You should have to present an ID to vote !

Ensuring election integrity is critical for the survival of a democracy and to convince citizens that the election process is not corrupted and unreliable.

The United States of America is supposed to be the beacon of freedom and democracy on the planet, our US Constitution is a brilliant document written by brilliant citizens trying to create a land of freedom and liberty free of tyranny.  And yet we allow this assault by leftists / democrats on our election systems to permit fraud.  Of the 47 countries in Europe today (Europe being the only continent with well-developed democracies), 46 of them currently require government-issued photo IDs to vote !!!

35 of the 47 countries do NOT allow absentee voting for citizens living in the country (only for military out of country and citizens working and living out of country).

France banned absentee voting in 1975 after significant fraud was identified (large scale vote buying operations).

England ended the practice of mailing out absentee ballots after 40,000 fraudulent votes were identified in 2004 from a muslim area of the city of Birmingham.  Now a voter wanting an absentee ballot has to go pick it up in advance with their photo ID.

Our neighbor to the north Canada requires a photo ID to vote.

In Mexico believe it or not voters are required to be identified by biometrics (thumb print) along with a photo ID.  And absentee voting is prohibited.  These rules developed because of a long history of voter fraud time and again.

It is highly embarrassing that the United States of America has less reliable elections than other democracies on the planet.  Fight to prevent the degradation of our democracy, vote Republican straight ticket and restore confidence in our system of government at all levels (local, state, federal).

The United States of America and its Honorable Record in Iran

 Ray Takeyh of National Review magazine wrote a great piece in 2021 reminding us of the original historical relationship with Iran.  Some of the points to remember:

"The first thing that America did for Iran was to preserve its territorial integrity.  The allies who had occupied Iran during the war [WW2] had agreed to withdraw their troops 6 months after the cessation of hostilities.  Britain and America honored their pledge.   Stalin [USSR] lingered in his occupation zone in the northern Iranian province of Azerbaijan and entrusted its management to the sadistic Lavrentiy Beria, the head of the NKVD, Russia's interior ministry and overseer of prison camps.  Under the watchful eye of Russian soldiers, a puppet government calling itself the "Azerbaijan Democratic Party" was set up, and Beria's men created a secret police, which went on a killing spree, targeting Iranian army officers, police chiefs, local officials, and landed gentry.  An area comprising the contemporary Republic of Azerbaijan was, like much of Eastern Europe, being carved out as a Soviet vassal state".

The USA dispatched the USS Missouri battleship fleet to Istanbul (Constantinople) and Stalin in the only time in the Cold War abandoned land held by his troops.  America saved Iran from being carved by Stalin and the USSR.  The USA provided Iran with billions of dollars in aid, technical assistance, and protection from the Soviet Union.

In August 1953 Iran experienced 2 coups.  The removal of Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh was applauded by many iranians because he became a despot, rigging elections, disbanding the Parliament, usurping the existing powers of the monarchy, and showing little respect for their constitution.  The CIA had some involvement in this removal.  Yes before iran became an islamic totalitarian state they had a monarchy, a parliament, and a lively free press.  A coup against the Shah had failed, however.  Although the Shah had sought to modernize Iran, he progressively instituted centralized power in his office, becoming a quasi dictator. The Shah's regime collapsed quickly in 1978 due to economic stagnation, income inequality, and a revival of islamic fundamentalism and socialism, and islamic fundamentalists under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini took over.  The Shah was not an American puppet, he had a mind of his own and no ideological support for democracy, and was overthrown by his own citizens.  The USA continually tried to convince the Shad to develop democracy (political reform), develop social assistance programs, build up infrastructure, and promote economic freedom.  The Shah accomplished some of this but not the critical political reforms to institute a true democracy.

History does not lie: Democrat Congress = Reckless Spending

2021 UPDATE:

2017 UPDATE:

In 2008 voters unwisely gave the Democrat party control of the executive branch and the legislative branch of the federal government.  President Obama, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi  had uncontested  power over federal spending and taxation policy for 2 years (2009-2010).  They were able to pass Obamacare without any effort at bipartisanship (0 republican votes) and recklessly increase government spending.  The fiscal attitude during the George W. Bush years was hardly "austere", but even with the war on islamic fascism in Afghanistan and Iran the deficits were around $250 billion per year.  In 2007 the deficit was 1.1% of GDP.  When one-party Democrat rule took over, they engaged not so much in tax increases as they did in unfunded spending.  The deficit skyrocketed to $1.4 TRILLION in 2009, $1.3 trillion in 2010 and 2011, and $1 trillion in 2012.  Voters put republicans back in charge of the US House of Rep. in 2011 and right back down went the deficit, $680 billion in 2013, $485 billion in 2014, and $438 billion in 2015.  2016 saw a slight increase, however, as attention was diverted away from making difficult budget decisions.

UPDATE 2014:

The data is still conclusive, republican controlled congress (fiscal policy and budget) is more responsible than a democrat controlled congress in terms of not leading our country and younger generations into bankruptcy or oppressive taxation and reduced benefits for those in dire circumstances: (R: republican controlled congress, S: split congress, D: democrat controlled congress). 

A common theme by leftist (democrat, progressive, choose your adjective) pundits is that job growth has been higher under democrat presidents than with republican.  Fiscal policy, however, and the taxpayer federal budget are controlled by the US Congress, not the Oval Office.  It is a mistake to correlate executive branch control to the health of the employment condition, although the executive branch does generally control the regulatory burden placed on businesses.  A more meaningful correlation is between congressional control (budget, spending, taxation) and the employment condition.  Below is a chart from a leftist blog, i simply superimposed congressional control onto the data, and the findings for the modern economy (1960-2014) indicate republican control of congress has yielded a higher level of job growth:

March 2009:

Deficit spending does have negative consequences. You can ignore them over the short term, but the laws of economics cannot be violated over the long term. You can manipulate monetary policy, but eventually interest rates will go up to attract more foreign buyers of treasury bills, the value of the dollar will be perpetually bad, taxes will have to be increased to meet the federal govt obligations, and the average standard of living will go down as a result.

When republicans are in the majority in Congress, there is at least some fiscal discipline, but when Democrats have been in the majority, it has been 'our-kids-be-damned' and our future standard of living be damned. The graph provides the facts, make your own conclusions.