April 5

VOTING RIGHTS, AGAIN?
I’ve been thinking a lot about voter suppression this week and how it is being used by the Republican Party in order to maintain their minority rule in several states. I’ve also come to realize that the election of Joe Biden was actually a survival mechanism for the threadbare garment of American sovereignty. It would have been very difficult to live another four years in Trump’s fascism-creep country. His was a government moving inexorably towards authoritarianism, just look at who he admired on the world stage: Victor Orban in Hungry, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil, India’s Narendra Modi, and Vladimir Putin of Russia. It is a global creep machine no longer enabled by the American President. I don’t know about you, but every day I breathe a little bit better not hearing The Donald dominate the airwaves. 

Voter Suppression, as American as Apple Pie
At this point, it seems totally appropriate to get involved in what I’m calling, the movement against voter suppression (MAVS?), doesn’t it? Making it more difficult to vote is not what we learn in school about American democracy, but our history is indeed replete with examples of those in power seeking to limit the number of people who can vote so that they will stay in power. When the Republicans look into the future these days, they see less and less red if they don’t do something fast, namely yell vote fraud and election security enough times and with enough zeal and those who might stand in the way become fatigued. This is an all hands-on deck not so secret GOP plot to maintain their illegitimate hold on the American system of elections by putting up barriers in front of those who simply want to cast a ballot and election officials who want to count ballots. But, if you look a bit closer at our history, beginning with the Declaration of Independence, voter suppression and rule by the minority has been a mainstay in how the powerful speak their truth to the powerless. At the birth of this nation the founding documents made it clear who could participate and who couldn’t.

“He (the King) has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.”

With the Founding Fathers’ attitudes not towards the Brits, but towards the native inhabitants, how would anyone honestly expect those same white male leaders to embark upon any authentic mission in creating true equality for all?

Voting Rights Again, Post-14th Amendment, Read the Fine Print
Even the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments, which were all ratified between 1865 and 1870 in order to level the “equal rights” playing field, but also at the same time, dismissed the voting rights of an entire sex (1865).

“…any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age,* and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.” (14th amendment, sec. 2) Those amendments made slavery illegal (1865) and “the right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied…” (1870) It was 50 more years before women, black and white, could legally vote, that coming by way of the 19th Amendment to the US Constitution. But being black, and a woman, has perhaps been the most difficult place to be in the American emancipation process. I delved this week into the term, “intersectionality.” It was first used in 1989 by legal scholar, Kimberlee Crenshaw. “In other words, the law seemed to forget that black women are both black and female, and thus subject to discrimination on the basis of both  race, gender, and often a combination of the two.” Intersectionality can also be looked at as “interlocking systems of oppression.”A wonderful panel discussion on intersectionality led by Law Professor Crenshaw can be seen here. Her law review article, “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: a Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics,” can also be read on-line.

Stacey Abrams
Why am I hitting the voter suppression issue so hard this week? Because Stacey Abrams who is eyeing a run at the Georgia governorship and is leading the charge to empower and bring out thousands of that state’s voters, and has in unprecedented numbers in both the 2020 presidential election, and in the January special election that saw both US Senate seats go to the Democrats and thus yield the current 50-50 tie within this body. Well, the Republican establishment is striking back and it does not look pretty if you believe open and maximal voting is the basis of a beautiful democracy. The New York Times dug deep this past Sunday into Georgia’s recently passed 98-page voting law, “identifying 16 provisions that hamper the right to vote for some Georgians or strip power from state and local elections officials and give it to legislators.” It’s happening in Georgia, but legislation to limit voting is also in the works in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona, places where Joe Biden barely won. In following the historical precedents of the fugitive slave act, the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, the existence of a Senate filibuster, and the post-reconstruction Jim Crow laws, it is evident that there has always been a consistent drum beat in American history toward make it harder for black people to vote. Now, along comes the Republican Georgia legislature continuing this history making it more difficult for “some” Georgians to vote. These legal obstacles to voting that were recently erected in Georgia include offering less time for voters to request an absentee ballot, stricter ID requirements, “essentially” banning mobile (RVs) voting centers, significantly lowering the number of legal ballot drop boxes, making it difficult to extend voting hours if people are waiting in line, and maybe most egregious on the face of it, you can no longer offer food or water to voters waiting in line on a warm or cold Georgia day as the legislature now deems this as “soliciting” votes. The Democrats in Washington, for good reason, are gearing up to pass a federal voting rights bill. All this goes to show what is at stake and that Republicans have become political aliens from an undemocratic planet. They will fight by any means necessary to suppress the vote and avoid the kind of future they see unfolding in most of California for example, where the Republican party is a third party trailing both Democrats and NPPs, No Party Preference.

Don’t Mourn, Organize
There’s a lot to like about the US Constitution and the Amendments to that constitution–“The right of citizens to vote…,” being a principal one, due process, and maintaining a balance act of power between the presidency, congress, and the courts. These precepts are arguably laudable, but it has taken more than 230 years of trying to get it right of creating avenues for people to vote. This past week, as universal suffrage was again under attack in Georgia, the historical remnants of pre-civil war slave catching were on display in a Minneapolis court room. A nation is being brought to a reckoning whether it wants it or not, as ex-cop Derek Chauvin is on trial for the murder of George Floyd. If the constitution is a living document, flexible and relevant to today, and all people are created equal in practice and not just theory, why is it that not all have had access to its rights life-support system? Why has the history of democracy in this country always been about the law being tilted in favor of the few? In 1789, when the constitution was approved, it actually only afforded protections to a small percentage of Americans. By that standard, Chauvin might very well walk. While the percentage of citizens with rights has grown, Republicans in Georgia, Texas, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Arizona are working hard to shrink those numbers. Will the outcome of the Chauvin murder case contract or expand the constitutional notions of equality and fairness? All I know is that voter suppression is real, has been around in this country since the beginning, and if good people fail to confront it, our inaction will only lead down more authoritarian rat holes. We must overcome.

“Cost to consumers:  Nike Air Max 270s: $150  Dish Network basic package: $64.99  FedEx “large” box delivery: $20.00  Zoom Pro monthly membership: $14.99  Federal Income Taxes paid in 2020:  Nike: $0  Dish Network: $0  FedEx: $0  Zoom: $0  Yes. We must end our rigged tax code.” (April 4)

Will we get a remodeled library on Church Street as the cornerstone to a Civic Plaza? Will the Farmer’s Market find a permanent home where it now resides? Can we successfully offer a range of transportation alternatives in the midst of a car culture? Only if we organize can we save those magnolia trees on “Lot 4” downtown and achieve transportation infrastructure security. For a discussion of the Library-in-a-garage project, go to KSQD’s archive and search for Talk of the Bay, April 6, 2021.