Republicans Hate Your Vote

Your vote matters and Republicans are scared. I previously discussed my disappointment with how terribly stupid American fascists are, putting most of the blame on literature and movies that show them as powerful organized villains. They continue to trend closer to Dr. Evil than any actual Bond villain. President Trump even decided to lay out the groundwork for how he’ll steal the election during the first presidential debate on September 29th. Like Dr. Evil trying to explain how sea bass retrofitted with lasers were going to eat Austin Powers, Trump is prone to spoiling the trick before the performance. 

    It should not be news to you that Trump wants voting to be as difficult as possible. His campaign has been to war with the Post Office in trying to hamper mail-in-voting. His 2016 campaign focused heavily on the idea immigrants would be able to vote en masse. At the first debate he famously called for the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” A coward calling for his own whiny version of the gestapo to help him. He then went on to urge his supporters to stand guard at polling places. The Proud Boys are one of many right wing militias that would be more than happy to enforce Trump’s phony rules on the average voter. The goal is simple, keep Biden supporters from voting.

    This goal is not one of Trump’s own making though, it has been a cornerstone of Republicanism and the GOP for generations. Remember, it was the Democratic Party’s embrace of the Civil Rights movement that led many Republicans to embrace the Southern Strategy. (Yeah, I’m gonna be linking to wikipedia. This isn’t academic work and wikipedia should give you all the background you need. Deal with it.) The GOP decided exploiting racism would be a powerful tool to shore up a solid voting base. That racist base was originally organized on the belief that African-Americans did not deserve the right to vote. 

    The pattern of voter disenfranchisement was greatly accelerated during the era of color-blindness. At which point Republicans could gerrymander districts, limit voting access, and even add stricter rules. In Alabama, for example, the Republicans passed a bill requiring a driver’s license to vote and then proceeded to close down DMV’s in majority black counties. Thus requiring residents to drive hours just to have the necessary ID to practice their constitutional rights. Practices such as these have been wildly successful. On just a national scale, Republicans have given themselves a handicap of “2 to 3 points in the Electoral College, 4 in the House, 6 to 7 in the Senate.” It’s much worse in fully controlled Republican states.

    If there’s one thing Trump has been good for, it’s letting skeletons out of the closet and saying the quiet parts out loud. He’s also encouraged other Republicans to do the same. Senator Mike Lee went on a twitter tirade recently, claiming “we’re not a democracy” and “Democracy isn’t the objective.” It’s safe to say Mike is most upset about the thought of his opponents having a fair say in the way the nation is run. 

Thanks to the Dr. Evil inspired Trump and Lee, it’s all out in the open. The fight for democracy has come. America was founded on slavery, enforced Jim Crow, and managed ‘color-blind’ racism all while still respecting some form of democracy in which the will of the voters mattered. But a Black President must have been too much. The racists have taken over a single party and are refusing to respect democratic norms or voter legitimacy.