House Democrats took a step down a slippery slope yesterday when they voted to defend the right of local governments to allow illegal aliens the right to vote in local elections.

Currently, all non-citizens — including illegals — are barred from voting in federal elections.  But given the circumstances, how long will it be before Democrats try to change that?

Washington Times:

"We are prepared to open up the political process and let all of the people come in," Rep. John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat and hero of the civil rights movement, told colleagues as he led opposition to the GOP measure.

The 228-197 vote came as part of a broader debate on Democrats' major legislative priority this year, HR 1, the "For the People Act," which includes historic expansions of voter registration and access, as well as a major rewrite of campaign finance laws.

The measure would have had no practical effect even if it had passed.  Illegal immigrants [sic] — and indeed noncitizens as a whole — are not legally able to participate in federal elections.

Making it easier for citizens to legally vote in the U.S. is, on balance, a good thing.  In a participatory democracy, you want as many citizens participating as possible.

But allowing illegal aliens to vote, even in local elections, cheapens citizenship.  Even if the illegals voted Republican, the notion that illegals are stakeholders in the community is appalling.  If they want to be stakeholders, why not become citizens?  And if they don't want to become citizens, what are they doing voting anyway?

This move is not surprising from Democrats who have done everything in their power to see to it that non-citizens can cast their ballots.  They continue to insist that non-citizen voting is not a big problem and not worth the effort to "true the vote."  Given how close many races for Congress, the Senate, and the presidency have been in recent election cycles, it doesn't take many illegal votes to tip the scales in favor of the Democrats in several races.