The “slippery slope” isn’t a fallacy, it’s a tactic.
That’s one of the truths the political right must internalize. For far too long, on nearly every issue of importance, the mainstream conservative movement has enabled the Left’s destructive march of “progress” though society by succumbing to the leftists’ narrative that critiques of their policy are nothing more than alarmist slippery-slope fallacies.
“We don’t want to take away your guns, we just want commonsense gun reform” has now become “Yes, we do want to take all your guns away.”
And the Left’s “We just want tolerance for homosexuals” has now become “Participate in our LGBT rituals, turn your kids into transgenders, and bake our gay cakes or you’re going to jail … and maybe pedophilia isn’t so bad after all….”
In other words, every societal change or government control the Left has championed has always been merely a steppingstone for more radical policies down the road — ones that, in the present, leftists vehemently swear they don’t really want.
Of course, the point of the disingenuousness is to get the Right’s guard down. And, sadly, conservatives have fallen for this bait-and-switch more times than can be counted.
The pattern has occurred when it comes to voter integrity. Conservatives have long pointed out that the absence of such basic electoral safeguards as voter ID requirements would lead to a total breakdown of the system, culminating in everyone from children to foreign nationals being able to vote.
As expected, in years past, the Left has assured the public that none of that was their intention. How alarmist to even suggest that they would be after such ludicrous objectives!
And yet, here we are — living in an age in which noncitizen voting is rapidly becoming a reality in Democrat-controlled jurisdictions.
The latest jurisdiction to move closer to giving foreign nationals the franchise is Burlington, Vermont — the state’s largest city and the place where Bernie Sanders once served as mayor.
Burlington has put forth a proposal which, if approved by the state Legislature and the governor, would allow legal residents who are not citizens to vote in local (though not state or federal) elections.
If the proposal were enacted, it would put Burlington in the same group as Montpelier and Winooski, two Vermont cities that have already granted noncitizens the franchise.
Maryland also has several municipalities that allow voting by noncitizens, including Barnesville, Cheverly, Chevy Chase Section 3, Garrett Park, Glen Echo, Hyattsville, and others. Notably, all of these are near Washington, D.C.
D.C. also lets noncitizens vote, although House Republicans recently introduced a resolution that would put an end to the practice in the nation’s capital.
Connecticut has a bill making its way through the state Legislature that would amend the state constitution to “allow undocumented immigrants who are residents of the state to be admitted as electors for purposes of voting in municipal and state elections.”
Meanwhile, Vermont Republicans are trying to curtail noncitizen voting by means of a lawsuit against Winooski, arguing that the policy of letting noncitizens vote for school board members has statewide implications, thus going against the condition that noncitizen voting practices by localities must not extend to state or federal offices.
As VT Digger reports:
The suit, filed Thursday in Chittenden County Superior civil court, argues that votes on school issues are of “statewide concern” because Vermont’s education system is financed through a statewide education fund. And under Section 42 of the state’s constitution, the filing claims, only U.S. citizens can vote on “any matter that concerns the State of Vermont.”
The lawsuit aims to exclude noncitizens from school board elections because board members create the budgets that are then paid for using state funds, it says.
“Plaintiffs seek a declaration that authorization of noncitizen voting on matters involving the City of Winooski’s school board and education budget is unconstitutional and void,” the lawsuit — which also lists two Winooski residents as plaintiffs — states.
But the city’s mayor, Kristine Lott, defended the practice of noncitizen voting, stating: “When we did outreach ahead of the charter change with noncitizen residents, I got the sense that school issues were actually more important — it was something they were more familiar with than municipal ones.”
The Vermont GOP had sued both Winooski and Montpelier in 2021 over their noncitizen voting measures, but the Washington County Superior Court dismissed the suit and the Vermont Supreme Court upheld the dismissal.
Just as the Left has used the processes of gradualism and incrementalism to expand the size of government and force greater levels of anti-Christian indoctrination on children — all while assuring the public that they would not go as far as they ultimately did — so do they want to keep pushing the envelope on noncitizen voting.
Today’s Democrats may say they just want to have legal permanent residents vote in local elections. However, if they aren’t stopped, then tomorrow all non-Americans — including illegal aliens — will be voting in state and federal elections.
To learn more about how to restore election integrity, click here.
