The tactics are becoming increasingly aggressive
The Washington Post editorial board says don’t forget about voter suppression.
[E]ven if all 1,500 Confederate symbols across the country were removed overnight by some sudden supernatural force, the pernicious crusade to roll back voting rights would continue apace, with voters of color suffering its effects disproportionately. Pushing back hard against those who would purge voter rolls, demand forms of voter ID that many Americans don’t possess, and limit times and venues for voting — this should be a paramount cause for the Trump era.
In statehouse after statehouse where Republicans hold majorities, the playbook is well established, and the tactics are becoming increasingly aggressive.
Mr. Trump’s voter fraud commission is at the vanguard of this crusade, and the fix is in. Its vice chairman, Kris Kobach, is the nation’s most determined, litigious and resourceful champion of voter suppression. Under his tutelage, the commission is likely to recommend measures whose effect will be that new obstacles to voting would be taken up in state legislatures. Millions of voters are at risk of disenfranchisement from this effort, and the knock-on effects of such a mass act of disempowerment are dizzying.
One, it’s racist disenfranchisement, and two, it results in the election of more conservatives and fewer liberals, which is not to the benefit of non-white people.
I struggle to understand the mindset in which rigging the vote is somehow part of the ordinary democratic process. How can anyone think and behave that way, let alone consider it normal?
@latsot What makes you think they believe in democracy? They pay it lip-service but it’s not really what they want. And the ordinary people who support them have been carefully coached to see liberals not just as the opposition but the enemy. As long as that ‘them and us’ mentality persists, they will happily surrender their rights and support the disenfranchisement of people of color because ‘they’ would only waste their votes on Democrats who will give them free stuff at the expense of hard-working Republican white people (as they see it).
I live in the South, just outside a blue dot city in a red, red state. And I hear these opinions all the time. In the hair salon, at the supermarket, the doctor’s waiting room, anywhere you can overhear casual conversation. They truly believe Fox News is fair and balanced, and is the only channel telling them the truth. They think Trump is the next messiah, that he’s gonna stick it to those filthy immigrants coming here and ruining America and evil libruls plotting to destroy the country.
My accent of course gives me away. And then I have to put up with commentary about how I (as a white, British immigrant) am the sort of people who should be coming here, rather than those damn Mexicans. It’s awful. I like to grin and tell them when I get citizenship I’m going to register as a Democrat and work to promote voting rights for people of color. Blows their minds. Got called a race traitor once, that was lovely.
I’m a wimp. That sounds like torture to me.
(I mean it about the wimp part – that’s a very snowflake claim to make, but it’s still true.)
It’s not that bad. I’m privileged enough for it not to be a problem. I don’t seek these confrontations out, and I can choose to associate with my co-workers who are academics and therefore pretty lefty. I find other like-minded people through my local BLM, Indivisible and Democratic Party chapters.
I refuse to complain about it. I chose to move here, and have the financial resources to leave if I wanted to. Not everyone has that luxury. But for all its problems, it’s a great city. As a lover of live music, you can literally walk into almost any bar and hear unbelievably talented live bands and solo artists. And I feel like when I do become a citizen (assuming Trump doesn’t fuck that up for us which is something I worry about constantly), I can do my part in making this area better for everyone who lives here.