(Todd A. Smith)
One thing that can be said about the Republican Party is that they do not care who they defecate on as long as they get what they want.
When it comes to voter integrity, which is obviously voter suppression, the GOP does not care about census data, making it harder to access the voting booth or downright election interference, if they get their brethren in office, to hell with democracy.
More importantly, some Republicans do not even care if they encourage or incite a violent coup on America’s very own democracy like it did on Jan. 6 when devilish insurrectionists stormed the United States Capitol to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election.
Some Republican voters even wanted to assassinate politicians that did not want to support the big lie like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former Vice President Mike Pence, who reluctantly certified the election after former Vice President Dan Quayle told him that he had no legal recourse to overturn a legitimate presidential election.
So when Republicans blocked a voting rights bill from reaching the Senate floor this week, I think the dam broke in the Democratic Party as more members finally admitted that the current Republican Party is not interested in democracy and equal access to the ballot box, only reclaiming power by any bigoted means necessary.
The proposed bill would stop newly drawn congressional district maps that states like Texas have drawn to benefit White Republicans even though the gain in Texas population can be mostly attributed to minorities like Latinos.
The Houston Chronicle reported, “The bill would also prohibit states from imposing conditions or requirements to vote by mail, strengthen protections for voters who need assistance, including those with disabilities or with limited English proficiency, and limit what partisan poll watchers are able to do, including setting an 8-foot buffer zone between the watchers and voters, among other things.”
Republicans oppose the voting rights bill because it helps Democrats more than Republicans.
By that I mean Republican and Democratic voters.
So, if Republicans could not care less about their brothers and sisters from across the aisle, why should Democrats?
As a result, many Democrats like President Joe Biden and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) have vowed to consider amending the Senate filibuster rules to get the voting rights bill to the Senate floor.
Sen. Schumer said, “Republican obstruction is not a cause for throwing in the towel. Senate Democrats have made clear that voting rights is not like other issues we deal with in this chamber. This isn’t about regular old politics.”
But isn’t it like old American politics, built on racism and determined to keep people of color out of positions of power?
Anyone with a sense of Black History should know that when politicians put restrictions on the ballot box it is only about keeping certain people away from the polls so that a certain group can remain in power and keep their way of life.
It happened during Reconstruction after many African-Americans rose to political power in areas that were now predominantly Black because of the abolition of slavery.
Even back then, many in the conservative White majority wanted to take back their country or make their country great (or White) again.
Because of the modern desire to take back their country, many Republicans have made it harder to access the ballot box from limiting early voting hours to closing voting locations in urban areas to making it illegal to hand out water to people waiting in voting lines.
And no matter what certain people say about stolen elections and so-called voter fraud, the new voting limits amount to nothing more than modern day poll taxes, grandfather clauses and literacy tests that limited access to the ballot box for African-Americans like it did from the Reconstruction Era to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
African-Americans are a minority.
But we yield so much political power that our vote alone can sway national elections like it did for President Biden.
And instead of Republicans reaching out to more African-American voters, they instead latch on to racist politicians like former President Donald Trump who would willingly take our country backwards when it comes to race relations just to move his undemocratic agenda forward.
Brazenly, Republicans have rolled back voting rights to possibly take back power in Congress in 2022 and catapult Trump back into the White House in 2024.
Their moves are totally racial and political.
They have no interest in saving our country or preventing voter fraud because much of the fraud happened from supporters of Trump in 2020.
Many Trump supporters filled out absentee ballots for their dead relatives because they believed Trump’s big lie that dead people would cast votes for Biden.
Nobody is saying that fraud did not exist on Biden’s side, because voter fraud happens every election.
But many Republicans make it seem that a limited amount of voter fraud got Biden elected while ignoring the fraud that helped Trump in 2020.
Many Republicans have no desire to truly make America great again because America’s true greatness comes from its democracy and the right to vote leaders in and out of office.
Unfortunately, many Republicans only want to destroy our country to benefit themselves.
So if Republicans can play dirty politics to reclaim power, Democrats should willingly change the filibuster rules to maintain an equal political playing field.
Two can totally play that game.
Unfortunately, it has taken the Democrats too long to realize that the rules of the game have changed from the GOP point-of-view.
Therefore, why should Democrats play by old school rules like the filibuster?
They should not!
