As Election Day draws near, it’s important to understand the full extent of the GOP’s voter suppression tactics around the country. Of course racism and white supremacy are the primary reasons—but they only tell us part of the story. As the US becomes more diverse and less white, the GOP should be concentrating on creating a message that is relatable to a wide swath of voters across demographic groups. But that would require decency and hard work—two traits completely lacking among modern-day Republicans. Instead, this party chose to double down on hatred and racism. And, as a result, they no longer have much, if anything, to offer non-white people. And since the American population is becoming more non-white, this leaves their party with voter suppression as the most reliable way to guarantee wins at the ballot box.
Writer Jamil Smith recently explored this topic for Rolling Stone. He notes that after losing the presidency twice to Barack Obama, in 2013, the GOP had a moment of reflection during an autopsy report where they decided that “the Republican Party must be committed to building a lasting relationship within the African-American community year-round, based on mutual respect and with a spirit of caring.” So, for a split second, it seemed that the GOP understood that building relationships with black and brown people is a good strategy. But, as we know, that didn’t happen.
Fast forward to 2016, when Republicans took the easy way out and nominated the most unfit, racist, repugnant candidate and human being they could find—who built his entire political career on birtherism, demonizing Mexicans (aka all Latinos), any and all non-white immigrants and people of color in general. Under normal circumstances, this should have been completely unacceptable. But we are not in normal times. And so Republicans who were drawn in by Trump’s hatred and racism happily joined his movement, while those who actually knew better but simply wanted to win, said nothing.
Today’s Republican Party is mostly all white—nearly 90 percent. And, even with the increasing diversity of the country, the majority of the national electorate is still white. In his last election, Obama only received 39 percent of the white vote. This means Democrats cannot rely solely on white voters alone to win. While this seemingly puts Democrats at a disadvantage in elections because they have to rely on heavier turnout in communities of color, these midterms could actually result in more losses for Republicans. Smith writes:
The pool of Democratic candidates is the most diverse in the history of American politics. Three black candidates — Ben Jealous, Stacey Abrams and Andrew Gillum — are nominated for governor, more than have ever been elected in American history. The Republican urgency to suppress our votes is so conspicuous because it is all they have left. They can’t gerrymander the nation.
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While it’s true that Republicans can’t gerrymander the nation, it’s certainly not for lack of trying. They’ve benefitted from the 2013 Shelby v. Holder Supreme Court decision which lifted the requirement for certain districts and counties to receive federal pre-clearance to change voting laws or policies. And this has had a detrimental impact for black and brown voters across the country.
Roughly 16 million voters were removed from state rolls in the three years following the 2013 Supreme Court Shelby County decision that neutered federal pre-clearance in the Voting Rights Act — unsurprisingly, the effect has been discriminatory. Another Supreme Court ruling in June allowed Ohio to continue its practice of purging voters who fail to respond to a mailer and to vote in consecutive federal elections. Mostly black and urban neighborhoods were targeted.
In Georgia, it’s been well documented that there have been massive voter suppression efforts over the last few years and even up through the start of this week’s early voting in the state. But unfortunately, Georgia isn’t an isolated case. Native Americans in North Dakota also face barriers to accessing the ballot box, due to a new Republican-backed voter ID law that requires documentation of a residential address—something that Native Americans living on reservations don’t have because they have P.O. boxes instead. Similarly, thousands of mostly voters of color in Texas, Nevada and North Carolina have been kicked off the rolls, subjected to poll site closures that limit their ability to vote and had voter registration applications rejected for various reasons.
Make no mistake about it, the GOP’s campaign plan for midterms is not talking to voters about the issues or encouraging Republican voters to turn out. Instead, it’s a massive national campaign to disenfranchise the voters who can easily defeat them—people of color.
We must remain vigilant and fight voter suppression with everything we have. But we also must develop an awareness that voting is not our only way to make change in this country—especially when the other side is actively trying to take our votes away. That’s not to say we shouldn’t vote—we have to if we are able. And we should empower everyone, everywhere to tell their stories about attempted voter suppression. We must also fund grassroots efforts to get voters in these states the necessary identification required to vote. We need to push back with lawsuits. And, in general, we should be actively fundraising, organizing, and talking to our friends and neighbors about these issues and what matters most. As former attorney general Eric Holder said in Georgia last week, when they go low (and it’s hard to imagine they can go any lower but we are there), “we need to kick them.”
"When I say we, you know, ‘We kick ‘em,’ I don’t mean we do anything inappropriate. We don’t do anything illegal,” Holder said. “But we got to be tough, and we have to fight for the very things that [civil rights leaders] John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Whitney Young – you know, all those folks gave to us.”
Let’s (figuratively) fight them at the voting booth, in the courts, in our organizing, fundraising, candidate selection, and everywhere else we can!