Pat Sajak, host of the game show "Wheel of Fortune", wrote a piece for the right-wing blog Ricochet wrote that public service employees should not be allowed to vote in matters where they have an interest. He calls it a conflict of interest comparable to him allowing friends and family to appear on his game show.
Pat Sajak doesn't get it. Of citizens get to vote on issues where they have an interest. That's the entire point of voting! We don't vote just because it is fun to pull a lever or fill in an oval. Should parents be forbidden to vote for school board candidates? Should auto owners be forbidden to vote for highway funding? Should bus riders be forbidden to vote on transit issues? Should people who enjoy breathing be forbidden from voting on clean air issues? Should those who favor a representative form of government be forbidden from voting altogether?
But Pat Sajak is on good company, King George III wasn't too big on the American colonist voting for their own interests. More recently, it took the Civil Rights Act to protect the rights of African Americans to vote, and voter suppression efforts still go on.
This seems crazy, I know. But one thing I have learned is that today's craziness is tomorrow's GOP platform. If the wingnuts are going to attack America's deepest principles, they need to be called out for it. We've had too much experience with voter suppression to just let this go with a chuckle.
I know, someone will say "Pat Sajak has free speech rights!" Yes, he does, no one said he didn't. But people forget that freedom of speech works both ways. We also have freedom of speech, and we don't have to watch his game show. I've watched Wheel of Fortune now and then, but not anymore.