by Ruth A. Sheets
I received a reply to a petition I had signed
encouraging senators to vote for the 2 voting rights bills last week. I
was pretty sure what I would read. It is the same old garbage Sen. Pat Toomey
of Pennsylvania put out all last year. His staff changed words very
slightly to add that the voting bills had come up 5 times, and mention that he
proudly voted against the voting rights bills last week. He still refers
to those bills as S1. That identification has not been used for quite
some time.
Now, we are pretty sure that
Republicans were subtly threatened to stay in lock step with what Mitch
McConnell and Donald Trump wanted them to do, and they went along. That
means Republicans do not want voting reform and are OK with voter suppression
and its expansion.
How do I know? Mr.
Toomey starts out with how well we as a nation have “overcome over 200 years of
challenges grave and small, including transitions in party rule, the despicable
institution of slavery, civil war, ambiguous election results, and racial
segregation,” issues he has shown no interest in, previous to his attempt to
address voting rights. He continued, “Last year, when a sitting president
undermined the election results, the strength of our institutions—including our
state-controlled election systems—enabled the republic to weather another
test.” That last part is his sort of acknowledgement that our nation got
through another small challenge which he doesn’t admit has not yet been put to
rest. He couldn’t even mention Trump’s name.
If Mr. Toomey had just
stopped there he might have been seen as having some integrity. But, he
didn’t. He blamed Democrats for “seeking to distort the record in
order to pass a federal takeover of elections that would undermine the very
rights they claim to protect.” What! Nothing that follows this
statement makes any sense to someone who thinks logically. (see the letter
below)
There must always be
fearmongering in every statement Republicans make against Democrats. It
is not enough to say, “I don’t believe we need voter rights because Republicans
in the states should be able to shape the vote any way they choose to,” (the
truth), he has to claim the voting rights bills are a “Federal takeover of
elections” (a lie). He then tossed in a few more Republican talking
points, also not true). He implies that it was a righteous thing to
oppose any and all voter rights bills brought to the Senate by Democrats,
without debate, of course, so Republicans never had to explain their opposition
in public.
Toomey still harps on the “For
the People Act “ (S. 1), which has been replaced more than once since it was
being considered last year. He claims “it would politicize the currently
balanced Federal Election Commission, suppress speech in ways even the ACLU
opposes” (say what!), “provide public financing to political campaigns” (as
opposed to letting huge corporations and very rich folks buy candidates), “and
gut state voter ID laws” (yes, the ones that accept IDs that are costly and
hard to get for disadvantaged voters).
Instead of doing due
dilligence and actually learning about the voting bills (Freedom to Vote and
John Lewis Voting Advancement Act), he claims these bills would empower federal
bureaucrats with sweeping authority to oversee election law changes in every state.
In reality, the bills only call for Federal oversight if there are activities
going on in a state that are unconstitutional. Of course, Mr. Toomey does
not have to defend his position because he, like all Republicans these days
doesn’t think he needs to explain, just toss it out there and hope that some of
the lies and misinformation stick. Unfortunately, some of it always does
because it sounds so frightening, a takeover of our elections by those
unamerican Democrats.
He proudly poked out his chest
in gratitude to the Republicans who just saved our democracy from those
horrible Democrats who would have “stolen your votes” or some such
nonsense. It’s always nonsense, but alas, some uninformed people believe
it.
A new Republican talking
point is that more Black people have voted than ever before in the last 5 of 6
elections. How is that even a point? It is supposed to counter the
truth that the voter suppression laws newly minted in the states are
suppressing “the Black vote,” as well as the votes of other vulnerable
populations. That questionable statistic of increased Black voter
participation proves there is no suppression, right? Wrong! It
proves nothing except that some more Black Americans are voting.
Last week, Mitch McConnell
said out loud what Republicans like Pat Toomey believe but can’t quite
articulate. “Black people vote at the same percentages as
Americans.” What did he mean? He meant exactly what he said. All
the racism one can imagine was present in that comment. If Black people
aren’t really Americans, it doesn’t matter if their votes are suppressed, so
let the suppression continue, or at least that is what Republican inaction
regarding voting rights would do.
Mr. Toomey wraps up his note
to me with a pat on his own back, undeserved, but nonetheless there. He
warns all of us who really believe that all American citizens should have the
right to vote with few if any obstacles, “Democrats continue to undermine
confidence in the fairness of our elections in order to pass their liberal
agenda. Now, it is past time for Democrats to stop their partisan
charade.” Yep, another Republican blames Democrats for doing exactly what
the Republicans themselves are doing and what the Democrats are clearly not
doing. I do wonder if all Republican senators went to a special class to
learn how to do “1984” with a straight face, new-speaking at every
opportunity.
He then thanked me for my
correspondence and offered his assistance. OK, Sen. Toomey, if you really
want to assist me and the people of our state, I have a suggestion. Open
your eyes and see that we have a state legislature that has worked really hard
since the 2020 election to dismiss the votes of Democratic voters and to make
it harder to vote. The voting rights bills that you so easily dismissed
would have stopped that as well as the Republican groups who are demanding
personal information about Democratic voters for purposes they have not made
clear. I am grateful we still have a Democratic governor or we would be
voter suppressed just like Texas, Georgia, Florida, and Mississippi. That
is not an accident. We sometimes hear Pennsylvania referred to as “Philadelphia
and Pittsburgh with Alabama in between. Well, Mr. Toomey, I don’t want
Pennsylvania to be Alabama with its state-approved racism and dismissal of the
rights of so many of its citizens. We need to do better and so do you.
Sincerely, Ruth A.
Sheets, a constituent
No comments:
Post a Comment