I am sure that almost everyone knows by now that, all across the country, Republican state legislatures are proposing a variety of new election laws
that will effectively disenfranchise large numbers of voters, particularly the elderly and people of color.
The Supreme Court has just upheld the legality of two such laws in Arizona.
In contrast to the CBN anchor, Gordon Robertson, who simply vents his spleen against “liberals” while misrepresenting everything at stake in these current voting rights contests, Mehdi Hasan provides a well-informed discussion (approximately 13 minutes) of what is at stake in this Supreme Court decision.
Let’s remember some important details crucial to understanding the context of the court’s decision.
- The gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act began in 2013 when the Supreme Court invalidated the provision requiring Southern states to seek federal approval for any intended changes to their state’s voting laws. This pernicious ruling, which Justice John Roberts defended by saying, “Our country has changed,” opened the barn door of voter disenfranchisement and let all the ghost horses of Jim Crow run loose again.
- Consequently, the conservative lament about the dangerous feds who are working to “take control over state elections” (watch the CBN link above) is ahistorical malarkey. The Voting Rights Act gave the federal government supervisory and enforcement power over every state proposal for a change in its election laws. What is happening now is the step-by-step destruction of that crucial supervision. Do we really need another reminder of the many ways Southern states effectively denied their African-American citizens the right to vote? Excuse me, but John Roberts is a bone-head. No, it is clear that America has not changed, Justice Roberts.
- Republicans recognize that there is a direct correlation between the numbers of people who vote in an election and the likelihood that they will lose. Donald Trump admitted this himself during his reelection campaign, acknowledging that if everyone was allowed to vote, Republicans would never win another election. It is not rocket science to figure out that the current slate of voter restriction proposals is intended to suppress citizens’ access to the voting booth. These bills are being called “the new Jim Crow” for very good reasons. The Republican party is working to ensure that they will not lose the next presidential election, pure and simple.
- Finally, ALL of these voter restriction proposals are premised on a lie. Time and again Republicans defend their odious proposals as admirable efforts to “protect v0ter integrity.” They then proceed as if Trump’s mountain of lies about significant, nation-wide “voter fraud” were all accurate and substantiated. In other words, these voter suppression proposals are being offered to correct a non-existent, mythical problem. (Read the latest report identifying this problem written by a Republican state legislator in Michigan). They are a modern, political equivalent of medieval practice of blood-letting — let’s kill the patient with a thousand cuts while pretending that we are doctors!
The leaders in the Republican party continue to march towards authoritarianism, proving day after day that they really do not believe in democracy or the right of every citizen to vote.
Now, the US Supreme Court is helping them.
