by Ruth A. Sheets
I, along with many other Americans, believe our most
important right as citizens, behind life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness, is the right to vote. It appears there are quite a few elected
representatives at all levels who are not among the right to vote
believers. Unfortunately, the unbelievers are mostly Republicans.
Why is everyone’s right to vote not critical for them? Well, of course,
they don’t want any but superior people like themselves, to hold office.
And, who are those superior people, rich, white, straight,
Christian/Jewish, Republican men, with some submissive go-along women.
They simply don’t care about any of the rest of us unless they can use us as
pawns in their political games.
OK, REPUBLICANS DON'T CARE. That is my starting
point. They crouch to listen to their cult leader who is scared of
everything and everyone. He “knows” that voting is the way to control
what happens in America and he fears he might lose. The way to keep that
from happening is to shut as many people as possible out of the voting process,
and encourage would-be voters to believe voter suppression is necessary to stop
voter fraud, by Democrats and people of color. Voter fraud of any kind is
extremely rare and is usually done by mistake or misunderstanding, but that
explanation does not fit with Republican talking points, so is neatly ignored
for the sake of the lie.
Republicans have gotten especially good at voter suppression
over the years. They even convinced the Supreme Court a few years back
that some of the most racist, sexist, xenophobic districts in America are
anxious to have everyone vote. Of course this was a lie, as the Court
knew very well, but hey, scared privileged white men and their allies can be
found everywhere, even on our highest court.
The very day the decision came down that cancelled out the
most important sections of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, those districts began
their work to make voting nearly impossible for large portions of their
population. Some of their “best” practices include:
- Voter I.D. laws which allow a gun license and
not a college I.D.,
- birth certificates required for people who have been
voting for many decades (many of those certificates lost in fires or because of
race and poverty, never existed),
- matching signatures for identical loops and swerves in
letter formation in signatures decades apart
- DMV cards and other forms of I.D. that cost more than the
poor can afford,
- purging voter rolls of people who haven’t voted in a
couple of elections (probably because of insane work schedules),
- purging voters with identical names to someone else on the
rolls,
- refusing to enfranchise people who have served their time
in prison even when the people of the state voted to enfranchise them (Florida)
It is predominantly people of color, older citizens, and
younger people just getting started as voters who are the targets, the
victims. Who were meant to be least impacted, rich, white, privileged,
men and women, of course. These are the folks Republicans are counting on
to keep them in power indefinitely.
Another major type of voter suppression is
gerrymandering. This is slightly different because it doesn’t keep people
from voting, it just negates the votes of Democrats who are forced into
districts that have been cleverly shaped and contorted to make sure Republicans
will always win there. Republicans have taken jerrymandering
to new heights of greed and power-mongering, giving them advantages no party
should have in a democracy.
Democrats have often tried valiantly to fight this crippling
assault on American democracy, but it is exceedingly hard. Once a thing
is done, it’s hard to undo, and already, a lot of damage has been done.
Those who have not been eliminated from voting don’t think much about the
others because it isn’t their problem. The in-group of voters smugly
think, “I did all the right things. If they had done the right things too
or tried harder, they’d have no trouble either. All they have to do is .
. ., but they’re just too lazy.” We rarely think beyond that because life
is complicated, busy, and we only vote a couple of times a year. It is
not quite often enough to make it a habit. We also have an exaggerated
sense of our having done things “the right way.” A lot of that “right
way” comes from privilege, luck, money, and other critical factors not
available to everyone. The right to vote should not be dependent on any
of those factors, just that a person is a citizen of the United
States.
On top of the real and manufactured problems with elections,
COVID19 has “gummed up the works” even further. It has made it unsafe for
anyone to vote in person right now.
There is a way to make this less of a problem. That is
vote by mail. Several states already use this as their means of voting
all the time. Others are flirting with the idea. Some states are
going for no-excuse absentee ballots. Others are looking at a combination
of in-person voting and vote by mail. Some states are looking at same as
usual.
Some states like Georgia found a way during their primary to
put the least experienced poll workers and the non-functioning machines in
Black communities, causing extremely long lines and wait times. A few
wealthy white areas got to taste the long line approach to voting that is a
regular part of Election Day in minority communities. They didn’t like it
much, but after their complaints, they are certain it will be fixed by
November. Those in the Black communities can never be sure of such
correction. Other state primaries experienced similar challenges, also
mostly in Black communities.
OK Republicans! We all deserve the right to vote and
need safe elections (yes, even for your constituents). The states
need the funds to do that, and you know it. But, you guys seem to be
oblivious to the voice of the people.
The privileged got rather safe elections, mostly by
mail during the pandemic. Fancy that! It’s clear the COVID19 crisis
is having and will continue to have a major impact on our democracy.
Therefore, no one should have to choose between their health and
voting. Unless Congress responds, the primaries will be a preview
of what’s to come in November. That is inexcusable and a good reason that
those in the Senate who don’t demand a floor vote on funds for safe voting and
support for the US Post Office, and relief for the worst problems of COVID19
should be defeated this fall.
I get it that REPUBLICANS DON'T CARE, but you could learn to
care. Even grown men can learn new things. You all learned to love
and bow down to a bigoted, womanizing, homophobic, transphobic, money-grubbing,
child-man, dictator wannabe, so you can learn to care about the American people
and our need for properly funded safe elections in November.
The next few weeks will inform the American people of how
much REPUBLICANS DON’T CARE about them. I am just hoping Democrats will jump in and take advantage of Republican lack of empathy and stand with and
elect candidates who actually do care what happens to people other than
themselves, who won’t see voting as a game they can only win by keeping
everyone else off the field.
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