ONE-UPMANSHIP IN OUR REVENGE CULTURE

by Ruth A. Sheets

The states in the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabees are pushing to make more and more restrictive laws on their citizens, particularly those citizens who are not rich, white, straight, men. 

I know the main purpose of such laws is to gain power for those rich, white, straight, men, but it is at least as much to keep others from having power.  In the past few decades, women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community have been gaining some ground in being elected to office and holding slightly higher positions in business and industry.  The privileged white men see that as a decrease in their own power and now it is time for them to take revenge.

The most blatant actions being taken are on two fronts:  limiting or eliminating abortion and other reproductive rights for women, and limiting or eliminating voting rights for people of color.  Despite the fact that Rowe v. Wade is the "law of the land" states have defied it to pass extremely restrictive bans on what is legal.  How does that work?  I guess when rich  white straight men and the women they have recruited to their cause decree it, anything is worthy of being ignored, even the law.  As of this week, in Kentucky it is now completely "illegal" to perform or obtain an abortion, even though it is legal in this country to obtain and perform abortions.  Hmmm! 

This Kentucky event did not come from nowhere, formed whole.  Over the years, all kinds of restrictions to having a legal abortion have been tacked on.  Then when other states saw that what another state had tried and found it had worked, the original restriction was extended:  a 24 hour waiting period, then 48 hours, then 72 hours, often requiring the woman to return to the abortion center multiple times for no medical reason, while missing work or having to find child care for her kids. 

When the time extensions worked, they moved to invasive procedures before the abortion could take place:  vaginal ultrasound, lying about dangers of having abortion, forced counseling using lies and misdirection, requiring various permissions to have an abortion:  parents, husband, rapist, etc.  Those didn't prove sufficient to stop abortions, so, states declared that aborted fetuses had to be buried, abortion centers had to meet building standards that were completely unnecessary and doctors and others who performed abortions had to have privileges in local hospitals even though abortion is among the safest medical procedures performed.  Of course the hospitals in the former Confederacy and other white states would not give doctors those privileges, which they should not have needed at all.

Texas passed a law that not only banned abortions after 6 weeks when a "heartbeat" could be detected (not a heartbeat since there is no heart yet, but who cares about reality and science?), they deputized anyone anywhere to report anyone anywhere who helped a woman to obtain an abortion in Texas – vigilante law.  And, those snitches get to claim $10,000 for their reward.

A few other former Confederate states have jumped on board the vigilante wagon.  They also want to jail doctors who perform abortions for 10 years, eventually imprisoning women who have abortions too.  Missouri didn't want to stop there.  They want to put women to death for having an abortion.  That one didn't pass, but not by much. 

The Supreme Court has allowed all of these extensions of illegal abortion restrictions through refusing to hear cases or as in the Texas case, through the Shadow Docket, a sneaky way to rule on something without accountability or hearing a case, or a public ruling with the names of the justices attached.

Voting is also working its way through the one-upmanship treatment.  In 2013, John Roberts and his conservative Supreme Court decided to tear apart the Voting Rights Act of 1965 which had required states with a history of discrimination to get permission for any changes in voting policies in their state.  He, a privileged white man, claimed racism was a thing of the past in this country so . . .

Immediately, state after state in the former Confederacy returned to their discriminatory ways with a host of bills to keep the "wrong" people from voting.  When people found ways around some of the worst restrictions, new ones were introduced.  When Black people voted on Sundays as congregations, Sunday voting was scrapped.  When people who weren't the right kind of rich white male were elected, voter fraud was called.  When election workers picked up mail-in ballots from Native American reservations, laws were passed making it illegal for anyone but designated family members to hand in ballots. 

After what was nearly universally described as the best run and safest election in American history, Republicans in one state after another declared fraud and passed all kinds of additional voter restrictions from matching signatures of voters, (some signatures 50 or more years old when everyone knows people's signatures change over time), to forbidding anyone to give anyone food or drink while standing in voting lines that were designed to keep people of color waiting to vote for up to 8 hours sometimes in severe heat.  Those long lines would never happen in the areas of the state with mostly middle to upper class white people because those are the people Republicans think they can count on, and usually they can.  Besides, those white folks could cause trouble.

What has the Supreme Court done to end the one-upmanship?  Mostly nothing.  OK, they have arbitrarily allowed or disallowed gerrymandering, when gerrymandering should never be permitted in a democracy in the first place.  So far, they have permitted everything else states are doing. 

What can we the people do about the white state one-upmanship?

- We can demand that each woman has sovereignty over her own body and can make decisions for herself asking for advice and support only when she chooses. 

- Congress can stop the Rowe v. Wade challenges by codifying a woman's right to decide for herself into law.  Certifying the ERA which has been passed by the required 38 states would help too.

- Putting abortion in the realm of medicine where it belongs, monitored by medical personnel instead of ignorant vengeful politicians and judges.

- Voter registration be made automatic on the day a citizen of this country turns 18.  That would stop the challenges to the kind of license presented when a person first registered to vote because every citizen would be able to vote.

- Gerrymandering would be made illegal and every state would have an independent board to determine the maps each decade with legislative input, but not final say on the maps used.

- Election day should be a holiday and every workplace would be required to give employees paid time off to vote.  That wouldn't be a problem if every state had unrestricted vote-by-mail. 

Let's face it, racism and misogyny are alive and well in nearly every corner of this nation.  It is mostly the states of the former Confederacy and Confederate wannabees run by Republicans who are doing the most damage to the rights of women, people of color, and LGBTQ persons.  We need to call them out for their prejudices whenever possible and be sure we in other states are aware of our own biases so we are not participating in the revenge culture that demands we get even with those we think have taken what belongs to us alone.  We can do this.  It all starts with education, helping children of privilege see they don't deserve more than anyone else has, and it's OK.  Then, there's voting.

SAFE VOTING, A RIGHT, NOT A GAME

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.  

WHEN THEY ARE WRONG

by Ruth A. Sheets

In the Pennsylvania legislature, Republicans are working to change the way judges in the state are elected.  This isn't because the current system is not working, but because it is not working for them. 

The Republican party is furious that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned the Republican-drawn/gerrymandered districts as unfair.  Of course, the Republican legislators know very well that their district lines were not drawn fairly.  A lot of time and effort was put into making sure that despite the fact that Pennsylvania has significantly more Democratic voters than Republicans, the Republicans would always have most of the US Congressional and state representatives in their column.  They want the courts too.

This phenomenon is becoming a frequent presence on the American political scene.  Republicans are the most common practitioners.  What is this phenomenon?

When you are caught doing what you know or suspect is wrong, unamerican, or probably illegal, double down on your wrong actions.  If possible, make those you don't like or respect suffer even more.

-Don't hold hearings and a vote on President Obama's nominee for Supreme Court justice (as the Constitution requires), then approve someone perhaps, just barely qualified but conservative enough he will approve anything you want the Court to do for your party and your followers.  then approve only the most ult-right, compliant (to conservative whims) nominees for all Federal court positions, nominees who will regularly rule against women and minorities.

- Your voter I.D. law doesn't pass muster, so work to eliminate as many voting days as possible to inconvenience and discourage poor and minority voters.  Then, make voter registration as difficult as possible for those who don't have easy access to the few registration locations. 

- Purge voter rolls, close to Election Day, mostly of Democratic voters, of course, and when caught, take the case to the Supreme Court which 5-4 says, "OK," when they should have said "No.  Everyone has a right to vote."  Now it's legal, Don't get caught cutting too many minorities on purpose, though.  Just accidentally.

- Migrants and refugees are a terrible problem and those people just keep coming.  We'll build a fence, no, a wall, hire thousands of people to guard the southern border, destroy cashes of water and supplies that would help people crossing the desert.  Since the people keep coming, we'll call them animals and take the children from their mothers at the border as a deterrence.  Oh yes, then the Republican president claims these actions are the fault of Democrats, a lie, but what can you expect.

- Women want control over their own reproduction.  They are moving into the male sphere.  Tell women that birth control is harmful and that abortion will destroy them for life physically and emotionally.  Oh no!  Women know the truth!  We have to stop them, so we'll force insurance companies not to cover birth control.   We'll approve of clinics that lie to patients about everything related to their reproduction.  We'll keep making it harder and harder to get an abortion.  We want the Supreme Court, that we have packed, to say abortion is illegal.  Why is abortion so horrific, you might ask them.  Ummm, it must be in the Bible or something.  Oh wait, it's murder, or something.  Oh yes, it's definitely murder.  We should punish the women who have abortions and the doctors who perform them.

In case it isn't clear, the common factors in all these cases are race, sex, and poverty, white -- or wannabe white, rich -- or wannabe rich, male (Republicans) and everyone else (Democrat and Independent).  To indicate that a Republican might be racist is the greatest insult, they claim.  I don't understand this.  The amount of thought, scheming, and effort Republicans and their allies use to figure out these ingenious actions against African-Americans, immigrants, and women, one would think they were proud of their work and should stand up and state what all Republicans believe deep down.  White, rich men should rule because they know what's best for everyone else, the inferiors who must be kept in their place. 

This situation will not improve until more people stand up to the fear, anger, and privilege Republicans deliberately infuse into everything these days.  The media will not help because they have become lazy and just skim off the top the people and events they will cover. 

Voting at all levels is the key.  Candidates that spew phony patriotism, imply inferiority of any group of people, and toss off easy answers to complex problems do not deserve anyone's vote.  These candidates are wrong and will only double down on their racism, sexism, and xenophobia to no one's benefit but their own.  We must keep this in mind as we face the lies, deceit, and scheming of the 2018 election.