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Texas Governor Greg Abbott, and the twice-impeached dunce Donald Trump, are Republican architects of Black voter suppression and white minority rule.
The Republican Party is rigging election rules and undermining American Democracy for their partisan benefit. And they’re doing it right in front of us.
The new Texas voter suppression law just signed by Governor Greg Abbott is the latest effort in the GOP’s nefarious plot to steal upcoming elections under the guise of protecting “voter integrity,” based on Trump’s big lie. Foxes should never be allowed to guard the chicken house.
But the worst thing of all here is the impotent almost non-response from the Democratic Party leadership.
Republicans are busy brazenly enacting laws to make it much more difficult for African-Americans, Latinos, and other non-white people to vote. So, why are Democrats in Congress so absent in the fight to protect voting rights?
We’ve all seen the stunning actions taken by Texas Democrats, who fled Texas for weeks to deny Abbott and Texas Republicans a quorum–and thereby delay the implementation of the legislation that was just signed. Texas Democrats dramatized the seriousness of the situation by leaving their families and friends, and exiling themselves in D.C., in their attempts to spur Democrats in Congress to act on protecting the votes of Blacks and other non-whites.
We must now ask ourselves what was really achieved by the Texas Democrats sacrifice? Congressional Democrats are still playing softball while Republicans are playing aggressive bloody hardball.
We hear backward arguments (from right-wing Democrats, like Senator Joe Manchin) about protecting institutional instruments, like the filibuster. But what about protecting Democracy–especially, when the filibuster is being used to undermine it, and the people’s will?
President Biden’s behavior on the issue has been lackluster at best.
Weeks ago, while speaking on voting rights, Biden talked about how African-Americans overcame many hurdles during last year’s election. He said he had confidence in us overcoming these new obstacles. In essence, he seemed to be putting much of the onus on us to beat back the Republicans’ voter suppression tactics.
That is a recipe for impending disaster.
Mr. Biden is really telling us he can do no more than he has already. Has he forgotten he has the most powerful bully pulpit in the land–where if he chooses he can keep the issue of Republican voter suppression on the minds of Americans?
President Biden has, understandably, been focused on saving American lives from the Covid pandemic. Unfortunately, Biden, and the Democratic leadership in Congress, don’t seem quite as concerned with saving American democracy, which is on life-support, from the white minority rule that is surely coming if Democrats continue to allow Republicans to rig America’s election system without a dramatic response.
