et al. have twisted the law to say anything they need it to say.

Give Manning his boxers back. Charge him on crimes of releasing documents without permission. He’s no traitor. Hell, if anything, he’s more American for doing what he did than any of the bastards from Bush or Cheney or Rumsfeld on down who let this nation torture people and shoot civilians willy-nilly and whatever the hell else went on intentionally, with proper orders in our overseas wars.