 Aloha, thanks for considering the views expressed in this ThinkTech commentary. It's entitled Voting Rights, The Unkindest Cut of All, Right Out of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, A Tragedy. So many issues are bounding around the media. COVID and vaccine mandates, build back better, inflation and the economy, immigration, racism, gun control, extreme weather and climate change, and much more. But the thing that will have a direct and almost immediate impact on the future of our democracy, is voting rights. Not only is it the unkindest cut of all, it's time sensitive. If we don't get the voting rights bills through the Senate now, the terrible things the Republicans are doing in so many state legislatures are likely to govern. There isn't time to have those bills stricken by the Supreme Court, even assuming the court is willing to do that. We need to repeal or change the filibuster to get these bills through Congress. But changes to the filibuster won't be easy, even though the Senate made an exception to fund the government last week. With the filibuster still in place it is very unlikely any voting rights legislation will pass the Senate. None of the Republican senators, not one, will vote for that legislation or even for a debate on it. Do none of them care about it in a republic where voting rights are the cornerstone of our democracy. Guess not, these Republicans are completely intransigent on the issue. Is it because of Trump? Is it a wish to destroy the country? Is it a cute trick to game the system for the next election? In any event, it's really sick and destructive if not nationally suicidal. They're not relenting even in our current compound crises. When the 2022 and 2024 elections are in a state of chaos, where the public loses all confidence in the government and in the right to vote, maybe the Republicans will have second thoughts, but by then it'll be way too late. History will not judge the GOP kindly. History will find, as it may already have found, that they were soft and stupid on Trump, soft and stupid on his lies and treasonous insurrection, soft and stupid on his coup, and that they themselves have been co-conspirators. We can hear the conversation only one generation away. The sun says to the father, what did you do to protect the country when it was coming apart? The father replies, nothing. I did not support voting rights and I did not support democracy. I was an idiot, and you will have to pay for it. And unfortunately that will be the tragic end of the story, like Shakespeare. Thanks for considering the views expressed in this Think Tech commentary. Mahalo.