Yesterday was a big day in Pennsylvania; the state where I live. Like more than 30 states over the past few years, Pennsylvania voters were facing one of the strictest voter ID laws in the nation. Yesterday a judge implemented an injunction; voters will not have to present an ID for the November 2012 presidential election, but it’s almost a certainty for the future.

The Republican sponsor of the law, State Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, had this to say:

“Judge Simpson’s final decision is out of bounds with the rule of law, constitutional checks and balances for the individual branches of state government, and most importantly, the will of the people,” Metcalfe said, adding that the ruling was “skewed in favor of the lazy who refuse to exercise the necessary work ethic to meet the commonsense requirements to obtain an acceptable photo ID.”

When did We the People become the enemy? The lazy, the good-for-nothing takers who don’t give a damn unless we have our hands extended: the elderly, students, veterans, women with children, minorities, and a host of other folks who are “lazy.”

If only the “lazy” had a megaphone to scream as loud as the corporate welfare folks with their hands extended and their bank accounts bristling with hundos.

We do, however, have a megaphone and it’s called the vote.

Voting is the one true egalitarian thing in this nation and that is why, without a doubt, Republican majorities in state houses and senates across the country are attempting to restrict access to the common folks that far outnumber the corporate knuckleheads that make up the 1%. Voting needs to be protected and it has been under the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Suffrage and the 15th Amendment.  Before 1965, less than 50% of the population was registered to vote.

This isn’t about if you drive or do not, if you have an ID or do not, this is about restricting the right to vote. Voter fraud, in Pennsylvania for example, is a none issue. There have been no reported cases – absolutely zero – of fraudulent votes. And, when we talk about dollars and cents, the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation burned through $5 million and only dolled out 9,500 identification cards.

I do not believe that Republicans are bad people or that the philosophy of limited government and taxes is a flawed position. After all, Eisenhower integrated Little Rock and Lincoln changed the course of slavery. What I do believe is that republicanism has been hijacked by extremists causing Democrats – and Obama in particular – to carry the platforms of both parties. This is why liberals cry fowl when he compromises and Republicans lose their mind when he accomplishes anything.

Limited government does not include forced transvaginal ultrasounds, voter ID laws, the lowest corporate tax rate in history and writing off almost half of the population as lazy freeloaders who aren’t worth their weight.

That’s just bad government.

Over the course of four weeks, I will be dedicating most – not all, but most – of my writing here on The Six Year Itch to political coverage of the 2012 election. This is my contribution as a citizen, voter and patriot that loves her country. In every election since my daughter has been born, she has cast my vote at our polling station. She absolutely loves it and – even as a young mother – it was important to me that she not view voting as a passive experience that she occasionally gets around to, but as an important duty. It wasn’t until 1920 that women cast their ballots legally. I take the sacrifice of countless women, many of them silent in the history books, seriously.

I hope my daughter will too.

Please join me tonight as I participate in  iVillage’s live chat during the presidential debate from 9 – 10:30m PM EST. You can also find me on twitter using #blogforObama with some of the most amazing bloggers out there.  Follow me @sixyearitch on Twitter. Click the image for iVote with iVillage.