Disenfranchising Democratic America
African Americans are no longer the primary targets of voter suppression efforts.
Throughout U.S. history African Americans have suffered from voter suppression. They are no longer the primary targets. Conservative authoritarians in America not only want to disenfranchise the African American vote, they want to disenfranchise any vote from democratic America.
What Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders fought for now applies more than ever to any American who believes in democracy. From Georgia to Arizona, Iowa to Tennessee, Republicans have attacked all levels of the voting process. Majority no longer rules. Allegiance to conservative authoritarianism does.
State legislatures in conservative-controlled states have executed a concerted campaign to seize control of county election boards and erode the power of their various Secretary of States. These were some of the only guardrails that prevented President Trump from invalidating legitimate democratic outcomes in battleground states.
Remember his infamous phone call with the Georgia Secretary of State? The outcome could be very different now.
At the time, many prominent Republicans acted appalled, particularly in the immediate aftermath of January 6th. Now they are all in on authoritarianism. The GOP trumps democracy.
Absentee Ballots
One illustrative example of their authoritarian efforts to disenfranchise democratic votes is the new restrictions on absentee ballot drop boxes. This was previously a longstanding practice in many conservative states like Wisconsin. And the overall absentee ballot practice long predated the 2020 election in many states controlled by conservative state legislatures and Secretary of States (see the state of Washington, for example).
Nevertheless, following the 2020 election - where there was no evidence of systemic fraud as determined by over 60 court cases - there’s an apparent need to make it harder if not illegal to vote via absentee ballots. Many people who work during the day, or have other commitments like childcare, are unable to show up to vote in person on a random Tuesday in November. Others simply don’t want to be bothered with the inconvenience.
Can you blame them? In many countries, voters can cast their ballots on the weekend or on a national voting holiday. But not in America where government is supposed to be of the people, by the people, and for the people.
Conservative authoritarians know that if they left it to the majority people, few conservatives would get elected. This is why they have lost the popular vote in every presidential election since 2004. Instead of amending or shifting their positions to capture popular sentiment on various policy issues, conservative authoritarians found it far easier to change the electoral process to gerrymander the system and disenfranchise the competition.
Absentee Ballots Are the Tip of the Iceberg
Restrictions on absentee ballots are only the tip of the iceberg. Other restrictions range from preventing volunteers on Election Day to blocking donations from nongovernmental groups. Most of these donations were for administrative expenses in both Republican and Democratic jurisdictions, and included things like safety gear for poll workers.
Of course we can’t have that.
And given the fear of corrupt poll workers, states like Texas have enacted harsh criminal penalties that could even send someone to jail for making an honest and innocent mistake. Good luck finding poll workers, Texas.
What It All Means
America is witnessing the greatest systemic effort to disenfranchise voters in its history. Anyone for a democratic future is under fire. What was previously limited to African Americans now affects any American who wants their elected leaders to be subject to the rule of law and will of the people.
With federal voting legislation all but dead, the 2022 midterms and 2024 Presidential election will turn on the ability of Democrats to execute get-out-the-vote efforts. What this means is they will need to spend millions in political contributions to register new voters and help existing ones make arrangements to show up.
The dirty truth about it all though is that even if the conservative authoritarian push to disenfranchise voters fails, the state legislatures they control may invalidate the vote anyways. For no legitimate reason other than the boogeyman of “voter fraud.”
So in honor of Dr. King and all of the civil rights leaders that fought for voting rights, we need to stay vigilant and counter at every turn efforts to suppress legitimate votes. The suppressors are no longer solely targeting underrepresented minorities and marginalized communities. They are seeking to disenfranchise everyone who supports democracy.
The entire system of American government is at stake.