Across the nation, republicans are racing to put as many voter suppression laws on the books as possible. The most recent example is the republican push to gerrymander the Montana state Supreme Court as detailed here. This is an ongoing and desperate attempt by the cult of trump to remove voters from elections. We’ve seen attempts to limit voting in republican controlled states, such as those in Florida, in Georgia, and in Pennsylvania. Arizona republicans are planning to give themselves the ability to override election results, removing the voters completely from the equation. And this is just the tip of the corrupt republican iceberg.
Now, readers here will be familiar with the massive push by republicans to prevent Americans from voting — and more specifically, to prevent Americans who will not vote for them from voting. As the founder of the Heritage Foundation, Paul Weyrich famously remarked, “our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”
But this is nothing new, republicans have been at this goal for decades. What is new is their wide and coordinated push, with a white-hot speed and urgency to corrupt American democracy. They want minority rule, for them and their rich corporate masters. And damn the needs and wants of the American majority.
The most troubling thing about this naked power grab, however, is not the actions of the cult of trump to rule by James Crow on steroids.
No, it’s the absolute lack of urgency by the Democratic leaders in congress and in the White House, who sit on their hands and do nothing on this issue. True, they pushed HR1 and HR4 through the House. And those two bills will remove a great deal of these republican attempts to steal elections in our country. But there has been no Democratic leadership drive to fight, to twist Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema to correct the filibuster and pass the ONLY national protection for the American people whose votes must be heard, must be counted, and must be protected. No, apparently the Democratic party is content to hope the republican packed courts will stop some of these anti-democratic measures. They appear to be content to let the republican minority gain control of the House and possibly the Senate, and then to let the republican minority rule for as long as their suppression can override the voters. Because….something.
So why is the Democratic drive to get S.1 (the combined HR1 and HR4 bill in the Senate, also called the For the People Act of 2021) passed so tepid? Has President Biden called in Manchin as LBJ would have done and got his vote to change the filibuster and get S.1 done? Are Democratic congressmen and senators going on television, on the radio, pushing one message and one message only — that S.1 must pass or we lose our democracy? No. Nothing more than a fevered sprinkling of messages.
In fairness, the Democratic Party is a big tent, and unlike the easily trained republican cultists, it’s difficult to get the Democrats to be coherent and coordinated on such a national message. If the roles were reversed, S.1 would already be laws, because republicans know how to do whatever it takes to “win”. As Senator Mitch McConnell did with Merrick Garland, attempted rapist and perjurer Cavanaugh, religious nut-job Amy Coney Barrett, and two impeachment trials. Can we act as unilaterally and as effectively when push comes to shove? Recent history to this point tells us, no. As progressive data scientist David Shor said in a recent interview, “Basically, we have this small window right now to pass redistricting reform and create states. And if we don’t use this window, we will almost certainly lose control of the federal government and not be in a position to pass laws again potentially for a decade.”
The clock is ticking. Call your representative and your Senators, and help light a fire under them. The fight for S.1 must be the next item up on our agenda, or we can look forward to a non-functioning government that loves Trump, greed, lies and fascism.