There are always those who take advantage of extreme situations to force us to give up any of our values. When we are at the limit, as is now the case with the pandemic, it is easy to erase the nuances and face unbearable dilemmas. The menu of resignations that we are asked to do if we do not want to risk our lives and that of our families is terrifying: privacy, freedom, the survival of the older generations, and even the democratic election of our rulers.
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They are usually false dichotomies, which must be resolved thanks to political action and the proper functioning of the institutions, but in some cases they achieve the objective of forcing us to choose between two evils. This is what has happened this Tuesday to the citizens of Wisconsin, literally forced to choose between giving up their right to vote or exercising it with risk to their health and lives.
Two courts, that of the State and the Supreme of the United States, are those that have placed the voters before such a situation. The lower court annulled the postponement of the electoral day decreed by the state governor, in accordance with his order of confinement. And the highest US court annulled the extension of the deadlines for voting by mail.
The Democratic primaries, which 15 states have postponed, and the election of a hundred judges, one of them the supreme of the State, were concentrated on the voting day. Confinement measures minimized the opening of schools, which were only 5 out of 180 in the case of Milwaukee, the city where 10% of the population is concentrated.
In Wisconsin, the first round of the fight for the presidency that will end on November 3 has been fought. Republicans, who are the majority in both courts thanks to Trump's appointments, and also in both state chambers, are the ones who have forced the Democratic governor to keep the election date, knowing that low participation favors his party and muddies the primaries. .
The pandemic works in Trump's favor, excited by his title of commander-in-chief in the war on the virus, despite his rectifications, negligence, and lies. His daily appearance before the press eclipses any prominence of the democratic candidate Joe Biden, paralyzed by the confinement, who only got some notoriety yesterday with the withdrawal of Bernie Sanders.
Instead of guaranteeing the right to vote by mail, essential during an epidemic, the courts hinder its exercise. According to Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg, in her dissenting opinion of the Supreme Court ruling, what is at stake "is a matter of the utmost importance for the constitutional rights of the citizens of Wisconsin, for the integrity of the State election process and for the health of the nation. "
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