What I do not understand is how this is difficult. Every citizen of a country must be able to vote. Each citizen should have a similar degree of ease in casting that vote.
How this is achieved must mean some degree of remote voting by post or ultimately by electronic means, polling stations open 24 hours or longer and nobody waiting for any amount of time to cast a vote.
At the same time robust measures to ensure that elections are not “hackable” in any way whether by foreign parties or local ones.
How is this NOT clear to both parties ?
If there was ever a perfect issue for bipartisan working this must be it.
Hello Sibu8. I would be lying if I didn’t say I felt exactly the same way for most of 60 years of my life. And then since last summer, the atrocity level, the intensity level, of DT’s Administration finally coerced me into taking a closer look at politics and the policies of society, which I have always avoided because it’s distasteful. That’s when I discovered Heather and Greg Olear at the same time. I subscribed to both almost immediately. That was last summer I think. Since then I have discovered just how viciously the old social order of racism has been controlling politics, the KKK was first the Southern Democrats, then after LBJ and the voting rights act, they fled that party and landed in the republican party. Everything you see the Republicans do is rooted in racism sexism and genderism. Everything. I didn’t used to see that, it just looked like ideological debates to me. But it’s not ideology, this is not an intellectual exercise. It’s a struggle between (1) racist sexist society and (2) diverse equality society. That’s because the moderates, the reasonable people, have fled the Republican Party. Jan. 6 and the Trump voters are now the core. It has become something of a black-and-white situation, whereas before there used to be all kinds of shades of gray. No more.
In another comment, I asked Heather to tackle the migration of civil rights from the Republican party to the Democratic party. I think that would make a good article. And perhaps also why we should seek to reform the two party system, for example with ranked choice voting. Or maybe figuring out how this is done in Europe.
This site looks interesting and I see you’ve posted it a few times. Did you create it? I didn’t explore it yet as I want to open it separately. Thanks!
I wonder, can you be black then, if you are a Republican? Wonder. Joe doesn’t think so. He also thinks Hispanics think too much for themselves. Interesting perspective. And Heather has such a race enriched background herself. No wonder “we” all subscribe to her worldview. One that at every turn overtly avoid them, that be minorities, entirely. No wonder. Gosh and golly. You can’t make this up. Or maybe you can. No one party has a lock hold on minority voters nor virtue.
David, the Republican Party has gone out of its way to be exclusionary. It has done so by slapping the labels "law and order", "family values", " patriotic " and "Christian" on issues that they hold dear. They cram these words down our throats on a daily basis. And it is all, pardon my language, bullshit.
Your party is all about subjugation. It's about compromising the rights of every human on US soil who doesn't have white skin and a bank roll. And don't kid yourself, there will come a day when middle class and poor whites will rue their decision to support the Republican party. Decision makers in the Republican party have no interest or intention to act for the good of the people. We see it in their absurd positions with regard to healthcare, education, fair/affordable housing, wage and more. With the exception of gun ownership, everything, and I do mean everything, they do as a party is designed to curtail individual rights. And when people push back against the Republican Party they cry foul and wail "you're canceling me/us!"
Every aspect of Republicanism is rotten. They prattle on about the sanctity of human life but have no issue seeing people gunned down in a grocery store. In the meantime they believe they have the right to limit access to reproductive medicine up to and including abortion. Wah! They say, Democrats are murdering babies. And, oh, yeah, they say it's a sin, too. But allowing people to gun down other people is not?
As for the vote...do you really think the states ramming through these various voter suppression laws are going it to make voting easier and more accessible? Do you really believe the spin the WSJ editorial board put on Georgia's new election laws?
And stop with your white people virtue signaling already. Almost every white person in this specific community acknowledges the fact that they have had advantages simply because their skin is white. It's actually a regular topic of discussion.
Here's the thing, David, you can support any bullshit you want. That's your right. But don't pretend for one second that you can support the Republican agenda and be a decent human being at the same time. It's not possible.
That photo op of the six white/supremacist men posed before a painting of a slave plantation says it all. It truly was a "picture worth a thousand words." And everyone knows what they are.
"Here's the thing, David, you can support any bullshit you want. That's your right. But don't pretend for one second that you can support the Republican agenda and be a decent human being at the same time. It's not possible."
Exactly!!! Whenever someone says to me that I shouldn't allow politics to stand between me and other people, this is what I think. Our politics DO show something about our characters - particularly at this point in our history, the two parties' rhetoric represent decent, generous humanity vs. completely self-centered humanity. Definitely humanity on both sides, but what kind of humanity? I have a limited amount of time left on this earth (ha, don't we all) and I'm damned if I'll waste any of it on those who would take the vote away from any other American. Hell, I'm cool with setting up voting booths in prisons! More voting is what we need, not less!!!
(Pardon the overuse of exclamation points. I have started on my single drink of the evening and it is a very dry dirty martini - vodka out of the freezer, 3 pimento-stuffed green olives and a tsp of olive brine.)
EXACTLY. Though both parties each have their own levels of hypocrisy, God knows (politicians seem to specialise in it!), it is my belief that the Republican party in its current configuration have taken hypocrisy to levels never imagined. Everybody projects, but again, Republicans seem to have taken their cue from the "former guy" and taken lies and projection (accusing others of the very things you're guilty of) to a new high. Like you said, if somebody from the Right could actually put forth their positions with decent grammar and spelling, and without resorting to name-calling and all sorts of invective (though the Left has its share), people might give their ideas more consideration. But, the poster who prompted all this has a writing style (he seems to think it is "journalism') that I simply cannot follow. I mean, I KNOW we are not all skilled accomplished journalists, but when someone on the Right is angry (aren't they ALL??), it's like they spew out their ideas before really proof-reading and taking a deep breath before hitting "Post". It's not that hard, y'know. Anyway, THANKS Daria! You stated things beautifully. Cheers, y'all...
Fantastic response, eloquently stated. Thank you, Daria. Now, I suggest we refuse David the oxygen he craves. He's what can be described as a s**t disturber.
What did the WSJ/Murdoch editorial board say about my State's latest travesty? I've always been unwilling to give them the money needed to get through their paywall. Nice post, by the way.
This is a reply to the many well thought out responses. I agree ones “ affiliation “ says something about their character. In our world where never saying you are wrong or playing the I in team card as wel as demonizing is sadly polarizing. Taking the second amendment to the extreme one party does is illustrative of one example while constantly using the race card combined with cancel culture by another. They are meant to divide us. I see that on both sides big time. I wrote after the election that election integrity, let’s say just given COVID, is a big problem. I happen to think the Republic we have had done a pretty good job evolving on this. What just happened in Georgia was a liberalization of its voting laws. Read it. Fact. Is it Federalizations ? No For that I am glad. Personally I think voters should at a minimum show proof of citizenship, an ID and subscribe to basic rules however votes are collectives. In my opinion HR 1 is constitutionally overreaching and uses the dog bird of racism as its calling card. I think it would permanently call in the o question elections and their integrity nationally. If a state wants to vote by internet and it is secure and verifiable bring it on. It is their right. It should not be imposed by a party nationally or the federal government. We are headed in directions that are concerning in terms of our countries balance sheet and position in the international community. Empires have fallen by getting overextended and the most recent China summit does not portend well. Being reckless because the other guy was to is not a great way to go. Shucks, as usual I am going on. I know to you all I am likely a voice in the wind and maybe I am. I believe almost all of you including HCR are bright and well meaning. Maybe and just maybe considering things from a slightly different angle, even if wrong, gives this readership perspective. I wish you all a happy Sunday and thank you for your thoughts and perspective too.
Perhaps unlike some of the other commentors, I don't really want you to go back under a bridge somewhere, but I do wish you were able to write more clearly. I, for one, have been craving the opportunity to see the arguments of a clear, well written, Republican apologist. I can't find on -- they all seem, like you, to rely on slur and innuendo, half-statements and references to uncited information I've never seen.
Is there anyone in your frendship group with whom you can team, someone who could help you parse your comments? We at this HCR site are just as succeptible to groupthink as are any other group, but I do hope we are more open information than Republicans seem to be. But how can our ideas evolve if we can't find anyone who can intelligently and clearly state an opposing view?
You seem to have a continuing interest in contributing to this site, something I applaud, even if you are somewhat of a dog lurking around a cat show. But please, step up your game! And if you don't have the intellectual chops to handle that, please collaborate with someone who does. I would be delighted if you could transform yourself from a troll into a genuine contributor to this Great Debate.
I will contend that it is impossible to have a "clear, well-written, Republican apologist" at this point.
Here's the core problem: the Republican Party does not try to win hearts and minds, and hasn't for pretty much as long as I've been alive. They don't waste time or effort on communicating their plans or goals to plebes like us. I recall some Republican in Colorado -- back in the 1990's? -- who was asked to "explain his vote to the voters" over something he was pushing, and he responded, "It isn't my job to explain, it's my job to win."
In the 90's, in Colorado, the Republican thing was the "gay horror." AIDS. Pedophiles. Perverts. Un-Godly Sinners. IN OUR SCHOOLS! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! Then at some point, inexplicably, the bottom fell out of the "gay horror market." I suspect too many people were coming out, and it turned out that pretty much everyone had a gay son, or daughter, or nephew, or aunt, or co-worker, or spouse. They ramped up their campaigning, and it wasn't gaining any traction. There was this strange quiet for several months. Then there was a clear "test marketing phase" that burned through the newspapers for about a month, where the Republicans tapped every trope they could think of. Flag burning. Illegal immigration. Abortion. Pornography. Harsher sentencing for drug users. Apparently, immigration polled best, and then Wayne Allard -- our local Boebert of that decade, who pretty much defined the extreme right-wing at the time -- was all over those damned immigrants, coming from Mexico and taking our jobs.
It was fascinating to watch.
But the point: it wasn't real. Not one word. It was a marketing ploy, and they went with whatever made torches-and-pitchfork crowd the angriest. They'd clearly have made a case against carnations, if it had polled better than immigration.
The Party today supported and continues to support the outright lies of a bad President (one of the worst in US history) who turned to insurrection to stay in power. It pushes voter suppression. It gerrymanders aggressively. It has no platform, apart from the destruction of the federal government.
Where would a "clear, well-written apologist" for this behavior even start?
Thank you for saying this for me, no doubt for many of us. David Carroll's prose is so bumpy it leaves me with a feeling like being car-sick. Pity, because I'd like to understand better.
Funny, isn't it, you have trouble finding clear and well written arguments in favor of Republican ideas. I have the same problem. Perhaps there's a pattern there? I also share your concern about groupthink and lack of opposing ideas to sharpen one's logic. But the conversations are quite robust here nonetheless. The people who occasionally show up to argue contrary viewpoints are regularly outgunned. They seem to rely often on insinuations or incomplete sets of fact.
Dan Thompson, well said! Pay attention, David Carroll! Daria , Dan, and many others here have tried to school you in ways to get your ideas across effectively, but you appear to be quite resistant to the coaching. Sad.
Matt - “Ranked-choice voting is used for state primary, congressional, and presidential elections in Alaska and Maine and for local elections in more than 20 US cities including Cambridge, Massachusetts; San Francisco, California; Oakland, California; Berkeley, California; San Leandro, California; Takoma Park, Maryland; St. Paul, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Portland, Maine; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and St. Louis Park, Minnesota.[1] New York City is by far the largest voting population in the US that has opted for RCV.” (Wikipedia)
I believe NYC has used Ranked Choice Voting only once so far, in a race in Queens this year. It's a brand new policy. I've been waiting but haven't heard anything on how well it worked, or didn't.
I recall reading about the impact of ranked-choice voting on the governing body of British Columbia, Canada, which, like us, had two dominant parties and a cluster of wannabes. Proponents of the two major parties voted for own parties for their first choice, of course. Then, since just like us they'd rather be skinned alive than vote for the other major party, the just stuck one of the fringe parties as their second-choice. Guess what? The lunatic fringe won, since the first-choice selections never reach a majority, but the second-choices did.
I wouldn't mind if someone here could add detail/confirm or deny/show later outcomes about that, since I read it some time ago, but never looked into it further.
For a good primer on how the political parties have shifted over time, I suggest and excellent book that gives one the understanding of how politics,the economy, social changes and expansion of the country lead to the Civil War. The book is long but worth the read: Battle Cry of Freedom" by Dr James McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for this book and Professor of American History emeritus at Princeton University (he has passed).
My parents WWII vets believed that the KKK, John Birch and other White Supremacists were always the backbone of what became the Republican party. Dad used to tell us that the ideology "I may be poor but at least I'm White" was a part of the DNA of what is now the GOP GQP.
Makes me think of the thought process, or manipulation perhaps, of the shushing of religion and politics at the holiday tables or family gatherings. Keep the peace, don’t talk politics. Don’t bring up religion. Sweep it under the rug and keep your friends and relatives from having to make uncomfortable conversation. But if what one values is their basis in fact of what or who they follow, then simply avoiding the uncomfortable has led us to today. I’m speaking somewhat personally in that my father was a staunch conservative (whatever that means exactly) and a Limbaugh follower. My father passed in 2011, so it is evidentiary of the impact the Limbaugh types have had for years. An older brother follows in our father’s footsteps, and this past year a younger brother surprised me with his strong support of Trump. He was offended with my pointing out that Trump was behaving as if he was above the law. It became uncomfortable enough I deleted my social media. Another brother asked that if we talk on the phone, to not bring Trump and his minions into the conversation. There again, avoiding the uncomfortable. I don’t know the answer. Except to take the feelings of discouragement about our society at large and get involved somehow to combat voter suppression. I am fortunate, so far, to live in WA state where we vote by mail and have for years. Side note, my younger brother lives in Georgia. He is also in a bi-racial marriage. I really can’t fathom his support for Trump.
Ironic. Perhaps in time. It must be so hard, and often painful, dealing with all that, Diane. Most of my family is in WA, and my irony is that we argue about everything EXCEPT politics. To a person, we are progressive. Talks about politic are boring because we all agree. We don't talk about religion because we each are in a different place and regard religion as a personal choice. But anything else is wide open, and we have some doozy disagreements. Yep, weird family. Love 'em, though.
I grew up in Montana. After my parents’ divorce my father went to Texas where he had a friend living at the time. At the end of his life he was moved to Utah where the brother who follows in Dad’s conservatism, and bigotry actually, lives. The younger brother who lives in Georgia is retired Navy. We have been spread out for years, getting together for milestone occasions mostly. It sounds like there is a fair amount of mutual respect in your family, and that is great! My grown children are fun, open minded, generous, and accepting individuals, but also can cringe at the lack of critical thinking out there these days and what seems like lack of care for planet and humanity in general. Thank you for your thoughts. I enjoy living in WA but would like summer to last longer than it does. Haha!
Until I read your post about living in WA, I thought perhaps we were kindred spirits from MS (where I spent a great number of years living in such an environment!)
I now understand clearly why Republicans now refer to all Democrats as leftist liberals as they have now defined a political movement several standard deviations to the right of Adolf Hitler and Atilla the Hun. It is impossible to imagine anything further from “traditional conservatism” than the present Republican party. They have crafted an ideology that is an affront not just to democracy toto human decency and morality as well. I expect any time now to see them donning white robes and hoods and burning crosses at their rallies.
I'm right with you. Last summer I discovered HCR and started reading her books. My husband and his family are Trump supporters and I never could understand it until I read her books. The history of our country should be taught in schools. The real history. In my 70th year I learned so much but also became pessimistic about our future. HCR tries to end on a positive note but I fear it's harder and harder to do.
Roland, it seems to me that the root of this is always greed. Power, money, control. And the foolishness of so many people to think they too can join the few at the top who hold all of the wealth of the world. And so let them have their way.
I think it is a bit more complicated than that. In fact most people white, black, Asian, Hispanic etc... are center right conservatives at heart. Even democrats are fairly conservative in most places. Most people do not feel comfortable with change and do not care for a progressive democrat party. People who are for sweeping progressive change are in the minority. I am one who would like to see progressive change but there are many who do not care for it and want things to remain the same. There are many that want to vote for a more Conservative party but there is no real home for them, particularly right now. Even though there has always been a racist faction of the party and the country many were willing to overlook that portion of it because the dog whistles were bearable and slightly harder to parse out. That is not the case anymore. Each day it seems republicans are willing to be more brazen and parallel racist histories.
Robert, your sense that most people do not want "progressive" change is belied by the numbers representing people's political beliefs. A cursory look at the numbers of, say, climate change action reveals the 73% of Americans want government action. You will find these numbers on almost any issue we now face. The idea that Americans don't want government action is a "talking point" from the radical right. It's not true. https://pewrsr.ch/3cpYd3B
I knew I was going to get blowback for that. My point is that there are a lot of people who don't like change and that democrats will need to make sure they are “progressive” in matters that centrists care about. Change scares them no matter what their race or backgrounds are. Not everyone thinks the same way. Some people are more open to change than others. Lately I have been thinking a lot about David Shor and Jonathan Haidt (“The Righteous Mind”). David Shor who is a poling and election analyst has spoken many times about how the poles messed up in the Midwest and how it came to be that Trump actually picked up more black and Hispanic voters this election cycle. His analysis of 2020 leads him to believe that people are generally more conservative and that people in general do not like change. At the same time it is also true that more people believe in climate change and the need for action. This has been a long time coming. David Shore points out that Democrats will need to continue to be “progressive” but only with things that people care about. There are a lot of people that believe that “cancel culture” and “wokeness” are progressive and also problematic. There are many progressive policies that a lot of people dont care about yet. So far I believe that the Biden administration has managed to keep the republicans largely in check by being progressive in ways that the center right and center left care about right now.
'There are a lot of people that believe that “cancel culture” and “wokeness” are progressive and also problematic.'
What this says to me is that "a lot of people" are still uninformed, historically uneducated, and downright ignorant. Admittedly, this forum attracts people with either advanced educations and/or people who have done a lot of independent reading and living (with eyes open in all directions) beyond what they were taught in high school; however, the numbers in our last presidential election indicate there are vast swaths of people out there in America who rely on their party leaders to tell them how to think.
What it says to me is that Robert is misusing a lot of terminology out of context, and making some claims that don't hold up. Say "progressive" to some people and they equate it with a version of socialism thanks to extreme Rightist propaganda. But when asked about specific items that are part of a progressive agenda without the label, they support it. Poll after poll. Easy to find on the net if you actually look. Following legislatures (my hobby, I guess) I get exposed to a lot of canned talking points that the Extreme Right Republican branch provides to members. What Robert wrote above was a classic example of some of it. Almost word for word. It gets passed along. Good memory, Robert.
Now that I think on it a bit, are you referring to the need to break up monopolies? Tax stocks and bonds? ImposeA Wall Street transaction tax? Eliminate the Senate? Make WA DC a state along with Puerta Rico? Close tax loopholes for corporations? Institute a minimum universal income? Require union membership on corporate boards? Audit the Pentagon? Outlaw the revolving door between federal job and lobbying /think tank jobs?Withdraw from Afganistán? Beef up the IRS so they can audit the rich? Do all things - including the addition of a public bank to the Post Office to make it impregnable to oligarchic attempts to kill it? Put three more Supremes on the court? Ban prisons for profit? Eliminate gerrymandering and institute Federal districting Decision Boards of political scientists, statisticians and geographers to determine federal voting districts? Ban dark money? Reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine? Implement intelligent gun control legislation? Free tuition to college and university?
When I read a HCR letters the ones I like the most are the ones where she takes a hot topic of the day and marries it with a set of historical references. I also liked how Isabelle Wilkerson did the same in her Excelent book “Caste”. With that said every time I step slightly out of line with other posters here or even offer a slightly different yet still respectful take on a post I see I get a smorgasbord of responses. Some of them are truly snide disrespectful comments that progressives give me when they don't like what they see. That is one example of a progressive change that I know a lot of people in this country don't care for. I live in a Trump affected area but, I can say one thing for the area that I live in. I don't get the types of hyperbolic didactic laundry list responses from my neighbors for my “progressive” thoughts that I get here when I offer something that is less than 100% progressive. That is one example of progressive change that most people dislike and dont care about progressives.
Well said, Robert. As a compassionate person living in rural Oregon (a mere 50 miles from Portland), you have described the people where I live to a tee. Folks in general stay within their 'comfort' zone. I think with all the happenings during Covid, 'comfort' zones and life-views have been shaken. Those who are healthy in mind and spirit, call it a time of reflection, introspection, renewal that has resulted for many, in a change of heart...a change in viewpoint -an awakening. I pray, every time I think of President Biden, that his is blest with good enough health in mind and body to enable his spirit to soar.
You're right, people do fear the unknown, which is what change inherently represents. So let's bring back leaded gasoline! And we can drill and mine our way past climate change! (and btw, I find it hard to believe there's a book about Polish people messing up the midwest. /jk)
Actually, there is a sea change coming. The complacency of many has transformed into urgency. The muted acceptance of rapacious corporate actions upon the earth is shifting to WTF are they doing. The passivity in the face of 'isms' has bloomed into righteous indignation.
As an agent of change in my former career, I hold an understanding of how people interact with the notion.
Given choices, opportunities, and most of all, the space for participatory education, people embrace, drive even, change.
The Youngers have grown up in a completely different, almost unimaginable (to me) world. They live change. My cohort (old hippies) are ready to change the world again.
Anyone who has been in observation/participation in the new women's movement, BLM, the rise of AAPI movement, Indivisible (or similar groups) cannot help but be aware of the groundswell of energy and emotion.
It is not burnt out, but re-kindled by mass shootings, blatant Georgia injustices: all white men, closed door, plantation painting chosen by the token torturer wife of the current master, manhandling and arrest of a Black woman legislature charged with a felony...
Pardon me for preaching, but the Backlash Blues are yielding up fertile ground for major shifts in the paradigm of patriarchy.
All my discussions with the reactionary members of my family -- those with whom one can talk -- have had me focusing on the extraordinary speed, extent and acceleration of change during my long lifetime (over 80 years).
Let's say that people tend to form fixed views, when they don't simply perpetuate inherited prejudices, and all this is left so far behind by our rip-roaring reality that people with a conservative turn of mind (meaning "conservative" in the old sense of the word (before smash'n-grab and finders- keepers) are left so totally confused by all this that they're easy prey for snake-oil salesmen.
A little sympathy for those carried away after the breaking of the levees and the inrush of the sewage tide...
I do have sympathy/empathy. It has been a rushing tide. And, people who are able to participate, actively and with understanding, embrace progress.
Why? Simply because it leads to better...workplaces, relationships, empowerment. I'm not a Pollyanna about change. I just know that the process can be exhilarating as long as people have a say, have a stake in the outcome.
The old sense of conservative is precious. Conserve our world, for example.
It is the difference between 'children should be seen and not heard' and children having fully participative roles in the family. Heard, encouraged, exploring, loved and honored. Endless blessings,
It looks as though “progress” for you means moral progress, a movement away from lies and delusions towards truth. And that's the only form of progress that isn't offset by material costs to the world (though maybe to oneself, waking up to the truth is like circulation returning to freezing fingers and toes, and no one wants pain.)
I'm more skeptical about what 19th century positivists called “Progress”, duly followed by disciples on Wall Street and atop Lenin's mausoleum. That comes with “exceptionalism” and “greatness”.
Henry Fielding wrote a novel some two hundred and eighty years ago based on the life of the greatest criminal of the age, Jonathan Wild THE GREAT. And of Greatness he had this to say:
“Greatness consists in bringing all manner of mischief on mankind, and goodness in removing it from them.”
As for change, that’s the only reality we know, but, like chilblains thawing out, people would rather stick to beliefs prepacked and deep frozen than have to cope with the discomfort of live reality.
I certainly hope you are right. I know my own blood boils right now; I am hopeful that I am among many millions of like minded "Backlash Blues"! BTW, that's a great name for this hoped-for sea change!
To often we cling to comfort and it becomes a habit that makes us vulnerable to believing comfortable lies, subjugating our reason to emotional appeals. To often our passion for comfort overrides our discipline to think, debate, and come to terms with moral, ethical, and legal issues. As we cling to comfort, our minds and dialogue become stagnant. This is where power wants us, as it makes it easier to subdue, rather than perform a more complex task of identifying and exposing real problems and proposing solutions that may be unpopular and uncomfortable, however just, so justice and progress remain delayed.
Robert, I think you are right. We face an interesting point in history.
"Progressives" are generally (in my observation) uncompromising idealists who are as quick to turn on each other as on the conservatives: it's said that liberals eat their own, and there's a lot of truth to that. They're very touchy over little things, and when they stop being reasonable, they can become vicious. But they do respond -- in my experience -- to objective language and careful reasoning.
One problem we have right now is that there is no Conservative Party: the closest you will find is the Democratic Party of the Joe Biden mold. The opposition Republican party has basically been sniffing pure marketing meth for four decades, and they are -- as an organization -- clinically insane and dangerously homicidal. They are losing votes for the same reason that people stop eating at a diner that smells of rotting fish, and they're trying to prop up their business by setting fire to all the other restaurants in town.
But the other problem is that conservatism only works in a society that is stable. This is a big problem.
Our society is facing a major infrastructure collapse, the bottom falling out of the center. Temperate climate. Oil. Capitalism. It's slow, which makes it hard for humans to cope with. The valley I live in will not be uninhabitable within my lifetime, but it may well be within my children's. We MUST adapt to these changes, because there is no alternative. And that means our lifestyles will change, and the government and the laws must change as well.
The use of "democrat party," as opposed to democratic party, the common and preferred use by party members, began during the GW Bush presidency in the early 2000's. The masterful public spinmeister Karl Rove promoted it as a seemingly blameless way to irritate and demean Democrats by subtly altering their name. And it has stuck. But I see it used almost exclusively by Republicans, and still consider it a taunt. I never hear a Democrat use it.
is there a way that this law can be overturned and throw these filthy people out of office? or are we going to watch this slow burning swastika sear the land across and all of our lives
Assume you are talking about GA law? (all those vericle lines confuse me)? It's being challenged in court- multiple cases. ACLU, NAACP, and others. I'm not a lawyer, but it's not hard to see that the thing is full of anti-constitutional elements. (I like "anti-constitutional" better in this case than "unconstitutional". Something can be unintentionally unconstitutional , but there is intention and deliberateness in this ugly law.)
But unless the first challenge hits pay dirt, it could be a long process. Stall after stall. My dream would be for it to be declared unconstitutional off the mark, and then get to the Supreme Court in short order, and for them to kick it back: Done. But I'm an optimist.
So more directly to your point about voting, which if we had honorable good faith political groups, would be a bipartisan no brainer. By watching Mitch McConnell the last four years freezing out every single democratic (small c) legislative initiative like HR 1, you can see the R’s are not acting in good faith. They are doing everything in a last ditch effort to remain relevant, to remain viable. They want the old sexist racist genderist society, at any cost, doesn’t matter how you cheat lie or steal to make it happen. That is Donald Trump. That is the Republican party now, every corner of it, the good people who are principled have all left. Lincoln Society. Jennifer Rubin at the Washington post. Nicole Wallace and Joe Scarborough are on MSNBC of all places. The list of Republicans who have fled is tremendous. Even George Will has left the party, you know there’s a problem if this diehard feels compelled to leave.
I just finished reading Adam Jentleson's Kill Switch, a history of the filibuster and the Senate. It's also a strong indictment of the damage that contemporary Republicans, especially Mitch McConnell, have done to the original intention of the writers of the Constitution, which was to have the actual practical function of the Senate be a majority vote.
Sibu8, it is clear to both parties. Republicans don’t want every citizen to vote, because they know they will lose most elections if that happens. This can’t be a bipartisan issue, if one party is adamantly opposed to making it easy for all citizens to vote. One could argue that Republicans could support universal voting, and change their racist, fundamentalist platform to win more votes. That’s unworkable, because the GOP is afraid they will lose their deplorable base if they do so. Where would all those deplorable voters go if the Republican party stops being deplorable? For the GOP the only way they can cling to power is to prevent as many minority and young voters from voting as they can. They don’t even try to hide it.
Republicans won in every contested House seat this past cycle. Every. They won a growing minority vote in the Presidential election. They are not at all in free fall.
I didn’t say that Republicans are in free-fall. I said they are locked in to a platform of white supremacy, and a strategy of voter suppression for minority and young voters. Gerrymandering, voter suppression and a built-in electoral college advantage work for Republicans. Since 2000, Republicans have won the presidential popular vote once. They’ve won the White House 3 times. Republicans have often held majorities in the Senate while winning 5-10% fewer votes nationally. Gerrymandering gives them a similar advantage in the House. For example, in the North Carolina congressional races, Democrats out-voted Republicans, 50% to 49%. Yet because of the way districts were drawn by the NC Republican statehouse, Republicans won 8 seats to the Democrats’ 5. Similar distortions are seen in some other states. We are not a one-person-one-vote democracy. Republicans don’t need to win a majority of votes to hold power. With gerrymandering, voter suppression and the electoral college, Republicans can win elections by taking 45-47% of the vote. Republicans won’t lose Georgia again, no matter what. Voter suppression and partisan vote certification will see to that.
I'll say it. The Republican party is in the early stage of its death throes. For all the shame and humiliation D Trump brought on our country, he did one positive thing by laying bare the the racist and classist ideas that underpin the modern Republican party. But, a lot of conservatives are not racist or overtly classist, and will not abide by that association. So Trump has effectively driven a stake into the party. They know it but can't acknowledge it. So they have to resort to what we see now. Desperate attempts to limit the franchise in ways they believe will skew votes in their favor. Sadly, it may work. But for how long? I think their party is doomed to go down in flames, because the large majority of people know what's fair when they see it, and will ultimately reject craven ploys for power when they are exposed.
Syd, I wish this was true. The best thing for the country would be the collapse of the Republican party. The GOP is the most anti-democratic force in America, getting more so every day. I guess I buy the argument that not all Republican (and conservative) voters are racist and “will not abide by that association”, but actions speak louder than words. 74 million voters chose Trump in 2020, that’s 11 million MORE than voted for him in 2016. There was a vocal never-Trump movement of ex-Republicans in 2020, but their numbers were minuscule. If Republican voters claim to not be racist or deplorable, but continue to vote for a deplorably racist party, methinks they are effectively racists themselves. No change will come to the GOP until a significant number of their voters reject it. That has yet to happen.
Good points. The Republican party can only be described as awful by me. And they still have inertia. But since Watergate, it's been a Frankenstein's monster of evangelicals, libertarian leaning blue collar workers, and racists stitched onto its more traditional core of wealthy business interests. I have a feeling that trump, with his trademark move of saying the quiet part out loud, has ripped off the bandages covering up the stitching, and it's all liable to fall apart. I'd say it will depend on how much the business interests can stand the white nationalist parts, and how much the working class part can stand getting shafted by the business interests. It all just seems very unstable to me.
You are delusional. Both parties play the game. Hard. We are not a democracy but a Republic. That is why the popular vote does not always carry. As for the race card and cancel culture who might be playing that hard now. Got it. Also every time you basically call Republicans White Supremacist you are being let’s just say nice not kind. The Republican Party is not as monolithic as you and many subscribers might care to consider.
Siibu8, I believe it is clear to both parties, but the Republicans have no intention of acting in a bipartisan manner. They know that the only way they'll retain power as a minority party is to suppress the Democratic vote. The easiest way to accomplish this is to intimidate people of color and make it as difficult as possible to vote for those who are housebound or do not have adequate means of transportation. We need to work together to stymie these people and show them, again, that we can outsmart them. We already outnumber them. Hope is important, but it must be coupled with courage and strategy. Under current circumstances and mindset, the Republicans will never do anything but obstruct.
When you're in the party whose ideas are not popular with the majority, and you want to have power - as today's (bowel) movement conservatives or yesterdays enslavers - then there is no bipartisanship. The only way things will change is when that side is overpowered, politically if not physically. You can "hope" in one hand and pee in the other, and I can tell you with great certainty which one will fill up first.
For many years, it seemed obvious to me as well, that any one born in America surely must believe in democracy. Finally, I have come to the sad realization that it is simply not so. That there are many people who think their ambitions are better attained in an autocracy or dictatorship than in democracy. I still wonder how so many have come to believe this, but I now accept that many do.
This afternoon I started a list of things to DO now to help support the For the People Act. 1. Write your elected officials 2. Write letters to the editor 3. Participate in non-violent peaceful protests demanding free and fair elections 4. Buy only from companies who show visible support of the For the People Act and democracy -- especially do not support corporations or the donors to Republicans elected officials opposing For the People Act 5. Sign a promise to not vote for any Republican at any level in government -- local, state, national -- as long as they are the anti-democracy party of lies, obstruction, insurrection and violence. 6. Speak up! 7. Counter misinformation especially words being contorted like Socialism and Voter Integrity with accurate definitions 8. Embrace Synergy - we are greater together 9. Support the social justice movement 10. Put a signature on every letter, email, text you send WE the People, All of Us This Time! 11. Hold the media reporting accountable. 12. Reach out to other groups supporting voter rights. Add you own ideas to this list. We the People, All of us this time!
13. Choose only information sources with integrity, be vigilant with mainstream and for-profit sources. HCR. Greg Olear. Lucian Truscott. (all 3 are at [name].substack.com)
4. I haven’t purchased a Coca-Cola product in at least two decades. Home Depot is a known funder of conservative and regressive causes and politicians, always has been. Delta Airlines used to be one of the best in the business, they used to treat their people super well in the 80s, but I don’t know how they are today. UPS I don’t know. My wife has never complained about them, that’s a pretty good sign.
If you vote in Georgia, or you are an absentee voter from Georgia, this list counts even more for you. Everything you do is magnified.
In most email systems you can add a signature to the bottom of the email that is automatically added so you don't have to type it in each time. Could be things like you name, company, phone, etc. Look under settings in your mail program.
We do that in Vermont. We also take out ads with all our signatures (at least as many as will fit on the ad size we can afford). It makes them nervous, and often gets them to negotiate on issues they are hiding from. Boycotts take time, and this might help shorten them. Usually it takes until they see changes in bottom line. Either way, it takes a while. Personal statements/letters/phone calls are more effective than cards, electronic petitions, printed petitions. A lot of ours are simple pads with the argument written across the top by hand, and two lines for each signatory. People in cities may find them effective too. The real point is to draw attention. Faster results.
The historical significance of the signing of the Voter Suppression Law by Kemp and the dragging away and arrest of Representative Cannon is staggering. It will, as I suspect end up in the Courts but not until both have been sufficiently documented for history.
Long after we are all gone, how will that read in future History classes? I hope not as just a footnote to the day. It should be taught as a day that this Nation can't even get out of its own way when it comes to learning from our sordid past.
As Women's History Month winds down, I hope Representative Cannon will be remembered as a Black female elected official that was not only denied access to the room where an all white, male caucus was signing her rights away but was also arrested and charged with a felony for her efforts. The irony is extraordinary.
In addition, the white cops arresting Representative Cannon were violating the Georgia constitution, which protects legislators from arrest except for specified major crimes. Declining to stop knocking on the locked door behind which that despicable law was being signed, is not on that list.
For that matter, Kemp is only governor due to voter suppression. As Georgia Secretary of State, he had purged from the voting rolls - and neglected to process voting registration - of more than enough black voters to account for his margin of ‘winning’ that election. Without that, the governor of Georgia today would be Stacey Abrams.
THIS is an ABSOLUTELY KEY point. Where were the DEMS when the REPs were conquering all of those state legislatures, gerrymandering congressional districts, etc. etc.? The REPS have been working on this for twenty years or more. I'm happy the DEMS have finally decided to try to fight it, but they only managed to take back control in a few state legislatures. Which is why they need HR 1 - to repair all of their strategic errors over the past twenty years or more in one bill. Good luck with that. Whoever said "don't mourn, organize", it's still a very good motto.
Too many don’t pay attention to local politics. The decline of local and regional newspapers, and the rise of conservative local radio and tv stations owned by Sinclair Media, has made it even more difficult for people to get accurate, comprehensive local news. The consciousness of millions was raised by the horrors of the Trump administration, which helped to increase voter participation in the last election, but if voter participation doesn’t increase for local and state elections, it will be difficult to turn the conservative stranglehold on state legislatures around. We absolutely need the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and we also need to do everything possible to wake people up to their local and state politics. Local journalism is essential. Elevate and financially support (with your paid subscriptions) city and state newspapers and online news sources, including some of the independent journalism ventures that are making an effort to fill the gaps left by regional newspapers that have been bought up and plundered by vulture investment funds like Alden Global Capital. (If you don’t know about this, simply do an internet search to reveal this ongoing disaster for local journalism.) Get to know your representatives on your school board, city council, county commissions, and state legislatures. Join a local Indivisible group or start one in your neighborhood or town (https://indivisible.org). Keep track of pending bills at the state level and be bold about speaking out in support or opposition. Our country’s democracy depends on our ongoing involvement and meaningful actions. Many small actions over time can make a big difference.
There ARE wealthy DEMS also. In fact, the DEMS raised MORE money in 2020 AND 2016 than the REPS did. So let's stop using those stereotypes and ask the serious question - do the DEMS understand how to USE that money?
True long-term, Stuart. In 2018, Abrams was totally on point, and had been for a long time. It wasn’t until she came that close to becoming governor that the Democratic Party nationally started paying attention to Georgia.
Stuart, in many states the last few years, the Republicans lied, manipulated process, failed to show up to do their constitutionally mandated duties, disrupted proceedings. In the meantime, Dems were in the committee meetings, trying to work in spite of disruptions, arranging meeting time and working overtime so they could have quotas, begging Republicans to return. In some cases, enough Republicans did so they could actually pass legislation.
This was not covered by media (who were distracted by all the logging and dump trucks circling state houses) until some nervy independent political analyst got in touch with some friendly reporters and news ombudsmen at the national level. THAT got the cams turned around and pointed in the right direction.
If there's a fund to pay for her defense and for charges of wrongful arrest, I hope someone posts the information. That video was viewed widely and is all the evidence needed to prove that all she did was knock on a door (which I believe she would have been within her rights to enter, given this was supposed to be a public event and she is an elected official) and then be literally dragged away. And to be charged with a felony? Ridiculous.
Our democracy remains fragile and subject to the desire of rich, white men to stay in power. They believe in Party over County without regard for who they exclude and step over on their way forward.
James Henry Hammond was a despicable character in his personal and political life. Looks like the present day Big-Lie Spouting Republicans are walking in his footsteps.
The bravery of Representative Park Cannon should be an inspiration to us all. Conducting the Public’s business in a meeting behind closed doors should always alert “suspicious activity.”
For much of the post-WW2 period, democratic institutions were taken for granted in America and Britain, and consequently neglected.
Our institutions are living things, not monuments, not tables of stone, not fetishes. They need to be respected, supported, constantly sustained, kept alive and in good health. Look around now, everywhere you'll see what can happen when they are not cared for. When they grow weak, enemies arise who cage them, drug them, poison them.
Hence the rise of judicial review in UK as a way of imposing minority....or majority...opinions on the government outside electoral contests and parliamentary rebellions. Sounds familiar to the other side of the Atlantic? On neither side of the Atantic were Supreme Courts intended to have this role....but nature abhors a vacuum.
Both countries have unrepresentative parliamentary systems and the allowance of different weighting for voters in different parts of the country. The UK unwritten "Constitution" as it is a summation of "tradition" mixed with a varying dose of the "Charter of the Forests" and "Magna Carta" allows perpetual modification at the margin, like a long-term moving average of decisions that bit-by-bit enter into the realms of tradition. Flexibility has enabled the UK to evolve, rigidity is getting the US into a hole.....time to stop digging and to start very urgent rescue procedures.
Yes, but Stuart, there’s a balance to be maintained, one that ensures that majority rule prevails, while respecting the rights of self-respecting minorities, one that avoids dictatorship by a majority or, it goes without saying, a minority. As with so many things, the principle is simple enough but practice is not so easy.
Did not James Madison envisage adaptation of the Constitution to take account of the evolving needs of rising generations? Behind the Constitution Cult that worships immutable tablets of stone there scurry the restless ghosts of those 18th century backwoodsmen who wanted no government and no constitution, just God and the Bible… Or rather, their shrunken notions of God and their very fixed misinterpretations of the Good Book.
The US Constitution tends towards sclerotic fixity, while Britain’s constitutional arrangements have in recent times manifested the characteristics of an overripe Camembert cheese.
I love the "camembert" comparison. Thats what happens when or political representatives of the people descend into the realms of the largely impotent, ineffectual do-gooders like our dear Theresa May, the mediocrities such as Campbell, Starmer, Major etc and the different forms of buffoonery such as BoJo and Corbyn. It is time that we got out of thinking of politics as a career and got back to the idea that leadership is a vocation.
As Franklin reminds us, "A Republic, if you can keep it." Never be sanguine about perpetuating something so fragile. We remain a relatively young Republic in a history that continues to be written. Now is not the time to be smug with consoling ourselves with false assurances about platitudes on American exceptionalism. We have far too many flaws and some are quite deep and increasingly dangerous.
Given the current oligarchic influence in the US, I’m not sure we still technically can say we have a republic. It has been slipping away slowly and steadily since the Powell letter.
A republic founded on racism—genocide of native peoples and enslavement of others from a warmer land, people stolen, dragged in chains, bought and sold, whipped, lynched, raped so that men of white could (and still do) prosper. I fear your patriotism, Mr. Carroll. It seems blinded--a rather large mote in your eye of understanding of our foundations.
I have not read the Magna Carta in decades, but did it include ALL PEOPLE, or just the rights of white people and barons and kings?
Are you proud of our genocide and slavery? Are you wishing to repeat it to maintain a caste system? What color are you? Where do your ancestors come from? Mine are from colonist slaveholders and native peoples. It keeps me humble and clear.
If you were born with brown skin, would that change your superiority philosophy, I wonder?
The Magna Carta is not difficult to read, and it is online. If you had read it, you would recognize the inappropriate assumptions you've made about what it was. It codified something that was a long tradition of mutual allegiance in England. The document resulted from a rebellion of the aristocracy against a greedy monarchy because the monarchy was taking too much for it's "share" of production. The aristocracy were actually advocating for the rights of the people who lived on the land they oversaw. Was this King John? Too tired to look it up (it's late here). I believe they actually took him hostage until he agreed to their demands and signed the thing. Do read it. You might learn something besides the fact that the Brits started this on their own island first. Despite his protestations to the contrary, David acts like a troll, just a very sophisticated one who likes to toy with people by throwing out half-thoughts as bait. Sorry, Penelope, I share your feelings, but you bit the bait. Not worth the effort or the oxygen. David is just here as sport.
I appreciate your analysis of the Magna Carta. You are also right in that I have never been one to go with the crowd. Frankly it’s not easy nor really fun at times to be perceived this way. This is a pretty unique forum with a bunch of bright minds. I hope sometimes my perspective leads to more thought even if it only reaffirms your thoughts. So be it. I do like your comment about being here for sport. It makes it sound easy and fun all the time.
As HCR has reminded us - the Founders had a brilliant idea but were flawed people of their time. We learn and try to do better. Still flawed, you bet - but still trying.
Penelope. You know 800,000 people died fighting our Civil War. We had the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We have taught and evolved as a country. Perfect. No. Good yes.
Improvement, Yes, but it's far too soon to pat ourselves on the back when so many in this country are still prevented from voting. Kemp's blatant racism seen in the staged photo op is not any less appalling than seeing Chauvin's knee pressed on Floyd's neck for 9 seconds with a nonchalant expression on his face. There is no difference.
I thought you might like the "Baron's Charter" ...the "Charter of the Forest" which protected the rights of the people against all others, including the Barons, is as or more important. But i guess you might think that the "Star Chamber" might be a good model for the Supreme Court too...
I always learn something from you, Stuart! So there is a name for all those secret meetings current repubs have as well as their beloved cult leader and Putin, our hostile foreign entity bent on destroying democracies. Hmmm...Star Chambers.
Being a republic is better than being a monarchy, but just barely. Republicans have stagnated. Democrats have developed the idea of government further. They have refined it.
No. Best not to exclude anyone on the grounds that we don't like what they say. We might pick up some clues from Mr. Carroll's messages. He too may fall from his high horse some day and understand something different. Only stupid people are completely proof to change. And we should all be concerned for the rights of minorities -- so long as they don't include a right to trample on those of a majority.
Knock on a door in GA and get arrested. Conspire to and Storm the US Capital, beat, spray, break doors and windows, steal and destroy property, comity assaults & murder, urinate and spread feces on the walls, take selfies, and walk away claiming nothing wrong was done.
Indeed I am tempted to go to GA during the next election with offerings of fruit and water to the voters in longer lines. And yes Liz Ayer, her name is indeed Park Cannon. And yes 🙌 she is a hero.
Georgia seems to be particuarly graced it's "opposition" politicians. We have now an A (Abrams), C Canon) an O (Ossoff) and a W (Warnock) now what we need to make sure that Georgia stays on course as a blue State is similar strength coming from BDEFIJKLMNPQRSTUVXYZ so that the whole alphabet of the people are heard without having to resort to another William Tecsumeh Sherman.
Oh, I love Georgia on My Mind much better that a The Devil Went Down to Georgia! A little alchemy is needed with our Love (and activism) to help bring Georgia fully into the this century.
She knew just what to do in the moment. The result: every news cast reporting the signing of the bill is accompanied by what they did to Rep. Cannon, usually with equal time. We need to remind our fellow citizens over and over what this is about!
This is a time to focus. Focus our attention and comments on voting rights. Channel our energy into productive action in service of democratic process, not on noisy provocateurs. Perusing the number of comments to Heather's Letters since November 2020, last night's Letter of March 25 sparked the most comments to date, except for one other--January 6. We were clearly and righteously fired up about Georgia Republicans' lightning passage and signing of a new voter suppression law.
What can we do? HCR Readers had plenty of good ideas and specific directions in which to go:
* Support HR1/S1 For the People Act.
* Protest voter suppression legislation pending in 42 other states besides Georgia.
* Lobby against corporate donations to Republicans, starting with the Top 10 corporations in
Georgia.
* Boycott corporations that donate to Republicans.
* Support MLB moving the 2021 All-star game from Atlanta.
* Support churches and religious organizations that advocate for voting rights, such as the 6th
District AME Church in Atlanta and Rev. William Barber's Poor People's Campaign.
* Donate to organizations effectively working on behalf of voting rights, such as Fair Fight.
* Do grassroots work for organizations effectively working on behalf of voting rights, such as
Common Cause.
* Write letters, texts, emails, make phone calls to newspapers, social media, and offices of elected
officials to make your position known.
Names, email addresses, phone numbers, sample letters, sample phone call messages--it's all there in last night's comments. Sound daunting to read through 871 comments? Select "Top First" and start with Daria Wilber's thread.
Turn your outrage into action. Every little bit counts. Set the good example for your children. Inspire friends and family. As Heather said, we need to be in the water rowing our boats toward the shore where we want to be. We the People--All of Us This Time!
This bold woman, Ellie, is insisting we ALL knock on that door of oppression. Thank you, Ellie, for compiling this important list from our 871(!) comments yesterday.! Pick one! Do it! Pick another! Do it! I will copy and post, then donate to FairFight. Then...
This is excellent, Ellie. A good solid list of the many little things we can do as we can to make a difference. None take a lot of time, but will add up to a significant impact. I am going to post near my computer and assign myself at least one a day. In addition to the stuff I do anyway, as part of my responsibilities as a citizen.
HCR began her letter today, "Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed his state’s new voter suppression law last night in a carefully staged photo op. As journalist Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, Kemp sat at a polished table, with six white men around him, under a painting of the Callaway Plantation on which more than 100 Black people had been enslaved. As the men bore witness to the signing, Representative Park Cannon, a Black female lawmaker, was arrested and dragged away from the governor’s office.
It was a scene that conjured up a lot of history."
Not only does it conjure up a lot of history, it reminds me of how close we are to repeating a disastrous mistake again! We magnanimously sent the Confederates home to begin again. What they did was go home and maintain their cause of inequality instead.
Today the DOJ is hunting criminals who raped the Capitol in Washington, but we let these legislators and demagogues who aided and abetted them to sit free in the their chairs of power and continue to vote and spread the poison of inequality penalty-free. The folks in the cheap seats are asking themselves, if we are wrong and our legislators are wrong, why haven't they been unseated? So they use this to justify what they think and do.
As Heather wonders in conclusion, "The Military Reconstruction Act, wrote Maine politician James G. Blaine in 1893, “changed the political history of the United States.”
Today, as I looked at the photograph of Governor Kemp signing that bill, I wondered just how much."
Apparently not much. The evidence is the staged photograph. White male chauvins (as in Derek) signing a despicable act of law under a despicable piece of art.
"The folks in the cheap seats are asking themselves, if we are wrong and our legislators are wrong, why haven't they been unseated?" Skip, I think you've hit upon the disconnect that needs to be connected.
Exactly. If they were removed immediately for insurrection against our democracy, we would not have to be witnessing this ridiculous spectacle of debauchery in our government. It hurts my brain the mental gymnastics we have to go through with blatant anti-Americans still sitting in our government. Why the hell are they still there?
The Ds want to be seen as taking the high roads with Rs and the few "Moderates" like Manchin. They think the Rs will be pleased and do the same. WRONG!
The Union was kept “together.” The South “lost” the war. Growing up in NC in the 60’s and early 70’s, I was taught Lost Cause history. There were so many horrible things that were never mentioned like Wilmington’s coup d’etat murdering many Black people. The United Daughters of the Confederacy “won” the war perpetrating Lost Cause mythology. Fast forward to first job out of college in a small Midwestern town where my husband and l were told about escorting Black people out of town. Prejudice and discrimination don’t die when people quietly keep it alive. James G. Blaine was mistaken.
As I watch the battle over voting and civil rights today not only continue but seemingly intensify I despair that this is a battle I have engaged in since entering adulthood over 60 years ago. I found selfish, racist, attitudes abhorrent then and find them no less so today.
I have spent my life it seems protesting, demonstrating, writing letters, and making phone calls to politicians, working to register voters and get them out to the polls, and supporting candidates and causes to push back against discrimination, racism, injustice, and division. I have worked tirelessly to promote inclusion, social justice, equality of opportunity for all, and, above all equal and expanded access to the ballot. I despair that it seems that the mean-spirited attitudes of those on the other side of this battle have only hardened. Justice and equality seem lately to have regressed to a state of even greater disrepair.
Can it be that a lifetime of efforts in this cause have made no difference at all? When my despair seems overwhelming, I try to remind myself that this is a multi-generational battle that many who came before me fought tirelessly as well. Why should my own spirit lag when they persisted and often made seemingly little progress either?
So, it is back to the bulwarks yet again. I do not despair, because the battle is just and the goals worth the effort. My spirits are lifted by the number of those I see engaged in this effort and their dedication to the cause. How can this fight not be won when so many believe so strongly in the cause for which we work?
I remind myself that while the number of those who oppose justice and equality is large, it is still a minority and a shrinking minority at that. They know their support of restricting ballot access and perpetuating inequality and racism is necessary to sustain their position of power as their ideology is opposed by a majority of our citizens. While they may sustain their power for longer than their cause deserves, as long as the number of those who oppose them is greater than their own, they cannot win. They can only delay the inevitable.
I remember Edmund Burke's admonishment, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Victory or defeat in this cause is therefore in our own hands, not in the hands of those we oppose. Injustice can only triumph if we do nothing. After fighting this battle for so long, I and all those I know working for equality and justice certainly do not plan to surrender now.
I always find your posts meaningful. Thank you for your words. I just have to add on a few words from one of my most favorite beings: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime.” If John Lewis can keep his chin up and stay on the path of good trouble, than I’m not giving up! ❤️
Bruce, I know. I walked around the house yesterday crying angrily after watching that video of the Rep being arrested simply for knocking on the door. Makes me wonder just WHY the GA gov thought the signing of something he thinks is meaningful has to be private. Reminded me once again that this kind of extreme positioning takes place when people know they are already losing. That helped lesson the despair. I think this is going to blow up on them in court. So many provisions in that bill that beg to be declared anti-constitutional. Use of that term quite deliberate. Something can be unintentionally unconstitutional. But anti-constitutional is deliberate, a taunt, a thumb in the eye.
So I am more determined than ever to resist. How, I don't know, but I do belong to ACLU and NAACP, so I donate to their legal efforts. And do believe that they will succeed. The law is so egregious that I don't see how our Supreme Court could let it go by. If it gets that far: there's the possibility it won't get past the appeals court.
This morning I chased down the photo of Kemp and Mrs with their precious painting of the old slave plantation, clearly proud. Of what? That it existed at all, or that it no longer exists? Or an aspiration? A display that they are no longer ashamed of their past? Or that it simply means nothing at all other than as a symbol of a past they revere? At any rate, the smugness of it all made me feel ill.
I am going to open a lemonade stand on Election Day in GA. Permit will be applied for. And if it is disallowed I will pass it out for free and let the bastiches drag me to jail.
Be right there with you. Already making plans with a number of others to arrange for donations of water and organizing an army of volunteers to distribute it to voters in lines. A small group is the opposition but thousands are the resistance. If there are thousands of volunteers handing out water to voters in lines peacefully there is no way they will be able to arrest and prosecute all of us. That is what John Lewis characterized as good trouble.
The Republican Party seeks to return us all to the plantation and the company town where "...a few wealthy men rule[d] over a larger class with 'a low order of intellect and but little skill.'"
One supposes that Republican majority legislatures are taking quick advantage to the conservative packing of the federal judicial system, thank you very much, Mitch McConnell, and gerrymandered congressional districts to put the brakes on recent history and reverse the nation's political progress backwards.
I don't think it's going to work; the handwriting is on the wall. What we may be witnessing is, at long last, the final death rattle of the Confederacy, and the Senate filibuster along with it.
Ah, a person who sees things as I do‼️ Through most of 2020, I suspected the death knell was imminent. Through the crucible, the trial by fire, of January 2021, a month I will never forget as long as I live, I realized my suspicions were becoming a reality. It was the January 5 Georgia Senate election, a complete miracle, that I now believe is a crucial turning in US history. Combined of course with the next days events. The disintegration of the Republican Party is underway. The Old Social Order of white male straight supremacy has finally been damaged irrevocably. That awareness is less than two months old. The conviction I mean of that reality. I now consider it a fact that the Democratic Party is on its way to doing what it did in California, relegating the Republican Party to permanent minority status.
You are once again correct. I lived through that CA destruction of the Republican party. With leaders like Gray Davis (why did his parents' name him that?) they were cycling down. Get the popcorn, it's going to 'be wild'.
I lived in CA when we recalled Grey Davis, he was the heir to the presidency for the Democrats and was largely seen as such, the problem was that he was incompetent when it came to acting on the electricity crisis. Power became so expensive that a large number of companies packed up and left. It turned out that we were being gamed by Enron,(remember them)? Grey was recalled and thrown out of office and replaced by Arnold who did a credible job, didn’t need the money or the governor’s mansion and in fact flew back to LA in his own jet every night to sleep 🛌. It was only later when Enron collapsed that it all came out how they had manipulated energy supply to CA in order to massively increase the price and there by their own profits. While that was happening, no one in the Davis administration could figure it out. All of that was brought to us by the people that ran Enron, some of them convicted or about to be if they had lived longer, most of whom were great donors to the rich cultural life of Houston, at CA’s expense.
And look what the Democratic Party in California is doing to itself with the "Newsom recall movement". Once the Republicans are somewhat reduced or split into factions (still of course an hypothesis) the "all-powerful" Democratic Party will have nothing to hold it together.
Indeed--CA is not the example I would choose if I were to provide one. ANY political party that has overwhelming power is soon corrupted and that is certainly the case in CA in places that have been secure Dem bastions (SF for instance). Katie Porter is a breath of fresh air because she is a new breed of pol in a very mixed district. Her emphasis is not on political posturing but on the truth. That ought to be the goal. Helping Americans in need and preventing corruption, enhancing and guaranteeing equity and rejecting bigotry and bias should be bipartisan--it should not be the purview of one party or another. But what has happened to BOTH parties is a combination of corruption, hubris, and institutionalization so that the members perceive their own self interest as all important and forget what their actual jobs are.
Virginia has had a very hard-fought road to democratization and it has a long way to go, but their efforts are bearing fruit, despite the stupidity of the boyz at the top (who behave badly but get away with it because they actually apologize, unlike the other side). I would recommend looking there, not at CA.
Very interesting. I had not heard Newsom's comments this past week, other than his acknowledgement that the recall effort will probably make the ballot. I have no idea the numbers of "fringers" in CA thus, cannot guess if they have sufficient numbers to do the deed. But it is striking to note how many of their "leaders" are members of questionable "militia" groups and how QAnon conspiracy theories seem to be posted on their social media sites. This fact check bears out his comments, while noting that he might be "overstating" the participation of such folk. That does not mean, however, that his comments are untrue.
Hmm. As if the capitalist masters and the Fraternity of the Obscene Wealthy, Wall Street titans and our regular monopolistic corporate heads who are funding ALEC, the Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Senatorial traitors with their Captain McConnell at the helm and all the state Republican legislators are going to lay their weaponized money down instead of jacking up the pillaging of the democratic republic just when their calculated aggression is about to win a critical battle in the war? Think again. Racism is a hefty tool waged smartly to bolster the power of the existent capitalistic power players.
I am optimistic, because we "slaves" of all races do NOT have 'a low order of intellect and but little skill' - beyond the gerrymandered and stuffed ballot box we have what I saw yesterday: rapid organization to boycott companies that support these Georgia legislators, developing plans for protests, filing of lawsuits, deep discussions of what exactly is democracy and how do we protect it from this internal invasion. And one strong woman boldly knocking on the door of oppression.
Yes!! Exactly this! The white patriarchy are a bunch is scared skunks spraying as if their lives depend on it. That skunk spray might hurt but it surely wont stop us. Their time is up. All they have left is violence and lies. #WethepeopleAllthepeopleThistime
That's what scares them: strong females, and oh my God some are not white. Toxic masculinity with really down deep poor self-esteem. Wonder where that came from?
“And one strong woman boldly knocking on the door of oppression.” Love it for so many reasons. The idea that one person can make a difference. That a woman has strength. That a simple action taken boldly can make a profound statement. The symbolism of oppression being a door leading to the room you want to be in so your voice can be heard. This could easily be my new rallying call!
Maybe. We're both projecting into the future. You're glass is half empty, mine is half full. History will likely show that we were both right and wrong.
Let’s hope so. A pundit speculated that this retrograde “law” will impede poor voters of all races. It’s a desperate act of reactionaries who refuse to share. I can’t imagine what these guys were like as children.
Everybody knows a "frat brat" or two and you probably frequented vestiges of their earlier form since starting school yourself.....the school bully, the "sports king" who had little between the ears but thought it was enough to have it all between his legs!
What follows is a long post, and I’m going to make it even longer by way of a short explanation.
Some weeks ago, I drafted a Letter to the Editor, with editorial help from some of the people in this forum – Ellie, Cathy, Annette, Steve and likely one or two I’ve forgotten. What follows is that Letter (edited again this morning) with additional observations from recent events.
Each time I have voted, from that very first time 50 years ago, to this day, I have felt the awesome power and responsibility we share in shaping our nation’s destiny.
In that moment, I recognize the immense good fortune I enjoy, and the sacrifices my parents and their parents made, to preserve that right. Through wars and economic crises – even pandemics – nothing has prevented us from holding our elections.
To our great shame, many Americans have not enjoyed that same freedom to vote. From the moment African Americans were granted citizenship and the right to vote, they have been made to suffer loss of life, physical injury, and intimidation at the hands of people who did not think they were deserving of the vote. The same holds true for other people of color who came to this country in search of freedom and were met by resistance, often violent, by those who feared any challenge to their dominance.
On Election Day in 1920, a white mob massacred Black Americans (the number of dead has never been definitively reckoned but ranges from 30--60) in Ocoee, Florida. Their homes and businesses were burned, Black men were lynched and castrated, and when Federal agents finally arrived weeks later to investigate, not one person was prosecuted. The agents said they were not there to investigate murder, arson, or assault – only accusations of voter fraud. Sound familiar?
Today, 43 states are considering legislation to limit the voting rights, primarily of people of color, but also of the elderly and disabled, all predicated on the lie that Joe Biden was not fairly elected. There can be no doubt, at long last, that voter fraud prevention is not the true motivation behind these laws – they are motivated by racism and fear of a fair election. This must end.
The Senate is now considering the For the People voting rights act that will give more people access to the vote, introduce redistricting reforms that would stop the partisan gerrymandering of election districts by both parties, and provide for small-donor public financing of Congressional and Presidential elections to give average voters a chance to compete with the huge PACS that currently dominate our elections.
President Biden has taken up the cause and named the torrent of anti-democratic laws pulsing from Republican controlled State Houses for what they are – modern versions of Jim Crow laws from the post-Reconstruction era.
The House of Representatives has done its work, it is time for the Senate to act to ensure every citizen the opportunity to vote. If “We the People” means anything, it means we must all have the right to vote. Whatever pressure we, as citizens, can exert on our elected representatives in Washington and in our communities, now is the time to act. Everything hangs on this – the right of the people to make their voices heard through the peaceful process of voting.
President Biden will advocate for passage of the For the People Act and there is a good chance that Senate rules will be changed to return the institution of the Filibuster to the painful physical process it once was. But, we must be prepared for the reaction that is, IMO, likely to result from a vote to pass this legislation.
Today, Republicans/Trumpists are bashing Covid measures as attacks on freedom, ranting about how cruel President Biden’s border policies are (that serving of hypocrisy is a breakfast-tosser) and flapping their gums about the horror of taxes. But all of that will be put aside and forgotten once their guns and votes are at risk.
Insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on January 6th as much in support of Donald Trump the man, as for what he represented. The racist policies at the heart of Trumpism are embodied in the current Republican-supported anti-voting laws.
Should those policies be threatened and should that threat be coupled with legislation to curb the national orgy of gun violence through even modest measures such as background checks and a ban on assault rifles, it is possible the events of January 6th will be viewed by history as the dress rehearsal for the mayhem that ensues.
Thank you for this post. I had not heard of the Ocoee massacre, and we do know that it was emblematic of other horrific lynchings and acts of terror against Blacks. The fact that the Ocoee massacre took place on an Election Day puts it right out there in plain sight, like when KKK felt emboldened enough to no longer hide their faces. Such acts of terror, intimidation, and voter suppression are not artifacts of history, but as you point out, carry a straight line to the January 6 insurrection and the March 25 signing of a voter suppression law for Georgia by white men triumphantly posed in front of a painting of a slave owner’s plantation.
And today we cannot just indulge that intellectual insight. All of us must follow through with action in support of HR1/S1 For the People Act to make our voices heard.
The explicit Kemp scenario against the backdrop of the Callaway Plantation brings to mind the improvised “courtroom” in a police station to which Alexei Navalny was brought after his return to Russia. There he was sentenced to be held for 30 days at Moscow’s high-security Matrosskaya Tishina prison.
What blasted the real message to the world at maximum volume was the picture hanging on the wall behind the judge: a portrait of Genrikh Yagoda, head of Stalin’s NKVD secret police at the beginning of the Great Purges. Not just the blatant continuity, but the fact that Yagoda was notoriously corrupt and when he was eventually arrested by his boss and eliminated for knowing too much, his house was found to be full of loot including gold coin and… a vast stock of precious wines. As in Navalny’s much-viewed film of the palace “built for Putin”.
Here, as in Soviet times, we have EXEMPLARY INJUSTICE, designed to show that the regime is all-powerful and ordinary Russians are nothing, but may at any moment be arraigned and imprisoned on trumped-up charges… to encourage the others. The Yagoda portrait is in-your-face gangster propaganda:
WE ARE THE LAW. WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE LIKE… WITH THE COUNTRY… WITH YOU.
Likewise the Callaway Plantation picture tells us who owns America… and Americans.
Don’t you see what the resemblances portend for Americans, for the world? If citizens, their associations and economic actors don’t join hands to defend your freedoms, no one will be safe anywhere.
Another HCR Reader is a former Russian ambassador and thought N should have stayed in Germany to run his organization. He and his wife are people of incredible courage, but I fear for their kids.
Bruce, you wrote: "Today, 43 states are considering legislation to limit the voting rights...". I'd like to give that a little more perspective. I have no doubt 43 states may have had bills introduced along those lines. But that does not mean that 43 legislatures are considering those bills. I suspect that in most case one or a few legislators in a state are following the anti-constitutional line and introduced bills of that type. Most of those bills will simply die unconsidered or rejected in committee. It is helpful to consider the entire process that a bill must go through and the various points at which it can be sidelined. BTW, it appears that fewer Rightists are complaining about Covid measures these days. That didn't take long.
Ellen, this LTE was a communal effort with other folks here on this forum, I only drafted it. No need to credit me. Feel free to share it - that was our original intent.
End the filibuster for the For the People Act. Then we can defend voting with the National Guard if necessary. Here we are again, 62 years after six-year-old Ruby Bridges was escorted by the National Guard through an enraged, verbally abusive, white crowd to attend elementary school. Effectively, Jim Crow never completely died. Camouflaged with gerrymandering, unnecessary voter ID laws and myriad, peculiar acts of voter suppression, it has metastasized. Let's kill it now.
I agree that passage of the For The People Act is essential. But I also worry about... what happens then? What do those GOP-led state legislatures do in those states? How is it enforced? You KNOW they're going to try to get around it. I mean, they didn't just desegregate schools overnight when a law was passed. How will this actually work??
A very important question...the battle truly does not stop there. elections must thereafter be won to consolidate the victories and so people still have to register and get out to vote.
The For the People Act needs to pass. It is unconstitutional if it doesn't! So then the filibuster cannot be defended in this case.
One filibuster reform is needed:
1) You have to talk and talk and talk and make a fool of yourself if your position is ridiculous
I was going to add a second, that you can't filibuster laws upholding constitutional rights. This may be a good idea. But I'm uncertain about potential for abuse from the other side.
Right now, no one has to show. If they only go back to requiring talking, then only a few senators need to be present to continue, and it takes 60 present and voting to set a limit on remaining debate time. If they flip that requirement, so that it takes 41 present and voting to continue a filibuster, it will be much more tiring for the obstructing side.
The trouble is, the radical right so-called Republicans will go to any lengths to block voting rights.
A true path forward would both require 41 senators present to continue a filibuster, and exempt protection of the right to vote from filibusters entirely. The exemption would have to be written very, very carefully to hold up and allow the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to be covered, and ideally to make repeal of them subject to filibuster if it still exists.
I hope everyone understands that the USA is teetering on the edge of the abyss. It is make-or-break, put-up-or-shut-up time. It is appropriate to be alarmed.
I am not religious. Raised Christian, I saw a bunch of holes in that religion by my early teen years and declared my Atheism by the time I was 16. My evil stepmother on catching me skipping Sunday school once called me a heathen. I looked it up and it was spot on. But at least I am open about it, not like those lying, cheating, hypocritical, poser Christians in the Deep South such as Governor Kemp of Georgia et al. Part of that voter suppression law goes beyond just putting up obstacles for minority non-white ppl to vote but actually adds a clearly ANTI-CHRISTIAN clause that we heathens find repulsive.
From their own “Holy Buybull” they blatantly ignore a lesson from Jesus Christ. Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, ...” They just made a law in Georgia that will force voters to stand in long lines for hours and added that Good Samaritans not be allowed to ease their discomfort. These poser White Christians in the Georgia legislature are as evil as the robed Klansmen that sully all the Southern states.
I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again: This is “put up or shut up” time for the Democrats. If they allow this law to stand, you can be 💯 certain that identical laws will follow elsewhere in the South, not to mention Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and any state where the Republicans control the legislatures. Democrats will never win these states ever again. The courts, which have been filled with Trump appointees (including three on the Supreme Court) will not help. So, this falls on the Senate, where Manchin and Sinema need to be bluntly told what’s at stake here.
Marc Elias filed a lawsuit immediately on behalf of several GA voting rights groups. He was the attorney who fought many of Trump's voting lawsuits last Fall. (I hope he has an understudy!)
Yes, I certainly hope it is headed for the courts with a good result. Someone will have to temporarily go to jail in its defense, which will hopefully come swiftly.
I was confused when the voice of the previous administration kept hammering down that the election was stolen due to the counting of illegitimate/illegal votes. I simply could not understand why this idea could take hold. There then came my aha moment as the white of us embraced the idea and ran with it. Just as the coronavirus has spread throughout the country, so too has the devil spread. We have and are using the tools to beat back the coronavirus. There's a golden fiddle down in hell...
Good words except we are not really using the tools to beat back the virus. With the exception of the vaccine the response is largely the same as it has been throughout the pandemic - “open open open”
Paying people to stay home for a five week lockdown has always been the answer, from day one, but this country is run by the stock market and corporations, so it will never happen here. We just write 100s of thousands of deaths off as a cost of doing business.
And, unless enough of us agree to get vaccinated, or are able to, both here and around the world, even the vaccine won’t be enough. We are not out of these woods.
...and the thousands of crafty and contagious COVID19 variants may keep us paying that cost for decades.
For about the last 25 years I have had nothing but contempt for the leaders of the "Open, open," chant: the US Chamber of Commerce. Not sure that I could name a more anti-worker organization in the country.
(The director of “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Wolverine,” “Walk the Line” and “The Call of the Wild”)
I will not direct a film in Georgia
11:26 PM · Mar 25, 2021
François Audouy
(Production Designer)
I will not design a film in Georgia
Jon Ossoff
@ossoff
Tonight Georgia’s legislature passed a bill brazenly intended to make it harder for Georgians to vote.
Among its outrageous provisions: it criminalizes *giving water to voters who are waiting in line.*
It’s no wonder Gov. Kemp hid behind closed doors while he signed it.
9:30 PM · Mar 25, 2021
Justin Amash
Imagine making it a crime to offer water to people waiting in line to vote
Representative Park Cannon
@Cannonfor58
Hey everyone, thank you for your support. I’ve been released from jail. I am not the first Georgian to be arrested for fighting voter suppression. I’d love to say I’m the last, but we know that isn’t true. #SB202
12:28 AM · Mar 26, 2021·
Mollie Katzen
(an American cookbook author and artist.)
I’m gonna straight-up cater the voting lines in the next GA election. Who wants to help with the prep?
10:55 AM · Mar 26, 2021
Will Bunch
Something looked odd Thursday night when GA Gov. Brian Kemp signed his new Jim Crow voting law
With some Twitter sleuthing, we learned Kemp was in front of a painting of a notorious slave plantation. The symbolism is overpowering.
Teri Anulewicz
@tanulewicz
On Thursday, in the wake of voting-restriction legislation signed into law by the GA governor, the executive director of the MLB Players Association said the players are ready to discuss moving their annual midsummer exhibition out of GA. #gapol
3:04 PM · Mar 26, 2021
Ted Lieu
@tedlieu
Dear @GovKemp: Next year, Congressman @RubenGallego and I are going to provide water to GA voters waiting in lines caused by your voter suppression law. My sense is many, many people will be providing water to voters. Because your law is unAmerican and insane.
Ari Berman
One of most dangerous parts of GA voter suppression bill allows state legislature to appoint majority of state election board & take over county election boards in order to challenge election results
"It will make what we all lived through in 2020 child’s play."
And as Kemp was signing the bill, surrounded by six white men, and in front of a painting of a plantation, Rep. Cannon, a Black woman, knocked on his office door and was promptly, instantaneously handcuffed and arrested. That is the height of outrageous. She was subsequently released, vowing to continue to fight for voter rights, as we all must do.
What I do not understand is how this is difficult. Every citizen of a country must be able to vote. Each citizen should have a similar degree of ease in casting that vote.
How this is achieved must mean some degree of remote voting by post or ultimately by electronic means, polling stations open 24 hours or longer and nobody waiting for any amount of time to cast a vote.
At the same time robust measures to ensure that elections are not “hackable” in any way whether by foreign parties or local ones.
How is this NOT clear to both parties ?
If there was ever a perfect issue for bipartisan working this must be it.
I live in hope...
Hello Sibu8. I would be lying if I didn’t say I felt exactly the same way for most of 60 years of my life. And then since last summer, the atrocity level, the intensity level, of DT’s Administration finally coerced me into taking a closer look at politics and the policies of society, which I have always avoided because it’s distasteful. That’s when I discovered Heather and Greg Olear at the same time. I subscribed to both almost immediately. That was last summer I think. Since then I have discovered just how viciously the old social order of racism has been controlling politics, the KKK was first the Southern Democrats, then after LBJ and the voting rights act, they fled that party and landed in the republican party. Everything you see the Republicans do is rooted in racism sexism and genderism. Everything. I didn’t used to see that, it just looked like ideological debates to me. But it’s not ideology, this is not an intellectual exercise. It’s a struggle between (1) racist sexist society and (2) diverse equality society. That’s because the moderates, the reasonable people, have fled the Republican Party. Jan. 6 and the Trump voters are now the core. It has become something of a black-and-white situation, whereas before there used to be all kinds of shades of gray. No more.
In another comment, I asked Heather to tackle the migration of civil rights from the Republican party to the Democratic party. I think that would make a good article. And perhaps also why we should seek to reform the two party system, for example with ranked choice voting. Or maybe figuring out how this is done in Europe.
Matt: I did a video on this just a few weeks ago, but will quietly say that video was testing out a chapter for a book I'm currently writing.
Heather has written several books on the subject that would fully answer your question.
https://www.cgpgrey.com/politics-in-the-animal-kingdom
Now I looked at it and love it! Thanks again. Voting systems and gerrymandering are explained clearly and quickly, with visuals.
This site looks interesting and I see you’ve posted it a few times. Did you create it? I didn’t explore it yet as I want to open it separately. Thanks!
I wonder, can you be black then, if you are a Republican? Wonder. Joe doesn’t think so. He also thinks Hispanics think too much for themselves. Interesting perspective. And Heather has such a race enriched background herself. No wonder “we” all subscribe to her worldview. One that at every turn overtly avoid them, that be minorities, entirely. No wonder. Gosh and golly. You can’t make this up. Or maybe you can. No one party has a lock hold on minority voters nor virtue.
David, the Republican Party has gone out of its way to be exclusionary. It has done so by slapping the labels "law and order", "family values", " patriotic " and "Christian" on issues that they hold dear. They cram these words down our throats on a daily basis. And it is all, pardon my language, bullshit.
Your party is all about subjugation. It's about compromising the rights of every human on US soil who doesn't have white skin and a bank roll. And don't kid yourself, there will come a day when middle class and poor whites will rue their decision to support the Republican party. Decision makers in the Republican party have no interest or intention to act for the good of the people. We see it in their absurd positions with regard to healthcare, education, fair/affordable housing, wage and more. With the exception of gun ownership, everything, and I do mean everything, they do as a party is designed to curtail individual rights. And when people push back against the Republican Party they cry foul and wail "you're canceling me/us!"
Every aspect of Republicanism is rotten. They prattle on about the sanctity of human life but have no issue seeing people gunned down in a grocery store. In the meantime they believe they have the right to limit access to reproductive medicine up to and including abortion. Wah! They say, Democrats are murdering babies. And, oh, yeah, they say it's a sin, too. But allowing people to gun down other people is not?
As for the vote...do you really think the states ramming through these various voter suppression laws are going it to make voting easier and more accessible? Do you really believe the spin the WSJ editorial board put on Georgia's new election laws?
And stop with your white people virtue signaling already. Almost every white person in this specific community acknowledges the fact that they have had advantages simply because their skin is white. It's actually a regular topic of discussion.
Here's the thing, David, you can support any bullshit you want. That's your right. But don't pretend for one second that you can support the Republican agenda and be a decent human being at the same time. It's not possible.
That photo op of the six white/supremacist men posed before a painting of a slave plantation says it all. It truly was a "picture worth a thousand words." And everyone knows what they are.
"Here's the thing, David, you can support any bullshit you want. That's your right. But don't pretend for one second that you can support the Republican agenda and be a decent human being at the same time. It's not possible."
Exactly!!! Whenever someone says to me that I shouldn't allow politics to stand between me and other people, this is what I think. Our politics DO show something about our characters - particularly at this point in our history, the two parties' rhetoric represent decent, generous humanity vs. completely self-centered humanity. Definitely humanity on both sides, but what kind of humanity? I have a limited amount of time left on this earth (ha, don't we all) and I'm damned if I'll waste any of it on those who would take the vote away from any other American. Hell, I'm cool with setting up voting booths in prisons! More voting is what we need, not less!!!
(Pardon the overuse of exclamation points. I have started on my single drink of the evening and it is a very dry dirty martini - vodka out of the freezer, 3 pimento-stuffed green olives and a tsp of olive brine.)
EXACTLY. Though both parties each have their own levels of hypocrisy, God knows (politicians seem to specialise in it!), it is my belief that the Republican party in its current configuration have taken hypocrisy to levels never imagined. Everybody projects, but again, Republicans seem to have taken their cue from the "former guy" and taken lies and projection (accusing others of the very things you're guilty of) to a new high. Like you said, if somebody from the Right could actually put forth their positions with decent grammar and spelling, and without resorting to name-calling and all sorts of invective (though the Left has its share), people might give their ideas more consideration. But, the poster who prompted all this has a writing style (he seems to think it is "journalism') that I simply cannot follow. I mean, I KNOW we are not all skilled accomplished journalists, but when someone on the Right is angry (aren't they ALL??), it's like they spew out their ideas before really proof-reading and taking a deep breath before hitting "Post". It's not that hard, y'know. Anyway, THANKS Daria! You stated things beautifully. Cheers, y'all...
Fantastic response, eloquently stated. Thank you, Daria. Now, I suggest we refuse David the oxygen he craves. He's what can be described as a s**t disturber.
Wow, Daria. You have expressed what soooo many have wanted to say. Thank you.
Hear Hear! Well said, Daria!
Brava, Daria.
What did the WSJ/Murdoch editorial board say about my State's latest travesty? I've always been unwilling to give them the money needed to get through their paywall. Nice post, by the way.
well said Daria!
Splendid, Daria.
Amen.
YOU GO!
Thank you.
This is a reply to the many well thought out responses. I agree ones “ affiliation “ says something about their character. In our world where never saying you are wrong or playing the I in team card as wel as demonizing is sadly polarizing. Taking the second amendment to the extreme one party does is illustrative of one example while constantly using the race card combined with cancel culture by another. They are meant to divide us. I see that on both sides big time. I wrote after the election that election integrity, let’s say just given COVID, is a big problem. I happen to think the Republic we have had done a pretty good job evolving on this. What just happened in Georgia was a liberalization of its voting laws. Read it. Fact. Is it Federalizations ? No For that I am glad. Personally I think voters should at a minimum show proof of citizenship, an ID and subscribe to basic rules however votes are collectives. In my opinion HR 1 is constitutionally overreaching and uses the dog bird of racism as its calling card. I think it would permanently call in the o question elections and their integrity nationally. If a state wants to vote by internet and it is secure and verifiable bring it on. It is their right. It should not be imposed by a party nationally or the federal government. We are headed in directions that are concerning in terms of our countries balance sheet and position in the international community. Empires have fallen by getting overextended and the most recent China summit does not portend well. Being reckless because the other guy was to is not a great way to go. Shucks, as usual I am going on. I know to you all I am likely a voice in the wind and maybe I am. I believe almost all of you including HCR are bright and well meaning. Maybe and just maybe considering things from a slightly different angle, even if wrong, gives this readership perspective. I wish you all a happy Sunday and thank you for your thoughts and perspective too.
...laws are going to make...
Perhaps unlike some of the other commentors, I don't really want you to go back under a bridge somewhere, but I do wish you were able to write more clearly. I, for one, have been craving the opportunity to see the arguments of a clear, well written, Republican apologist. I can't find on -- they all seem, like you, to rely on slur and innuendo, half-statements and references to uncited information I've never seen.
Is there anyone in your frendship group with whom you can team, someone who could help you parse your comments? We at this HCR site are just as succeptible to groupthink as are any other group, but I do hope we are more open information than Republicans seem to be. But how can our ideas evolve if we can't find anyone who can intelligently and clearly state an opposing view?
You seem to have a continuing interest in contributing to this site, something I applaud, even if you are somewhat of a dog lurking around a cat show. But please, step up your game! And if you don't have the intellectual chops to handle that, please collaborate with someone who does. I would be delighted if you could transform yourself from a troll into a genuine contributor to this Great Debate.
I will contend that it is impossible to have a "clear, well-written, Republican apologist" at this point.
Here's the core problem: the Republican Party does not try to win hearts and minds, and hasn't for pretty much as long as I've been alive. They don't waste time or effort on communicating their plans or goals to plebes like us. I recall some Republican in Colorado -- back in the 1990's? -- who was asked to "explain his vote to the voters" over something he was pushing, and he responded, "It isn't my job to explain, it's my job to win."
In the 90's, in Colorado, the Republican thing was the "gay horror." AIDS. Pedophiles. Perverts. Un-Godly Sinners. IN OUR SCHOOLS! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!! Then at some point, inexplicably, the bottom fell out of the "gay horror market." I suspect too many people were coming out, and it turned out that pretty much everyone had a gay son, or daughter, or nephew, or aunt, or co-worker, or spouse. They ramped up their campaigning, and it wasn't gaining any traction. There was this strange quiet for several months. Then there was a clear "test marketing phase" that burned through the newspapers for about a month, where the Republicans tapped every trope they could think of. Flag burning. Illegal immigration. Abortion. Pornography. Harsher sentencing for drug users. Apparently, immigration polled best, and then Wayne Allard -- our local Boebert of that decade, who pretty much defined the extreme right-wing at the time -- was all over those damned immigrants, coming from Mexico and taking our jobs.
It was fascinating to watch.
But the point: it wasn't real. Not one word. It was a marketing ploy, and they went with whatever made torches-and-pitchfork crowd the angriest. They'd clearly have made a case against carnations, if it had polled better than immigration.
The Party today supported and continues to support the outright lies of a bad President (one of the worst in US history) who turned to insurrection to stay in power. It pushes voter suppression. It gerrymanders aggressively. It has no platform, apart from the destruction of the federal government.
Where would a "clear, well-written apologist" for this behavior even start?
"I do wish you were able to write more clearly."
Thank you for saying this for me, no doubt for many of us. David Carroll's prose is so bumpy it leaves me with a feeling like being car-sick. Pity, because I'd like to understand better.
Funny, isn't it, you have trouble finding clear and well written arguments in favor of Republican ideas. I have the same problem. Perhaps there's a pattern there? I also share your concern about groupthink and lack of opposing ideas to sharpen one's logic. But the conversations are quite robust here nonetheless. The people who occasionally show up to argue contrary viewpoints are regularly outgunned. They seem to rely often on insinuations or incomplete sets of fact.
Dan Thompson, well said! Pay attention, David Carroll! Daria , Dan, and many others here have tried to school you in ways to get your ideas across effectively, but you appear to be quite resistant to the coaching. Sad.
You rely on a lot of projection onto other's thoughts and motives David. It makes for consistently weak arguments.
You still here? Go back under the bridge where you belong, a dark, dank and smelly place. Perfect home for trolls.
David, This response is either written out if ignorance or it is pure gaslighting, just flim flam.
You're a persistent idiot, aren't you? Go back to FB with the rest of the ga-ga old boomers, where your moron stupidity won't be so glaringly obvious.
Hey, some of us ga-ga old boomers are not stupid morons, you know.
Matt - “Ranked-choice voting is used for state primary, congressional, and presidential elections in Alaska and Maine and for local elections in more than 20 US cities including Cambridge, Massachusetts; San Francisco, California; Oakland, California; Berkeley, California; San Leandro, California; Takoma Park, Maryland; St. Paul, Minnesota; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Santa Fe, New Mexico; Portland, Maine; Las Cruces, New Mexico; and St. Louis Park, Minnesota.[1] New York City is by far the largest voting population in the US that has opted for RCV.” (Wikipedia)
I believe NYC has used Ranked Choice Voting only once so far, in a race in Queens this year. It's a brand new policy. I've been waiting but haven't heard anything on how well it worked, or didn't.
And what would working "well" look like?
The general public understanding it's use, leading to support and political oxygen for minor parties and a wider diversity of constituencies.
Well, Ireland is a good example. They've been using it for some time now and it's working for them.
I recall reading about the impact of ranked-choice voting on the governing body of British Columbia, Canada, which, like us, had two dominant parties and a cluster of wannabes. Proponents of the two major parties voted for own parties for their first choice, of course. Then, since just like us they'd rather be skinned alive than vote for the other major party, the just stuck one of the fringe parties as their second-choice. Guess what? The lunatic fringe won, since the first-choice selections never reach a majority, but the second-choices did.
I wouldn't mind if someone here could add detail/confirm or deny/show later outcomes about that, since I read it some time ago, but never looked into it further.
https://www.cgpgrey.com/politics-in-the-animal-kingdom
For a good primer on how the political parties have shifted over time, I suggest and excellent book that gives one the understanding of how politics,the economy, social changes and expansion of the country lead to the Civil War. The book is long but worth the read: Battle Cry of Freedom" by Dr James McPherson, a Pulitzer Prize winner for this book and Professor of American History emeritus at Princeton University (he has passed).
https://www.cgpgrey.com/politics-in-the-animal-kingdom
Yeah I love that idea
Matt, please review the existing publications of HCR. It is really good that you are seeking to educate yourself.
My parents WWII vets believed that the KKK, John Birch and other White Supremacists were always the backbone of what became the Republican party. Dad used to tell us that the ideology "I may be poor but at least I'm White" was a part of the DNA of what is now the GOP GQP.
Makes me think of the thought process, or manipulation perhaps, of the shushing of religion and politics at the holiday tables or family gatherings. Keep the peace, don’t talk politics. Don’t bring up religion. Sweep it under the rug and keep your friends and relatives from having to make uncomfortable conversation. But if what one values is their basis in fact of what or who they follow, then simply avoiding the uncomfortable has led us to today. I’m speaking somewhat personally in that my father was a staunch conservative (whatever that means exactly) and a Limbaugh follower. My father passed in 2011, so it is evidentiary of the impact the Limbaugh types have had for years. An older brother follows in our father’s footsteps, and this past year a younger brother surprised me with his strong support of Trump. He was offended with my pointing out that Trump was behaving as if he was above the law. It became uncomfortable enough I deleted my social media. Another brother asked that if we talk on the phone, to not bring Trump and his minions into the conversation. There again, avoiding the uncomfortable. I don’t know the answer. Except to take the feelings of discouragement about our society at large and get involved somehow to combat voter suppression. I am fortunate, so far, to live in WA state where we vote by mail and have for years. Side note, my younger brother lives in Georgia. He is also in a bi-racial marriage. I really can’t fathom his support for Trump.
Ironic. Perhaps in time. It must be so hard, and often painful, dealing with all that, Diane. Most of my family is in WA, and my irony is that we argue about everything EXCEPT politics. To a person, we are progressive. Talks about politic are boring because we all agree. We don't talk about religion because we each are in a different place and regard religion as a personal choice. But anything else is wide open, and we have some doozy disagreements. Yep, weird family. Love 'em, though.
I grew up in Montana. After my parents’ divorce my father went to Texas where he had a friend living at the time. At the end of his life he was moved to Utah where the brother who follows in Dad’s conservatism, and bigotry actually, lives. The younger brother who lives in Georgia is retired Navy. We have been spread out for years, getting together for milestone occasions mostly. It sounds like there is a fair amount of mutual respect in your family, and that is great! My grown children are fun, open minded, generous, and accepting individuals, but also can cringe at the lack of critical thinking out there these days and what seems like lack of care for planet and humanity in general. Thank you for your thoughts. I enjoy living in WA but would like summer to last longer than it does. Haha!
Until I read your post about living in WA, I thought perhaps we were kindred spirits from MS (where I spent a great number of years living in such an environment!)
I now understand clearly why Republicans now refer to all Democrats as leftist liberals as they have now defined a political movement several standard deviations to the right of Adolf Hitler and Atilla the Hun. It is impossible to imagine anything further from “traditional conservatism” than the present Republican party. They have crafted an ideology that is an affront not just to democracy toto human decency and morality as well. I expect any time now to see them donning white robes and hoods and burning crosses at their rallies.
Bingo, Bruce.
I'm right with you. Last summer I discovered HCR and started reading her books. My husband and his family are Trump supporters and I never could understand it until I read her books. The history of our country should be taught in schools. The real history. In my 70th year I learned so much but also became pessimistic about our future. HCR tries to end on a positive note but I fear it's harder and harder to do.
Roland, it seems to me that the root of this is always greed. Power, money, control. And the foolishness of so many people to think they too can join the few at the top who hold all of the wealth of the world. And so let them have their way.
I think it is a bit more complicated than that. In fact most people white, black, Asian, Hispanic etc... are center right conservatives at heart. Even democrats are fairly conservative in most places. Most people do not feel comfortable with change and do not care for a progressive democrat party. People who are for sweeping progressive change are in the minority. I am one who would like to see progressive change but there are many who do not care for it and want things to remain the same. There are many that want to vote for a more Conservative party but there is no real home for them, particularly right now. Even though there has always been a racist faction of the party and the country many were willing to overlook that portion of it because the dog whistles were bearable and slightly harder to parse out. That is not the case anymore. Each day it seems republicans are willing to be more brazen and parallel racist histories.
Robert, your sense that most people do not want "progressive" change is belied by the numbers representing people's political beliefs. A cursory look at the numbers of, say, climate change action reveals the 73% of Americans want government action. You will find these numbers on almost any issue we now face. The idea that Americans don't want government action is a "talking point" from the radical right. It's not true. https://pewrsr.ch/3cpYd3B
I knew I was going to get blowback for that. My point is that there are a lot of people who don't like change and that democrats will need to make sure they are “progressive” in matters that centrists care about. Change scares them no matter what their race or backgrounds are. Not everyone thinks the same way. Some people are more open to change than others. Lately I have been thinking a lot about David Shor and Jonathan Haidt (“The Righteous Mind”). David Shor who is a poling and election analyst has spoken many times about how the poles messed up in the Midwest and how it came to be that Trump actually picked up more black and Hispanic voters this election cycle. His analysis of 2020 leads him to believe that people are generally more conservative and that people in general do not like change. At the same time it is also true that more people believe in climate change and the need for action. This has been a long time coming. David Shore points out that Democrats will need to continue to be “progressive” but only with things that people care about. There are a lot of people that believe that “cancel culture” and “wokeness” are progressive and also problematic. There are many progressive policies that a lot of people dont care about yet. So far I believe that the Biden administration has managed to keep the republicans largely in check by being progressive in ways that the center right and center left care about right now.
'There are a lot of people that believe that “cancel culture” and “wokeness” are progressive and also problematic.'
What this says to me is that "a lot of people" are still uninformed, historically uneducated, and downright ignorant. Admittedly, this forum attracts people with either advanced educations and/or people who have done a lot of independent reading and living (with eyes open in all directions) beyond what they were taught in high school; however, the numbers in our last presidential election indicate there are vast swaths of people out there in America who rely on their party leaders to tell them how to think.
What it says to me is that Robert is misusing a lot of terminology out of context, and making some claims that don't hold up. Say "progressive" to some people and they equate it with a version of socialism thanks to extreme Rightist propaganda. But when asked about specific items that are part of a progressive agenda without the label, they support it. Poll after poll. Easy to find on the net if you actually look. Following legislatures (my hobby, I guess) I get exposed to a lot of canned talking points that the Extreme Right Republican branch provides to members. What Robert wrote above was a classic example of some of it. Almost word for word. It gets passed along. Good memory, Robert.
Curious. Please describe those progressive changes that “ a lot of people don’t care about.” I don’t know what they are.
Now that I think on it a bit, are you referring to the need to break up monopolies? Tax stocks and bonds? ImposeA Wall Street transaction tax? Eliminate the Senate? Make WA DC a state along with Puerta Rico? Close tax loopholes for corporations? Institute a minimum universal income? Require union membership on corporate boards? Audit the Pentagon? Outlaw the revolving door between federal job and lobbying /think tank jobs?Withdraw from Afganistán? Beef up the IRS so they can audit the rich? Do all things - including the addition of a public bank to the Post Office to make it impregnable to oligarchic attempts to kill it? Put three more Supremes on the court? Ban prisons for profit? Eliminate gerrymandering and institute Federal districting Decision Boards of political scientists, statisticians and geographers to determine federal voting districts? Ban dark money? Reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine? Implement intelligent gun control legislation? Free tuition to college and university?
When I read a HCR letters the ones I like the most are the ones where she takes a hot topic of the day and marries it with a set of historical references. I also liked how Isabelle Wilkerson did the same in her Excelent book “Caste”. With that said every time I step slightly out of line with other posters here or even offer a slightly different yet still respectful take on a post I see I get a smorgasbord of responses. Some of them are truly snide disrespectful comments that progressives give me when they don't like what they see. That is one example of a progressive change that I know a lot of people in this country don't care for. I live in a Trump affected area but, I can say one thing for the area that I live in. I don't get the types of hyperbolic didactic laundry list responses from my neighbors for my “progressive” thoughts that I get here when I offer something that is less than 100% progressive. That is one example of progressive change that most people dislike and dont care about progressives.
Well said, Robert. As a compassionate person living in rural Oregon (a mere 50 miles from Portland), you have described the people where I live to a tee. Folks in general stay within their 'comfort' zone. I think with all the happenings during Covid, 'comfort' zones and life-views have been shaken. Those who are healthy in mind and spirit, call it a time of reflection, introspection, renewal that has resulted for many, in a change of heart...a change in viewpoint -an awakening. I pray, every time I think of President Biden, that his is blest with good enough health in mind and body to enable his spirit to soar.
You're right, people do fear the unknown, which is what change inherently represents. So let's bring back leaded gasoline! And we can drill and mine our way past climate change! (and btw, I find it hard to believe there's a book about Polish people messing up the midwest. /jk)
This yet another case in point for me. Rude, belittling, hyperbolic, and totally dismissive of anything that might lead to a better conversation.
Exactly!
I pray that you are right. It certainly feels like we're making huge strides. Progressive and Proud!
Actually, there is a sea change coming. The complacency of many has transformed into urgency. The muted acceptance of rapacious corporate actions upon the earth is shifting to WTF are they doing. The passivity in the face of 'isms' has bloomed into righteous indignation.
As an agent of change in my former career, I hold an understanding of how people interact with the notion.
Given choices, opportunities, and most of all, the space for participatory education, people embrace, drive even, change.
The Youngers have grown up in a completely different, almost unimaginable (to me) world. They live change. My cohort (old hippies) are ready to change the world again.
Anyone who has been in observation/participation in the new women's movement, BLM, the rise of AAPI movement, Indivisible (or similar groups) cannot help but be aware of the groundswell of energy and emotion.
It is not burnt out, but re-kindled by mass shootings, blatant Georgia injustices: all white men, closed door, plantation painting chosen by the token torturer wife of the current master, manhandling and arrest of a Black woman legislature charged with a felony...
Pardon me for preaching, but the Backlash Blues are yielding up fertile ground for major shifts in the paradigm of patriarchy.
Thanks kimceann.
Just a note on CHANGE.
All my discussions with the reactionary members of my family -- those with whom one can talk -- have had me focusing on the extraordinary speed, extent and acceleration of change during my long lifetime (over 80 years).
Let's say that people tend to form fixed views, when they don't simply perpetuate inherited prejudices, and all this is left so far behind by our rip-roaring reality that people with a conservative turn of mind (meaning "conservative" in the old sense of the word (before smash'n-grab and finders- keepers) are left so totally confused by all this that they're easy prey for snake-oil salesmen.
A little sympathy for those carried away after the breaking of the levees and the inrush of the sewage tide...
I do have sympathy/empathy. It has been a rushing tide. And, people who are able to participate, actively and with understanding, embrace progress.
Why? Simply because it leads to better...workplaces, relationships, empowerment. I'm not a Pollyanna about change. I just know that the process can be exhilarating as long as people have a say, have a stake in the outcome.
The old sense of conservative is precious. Conserve our world, for example.
It is the difference between 'children should be seen and not heard' and children having fully participative roles in the family. Heard, encouraged, exploring, loved and honored. Endless blessings,
It looks as though “progress” for you means moral progress, a movement away from lies and delusions towards truth. And that's the only form of progress that isn't offset by material costs to the world (though maybe to oneself, waking up to the truth is like circulation returning to freezing fingers and toes, and no one wants pain.)
I'm more skeptical about what 19th century positivists called “Progress”, duly followed by disciples on Wall Street and atop Lenin's mausoleum. That comes with “exceptionalism” and “greatness”.
Henry Fielding wrote a novel some two hundred and eighty years ago based on the life of the greatest criminal of the age, Jonathan Wild THE GREAT. And of Greatness he had this to say:
“Greatness consists in bringing all manner of mischief on mankind, and goodness in removing it from them.”
As for change, that’s the only reality we know, but, like chilblains thawing out, people would rather stick to beliefs prepacked and deep frozen than have to cope with the discomfort of live reality.
I certainly hope you are right. I know my own blood boils right now; I am hopeful that I am among many millions of like minded "Backlash Blues"! BTW, that's a great name for this hoped-for sea change!
I'm with you 100%!
To often we cling to comfort and it becomes a habit that makes us vulnerable to believing comfortable lies, subjugating our reason to emotional appeals. To often our passion for comfort overrides our discipline to think, debate, and come to terms with moral, ethical, and legal issues. As we cling to comfort, our minds and dialogue become stagnant. This is where power wants us, as it makes it easier to subdue, rather than perform a more complex task of identifying and exposing real problems and proposing solutions that may be unpopular and uncomfortable, however just, so justice and progress remain delayed.
exactly the opiate effect Marx was talking about
Robert, I think you are right. We face an interesting point in history.
"Progressives" are generally (in my observation) uncompromising idealists who are as quick to turn on each other as on the conservatives: it's said that liberals eat their own, and there's a lot of truth to that. They're very touchy over little things, and when they stop being reasonable, they can become vicious. But they do respond -- in my experience -- to objective language and careful reasoning.
One problem we have right now is that there is no Conservative Party: the closest you will find is the Democratic Party of the Joe Biden mold. The opposition Republican party has basically been sniffing pure marketing meth for four decades, and they are -- as an organization -- clinically insane and dangerously homicidal. They are losing votes for the same reason that people stop eating at a diner that smells of rotting fish, and they're trying to prop up their business by setting fire to all the other restaurants in town.
But the other problem is that conservatism only works in a society that is stable. This is a big problem.
Our society is facing a major infrastructure collapse, the bottom falling out of the center. Temperate climate. Oil. Capitalism. It's slow, which makes it hard for humans to cope with. The valley I live in will not be uninhabitable within my lifetime, but it may well be within my children's. We MUST adapt to these changes, because there is no alternative. And that means our lifestyles will change, and the government and the laws must change as well.
Conservatives aren't going to drive the change.
true-true
It's sort of funny, how "democrat party" has become a shibboleth.
How so?
The use of "democrat party," as opposed to democratic party, the common and preferred use by party members, began during the GW Bush presidency in the early 2000's. The masterful public spinmeister Karl Rove promoted it as a seemingly blameless way to irritate and demean Democrats by subtly altering their name. And it has stuck. But I see it used almost exclusively by Republicans, and still consider it a taunt. I never hear a Democrat use it.
How well I remember Karl Rove! Their smug taunts can be a thing of the past if we manage to demonstrate a show of force.
is there a way that this law can be overturned and throw these filthy people out of office? or are we going to watch this slow burning swastika sear the land across and all of our lives
Assume you are talking about GA law? (all those vericle lines confuse me)? It's being challenged in court- multiple cases. ACLU, NAACP, and others. I'm not a lawyer, but it's not hard to see that the thing is full of anti-constitutional elements. (I like "anti-constitutional" better in this case than "unconstitutional". Something can be unintentionally unconstitutional , but there is intention and deliberateness in this ugly law.)
But unless the first challenge hits pay dirt, it could be a long process. Stall after stall. My dream would be for it to be declared unconstitutional off the mark, and then get to the Supreme Court in short order, and for them to kick it back: Done. But I'm an optimist.
Thanks for the connect to Greg Olear.
😥😤 Unfortunately so TRUE!!!
So more directly to your point about voting, which if we had honorable good faith political groups, would be a bipartisan no brainer. By watching Mitch McConnell the last four years freezing out every single democratic (small c) legislative initiative like HR 1, you can see the R’s are not acting in good faith. They are doing everything in a last ditch effort to remain relevant, to remain viable. They want the old sexist racist genderist society, at any cost, doesn’t matter how you cheat lie or steal to make it happen. That is Donald Trump. That is the Republican party now, every corner of it, the good people who are principled have all left. Lincoln Society. Jennifer Rubin at the Washington post. Nicole Wallace and Joe Scarborough are on MSNBC of all places. The list of Republicans who have fled is tremendous. Even George Will has left the party, you know there’s a problem if this diehard feels compelled to leave.
Also: Steve Schmidt and David Jolly and Olivia Troye.
I just finished reading Adam Jentleson's Kill Switch, a history of the filibuster and the Senate. It's also a strong indictment of the damage that contemporary Republicans, especially Mitch McConnell, have done to the original intention of the writers of the Constitution, which was to have the actual practical function of the Senate be a majority vote.
Sibu8, it is clear to both parties. Republicans don’t want every citizen to vote, because they know they will lose most elections if that happens. This can’t be a bipartisan issue, if one party is adamantly opposed to making it easy for all citizens to vote. One could argue that Republicans could support universal voting, and change their racist, fundamentalist platform to win more votes. That’s unworkable, because the GOP is afraid they will lose their deplorable base if they do so. Where would all those deplorable voters go if the Republican party stops being deplorable? For the GOP the only way they can cling to power is to prevent as many minority and young voters from voting as they can. They don’t even try to hide it.
Republicans won in every contested House seat this past cycle. Every. They won a growing minority vote in the Presidential election. They are not at all in free fall.
I didn’t say that Republicans are in free-fall. I said they are locked in to a platform of white supremacy, and a strategy of voter suppression for minority and young voters. Gerrymandering, voter suppression and a built-in electoral college advantage work for Republicans. Since 2000, Republicans have won the presidential popular vote once. They’ve won the White House 3 times. Republicans have often held majorities in the Senate while winning 5-10% fewer votes nationally. Gerrymandering gives them a similar advantage in the House. For example, in the North Carolina congressional races, Democrats out-voted Republicans, 50% to 49%. Yet because of the way districts were drawn by the NC Republican statehouse, Republicans won 8 seats to the Democrats’ 5. Similar distortions are seen in some other states. We are not a one-person-one-vote democracy. Republicans don’t need to win a majority of votes to hold power. With gerrymandering, voter suppression and the electoral college, Republicans can win elections by taking 45-47% of the vote. Republicans won’t lose Georgia again, no matter what. Voter suppression and partisan vote certification will see to that.
I'll say it. The Republican party is in the early stage of its death throes. For all the shame and humiliation D Trump brought on our country, he did one positive thing by laying bare the the racist and classist ideas that underpin the modern Republican party. But, a lot of conservatives are not racist or overtly classist, and will not abide by that association. So Trump has effectively driven a stake into the party. They know it but can't acknowledge it. So they have to resort to what we see now. Desperate attempts to limit the franchise in ways they believe will skew votes in their favor. Sadly, it may work. But for how long? I think their party is doomed to go down in flames, because the large majority of people know what's fair when they see it, and will ultimately reject craven ploys for power when they are exposed.
Syd, I wish this was true. The best thing for the country would be the collapse of the Republican party. The GOP is the most anti-democratic force in America, getting more so every day. I guess I buy the argument that not all Republican (and conservative) voters are racist and “will not abide by that association”, but actions speak louder than words. 74 million voters chose Trump in 2020, that’s 11 million MORE than voted for him in 2016. There was a vocal never-Trump movement of ex-Republicans in 2020, but their numbers were minuscule. If Republican voters claim to not be racist or deplorable, but continue to vote for a deplorably racist party, methinks they are effectively racists themselves. No change will come to the GOP until a significant number of their voters reject it. That has yet to happen.
Good points. The Republican party can only be described as awful by me. And they still have inertia. But since Watergate, it's been a Frankenstein's monster of evangelicals, libertarian leaning blue collar workers, and racists stitched onto its more traditional core of wealthy business interests. I have a feeling that trump, with his trademark move of saying the quiet part out loud, has ripped off the bandages covering up the stitching, and it's all liable to fall apart. I'd say it will depend on how much the business interests can stand the white nationalist parts, and how much the working class part can stand getting shafted by the business interests. It all just seems very unstable to me.
How much damage will do, though, before this happens? It's disturbing to consider.
You are delusional. Both parties play the game. Hard. We are not a democracy but a Republic. That is why the popular vote does not always carry. As for the race card and cancel culture who might be playing that hard now. Got it. Also every time you basically call Republicans White Supremacist you are being let’s just say nice not kind. The Republican Party is not as monolithic as you and many subscribers might care to consider.
See above....troll.
Siibu8, I believe it is clear to both parties, but the Republicans have no intention of acting in a bipartisan manner. They know that the only way they'll retain power as a minority party is to suppress the Democratic vote. The easiest way to accomplish this is to intimidate people of color and make it as difficult as possible to vote for those who are housebound or do not have adequate means of transportation. We need to work together to stymie these people and show them, again, that we can outsmart them. We already outnumber them. Hope is important, but it must be coupled with courage and strategy. Under current circumstances and mindset, the Republicans will never do anything but obstruct.
When you're in the party whose ideas are not popular with the majority, and you want to have power - as today's (bowel) movement conservatives or yesterdays enslavers - then there is no bipartisanship. The only way things will change is when that side is overpowered, politically if not physically. You can "hope" in one hand and pee in the other, and I can tell you with great certainty which one will fill up first.
For many years, it seemed obvious to me as well, that any one born in America surely must believe in democracy. Finally, I have come to the sad realization that it is simply not so. That there are many people who think their ambitions are better attained in an autocracy or dictatorship than in democracy. I still wonder how so many have come to believe this, but I now accept that many do.
The Rs only think of power. All they care about.
Well said.
This afternoon I started a list of things to DO now to help support the For the People Act. 1. Write your elected officials 2. Write letters to the editor 3. Participate in non-violent peaceful protests demanding free and fair elections 4. Buy only from companies who show visible support of the For the People Act and democracy -- especially do not support corporations or the donors to Republicans elected officials opposing For the People Act 5. Sign a promise to not vote for any Republican at any level in government -- local, state, national -- as long as they are the anti-democracy party of lies, obstruction, insurrection and violence. 6. Speak up! 7. Counter misinformation especially words being contorted like Socialism and Voter Integrity with accurate definitions 8. Embrace Synergy - we are greater together 9. Support the social justice movement 10. Put a signature on every letter, email, text you send WE the People, All of Us This Time! 11. Hold the media reporting accountable. 12. Reach out to other groups supporting voter rights. Add you own ideas to this list. We the People, All of us this time!
13. Choose only information sources with integrity, be vigilant with mainstream and for-profit sources. HCR. Greg Olear. Lucian Truscott. (all 3 are at [name].substack.com)
All three are excellent!
A million human March in Washington against voter suppression and for We the People!
Love it! An ALL of US March!
Sure let’s do it. Be prepared for the police to perceive us as enemies and bulk up.
4. I haven’t purchased a Coca-Cola product in at least two decades. Home Depot is a known funder of conservative and regressive causes and politicians, always has been. Delta Airlines used to be one of the best in the business, they used to treat their people super well in the 80s, but I don’t know how they are today. UPS I don’t know. My wife has never complained about them, that’s a pretty good sign.
If you vote in Georgia, or you are an absentee voter from Georgia, this list counts even more for you. Everything you do is magnified.
I love this list Cathy ❤️❤️
Excellent list, Cathy. I have copied and pasted it on paper and formatted the list into a itemized list. (numbers down the page)
You list has inspired me to act
Exactly what I was hoping. We need everyone to act.
Take up oxygen! Call people out and make them defend their statements.
Question: what is meant by “put a signature on every letter, email, text . . . “
Everything else on this list is completely clear to me.
In most email systems you can add a signature to the bottom of the email that is automatically added so you don't have to type it in each time. Could be things like you name, company, phone, etc. Look under settings in your mail program.
I think the idea is not to be anonymous, but to speak up as who you are. Be brave. Be fearless.
Yes Cathy.
Thank you for this list!
Is it more effective if you also tell companies you are boycotting them & why?
We do that in Vermont. We also take out ads with all our signatures (at least as many as will fit on the ad size we can afford). It makes them nervous, and often gets them to negotiate on issues they are hiding from. Boycotts take time, and this might help shorten them. Usually it takes until they see changes in bottom line. Either way, it takes a while. Personal statements/letters/phone calls are more effective than cards, electronic petitions, printed petitions. A lot of ours are simple pads with the argument written across the top by hand, and two lines for each signatory. People in cities may find them effective too. The real point is to draw attention. Faster results.
Thank you Heather.
The historical significance of the signing of the Voter Suppression Law by Kemp and the dragging away and arrest of Representative Cannon is staggering. It will, as I suspect end up in the Courts but not until both have been sufficiently documented for history.
Long after we are all gone, how will that read in future History classes? I hope not as just a footnote to the day. It should be taught as a day that this Nation can't even get out of its own way when it comes to learning from our sordid past.
As Women's History Month winds down, I hope Representative Cannon will be remembered as a Black female elected official that was not only denied access to the room where an all white, male caucus was signing her rights away but was also arrested and charged with a felony for her efforts. The irony is extraordinary.
Be safe, be well.
In addition, the white cops arresting Representative Cannon were violating the Georgia constitution, which protects legislators from arrest except for specified major crimes. Declining to stop knocking on the locked door behind which that despicable law was being signed, is not on that list.
Since when did the Republicans care what the law or the constitution said if it isn't in their interests to do so.
For that matter, Kemp is only governor due to voter suppression. As Georgia Secretary of State, he had purged from the voting rolls - and neglected to process voting registration - of more than enough black voters to account for his margin of ‘winning’ that election. Without that, the governor of Georgia today would be Stacey Abrams.
As in many other State, Joan. The Republicans had their eye on the ball while the Democrats were...somewhere.
THIS is an ABSOLUTELY KEY point. Where were the DEMS when the REPs were conquering all of those state legislatures, gerrymandering congressional districts, etc. etc.? The REPS have been working on this for twenty years or more. I'm happy the DEMS have finally decided to try to fight it, but they only managed to take back control in a few state legislatures. Which is why they need HR 1 - to repair all of their strategic errors over the past twenty years or more in one bill. Good luck with that. Whoever said "don't mourn, organize", it's still a very good motto.
Too many don’t pay attention to local politics. The decline of local and regional newspapers, and the rise of conservative local radio and tv stations owned by Sinclair Media, has made it even more difficult for people to get accurate, comprehensive local news. The consciousness of millions was raised by the horrors of the Trump administration, which helped to increase voter participation in the last election, but if voter participation doesn’t increase for local and state elections, it will be difficult to turn the conservative stranglehold on state legislatures around. We absolutely need the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and we also need to do everything possible to wake people up to their local and state politics. Local journalism is essential. Elevate and financially support (with your paid subscriptions) city and state newspapers and online news sources, including some of the independent journalism ventures that are making an effort to fill the gaps left by regional newspapers that have been bought up and plundered by vulture investment funds like Alden Global Capital. (If you don’t know about this, simply do an internet search to reveal this ongoing disaster for local journalism.) Get to know your representatives on your school board, city council, county commissions, and state legislatures. Join a local Indivisible group or start one in your neighborhood or town (https://indivisible.org). Keep track of pending bills at the state level and be bold about speaking out in support or opposition. Our country’s democracy depends on our ongoing involvement and meaningful actions. Many small actions over time can make a big difference.
Read Democracy in Chains
I couldn't agree more.
“The forces of evil are well funded and determined”-Sen. Raphael Warnock
There ARE wealthy DEMS also. In fact, the DEMS raised MORE money in 2020 AND 2016 than the REPS did. So let's stop using those stereotypes and ask the serious question - do the DEMS understand how to USE that money?
True long-term, Stuart. In 2018, Abrams was totally on point, and had been for a long time. It wasn’t until she came that close to becoming governor that the Democratic Party nationally started paying attention to Georgia.
Yep! They were up in the air somewhere dreaming of what might have been if only Obama...
Stuart, in many states the last few years, the Republicans lied, manipulated process, failed to show up to do their constitutionally mandated duties, disrupted proceedings. In the meantime, Dems were in the committee meetings, trying to work in spite of disruptions, arranging meeting time and working overtime so they could have quotas, begging Republicans to return. In some cases, enough Republicans did so they could actually pass legislation.
This was not covered by media (who were distracted by all the logging and dump trucks circling state houses) until some nervy independent political analyst got in touch with some friendly reporters and news ombudsmen at the national level. THAT got the cams turned around and pointed in the right direction.
Abrams efforts after losing swung Georgia blue. Thats Lincolnesque resilience right there.
yes!
That’s dead on accurate 🧿
“Gamers & breakers”
Joan I can't help but wonder if that door would have freely opened to a white male counterpart ?
If there's a fund to pay for her defense and for charges of wrongful arrest, I hope someone posts the information. That video was viewed widely and is all the evidence needed to prove that all she did was knock on a door (which I believe she would have been within her rights to enter, given this was supposed to be a public event and she is an elected official) and then be literally dragged away. And to be charged with a felony? Ridiculous.
And by three policemen
The symbolism is extraordinary. 130+ years and still it’s alive. Obviously true democracy, true equality, has an awful lot of detractors still.
Yes the irony is extraordinary veering on caricature
Well said, Linda. Thank you.
History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes...
Our democracy remains fragile and subject to the desire of rich, white men to stay in power. They believe in Party over County without regard for who they exclude and step over on their way forward.
James Henry Hammond was a despicable character in his personal and political life. Looks like the present day Big-Lie Spouting Republicans are walking in his footsteps.
The bravery of Representative Park Cannon should be an inspiration to us all. Conducting the Public’s business in a meeting behind closed doors should always alert “suspicious activity.”
For much of the post-WW2 period, democratic institutions were taken for granted in America and Britain, and consequently neglected.
Our institutions are living things, not monuments, not tables of stone, not fetishes. They need to be respected, supported, constantly sustained, kept alive and in good health. Look around now, everywhere you'll see what can happen when they are not cared for. When they grow weak, enemies arise who cage them, drug them, poison them.
Hence the rise of judicial review in UK as a way of imposing minority....or majority...opinions on the government outside electoral contests and parliamentary rebellions. Sounds familiar to the other side of the Atlantic? On neither side of the Atantic were Supreme Courts intended to have this role....but nature abhors a vacuum.
Both countries have unrepresentative parliamentary systems and the allowance of different weighting for voters in different parts of the country. The UK unwritten "Constitution" as it is a summation of "tradition" mixed with a varying dose of the "Charter of the Forests" and "Magna Carta" allows perpetual modification at the margin, like a long-term moving average of decisions that bit-by-bit enter into the realms of tradition. Flexibility has enabled the UK to evolve, rigidity is getting the US into a hole.....time to stop digging and to start very urgent rescue procedures.
Yes, but Stuart, there’s a balance to be maintained, one that ensures that majority rule prevails, while respecting the rights of self-respecting minorities, one that avoids dictatorship by a majority or, it goes without saying, a minority. As with so many things, the principle is simple enough but practice is not so easy.
Did not James Madison envisage adaptation of the Constitution to take account of the evolving needs of rising generations? Behind the Constitution Cult that worships immutable tablets of stone there scurry the restless ghosts of those 18th century backwoodsmen who wanted no government and no constitution, just God and the Bible… Or rather, their shrunken notions of God and their very fixed misinterpretations of the Good Book.
The US Constitution tends towards sclerotic fixity, while Britain’s constitutional arrangements have in recent times manifested the characteristics of an overripe Camembert cheese.
I love the "camembert" comparison. Thats what happens when or political representatives of the people descend into the realms of the largely impotent, ineffectual do-gooders like our dear Theresa May, the mediocrities such as Campbell, Starmer, Major etc and the different forms of buffoonery such as BoJo and Corbyn. It is time that we got out of thinking of politics as a career and got back to the idea that leadership is a vocation.
Be thankful folks for our Republic. We have created the greatest country the world has ever witnessed. Ever. The Magna Carta lit that fuse.
As Franklin reminds us, "A Republic, if you can keep it." Never be sanguine about perpetuating something so fragile. We remain a relatively young Republic in a history that continues to be written. Now is not the time to be smug with consoling ourselves with false assurances about platitudes on American exceptionalism. We have far too many flaws and some are quite deep and increasingly dangerous.
Given the current oligarchic influence in the US, I’m not sure we still technically can say we have a republic. It has been slipping away slowly and steadily since the Powell letter.
A republic founded on racism—genocide of native peoples and enslavement of others from a warmer land, people stolen, dragged in chains, bought and sold, whipped, lynched, raped so that men of white could (and still do) prosper. I fear your patriotism, Mr. Carroll. It seems blinded--a rather large mote in your eye of understanding of our foundations.
I have not read the Magna Carta in decades, but did it include ALL PEOPLE, or just the rights of white people and barons and kings?
Are you proud of our genocide and slavery? Are you wishing to repeat it to maintain a caste system? What color are you? Where do your ancestors come from? Mine are from colonist slaveholders and native peoples. It keeps me humble and clear.
If you were born with brown skin, would that change your superiority philosophy, I wonder?
The Magna Carta is not difficult to read, and it is online. If you had read it, you would recognize the inappropriate assumptions you've made about what it was. It codified something that was a long tradition of mutual allegiance in England. The document resulted from a rebellion of the aristocracy against a greedy monarchy because the monarchy was taking too much for it's "share" of production. The aristocracy were actually advocating for the rights of the people who lived on the land they oversaw. Was this King John? Too tired to look it up (it's late here). I believe they actually took him hostage until he agreed to their demands and signed the thing. Do read it. You might learn something besides the fact that the Brits started this on their own island first. Despite his protestations to the contrary, David acts like a troll, just a very sophisticated one who likes to toy with people by throwing out half-thoughts as bait. Sorry, Penelope, I share your feelings, but you bit the bait. Not worth the effort or the oxygen. David is just here as sport.
I appreciate your analysis of the Magna Carta. You are also right in that I have never been one to go with the crowd. Frankly it’s not easy nor really fun at times to be perceived this way. This is a pretty unique forum with a bunch of bright minds. I hope sometimes my perspective leads to more thought even if it only reaffirms your thoughts. So be it. I do like your comment about being here for sport. It makes it sound easy and fun all the time.
As HCR has reminded us - the Founders had a brilliant idea but were flawed people of their time. We learn and try to do better. Still flawed, you bet - but still trying.
Penelope. You know 800,000 people died fighting our Civil War. We had the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We have taught and evolved as a country. Perfect. No. Good yes.
Taking a measured assessment, Mr. Carroll --
Improvement, Yes, but it's far too soon to pat ourselves on the back when so many in this country are still prevented from voting. Kemp's blatant racism seen in the staged photo op is not any less appalling than seeing Chauvin's knee pressed on Floyd's neck for 9 seconds with a nonchalant expression on his face. There is no difference.
I thought you might like the "Baron's Charter" ...the "Charter of the Forest" which protected the rights of the people against all others, including the Barons, is as or more important. But i guess you might think that the "Star Chamber" might be a good model for the Supreme Court too...
I always learn something from you, Stuart! So there is a name for all those secret meetings current repubs have as well as their beloved cult leader and Putin, our hostile foreign entity bent on destroying democracies. Hmmm...Star Chambers.
Being a republic is better than being a monarchy, but just barely. Republicans have stagnated. Democrats have developed the idea of government further. They have refined it.
I think they both have lost it... Big Time...
Go away, please. Troll, you're grossly outnumbered here.
No. Best not to exclude anyone on the grounds that we don't like what they say. We might pick up some clues from Mr. Carroll's messages. He too may fall from his high horse some day and understand something different. Only stupid people are completely proof to change. And we should all be concerned for the rights of minorities -- so long as they don't include a right to trample on those of a majority.
Funny. You like being one of the “ herd”. No? I like my odds ;)
Hahahahahahaha!!!! Don't believe everything you see in the movies. Especially when they star Russell Crowe.
“Choose an institution and defend it”-Tim Snyder
I think the 1950s were plagued by Red scares, McCarthyism, loyalty oaths, black lists. Democracy was tested then too.
Knock on a door in GA and get arrested. Conspire to and Storm the US Capital, beat, spray, break doors and windows, steal and destroy property, comity assaults & murder, urinate and spread feces on the walls, take selfies, and walk away claiming nothing wrong was done.
Park Cannon— we should say her name.
Indeed I am tempted to go to GA during the next election with offerings of fruit and water to the voters in longer lines. And yes Liz Ayer, her name is indeed Park Cannon. And yes 🙌 she is a hero.
Park Cannon
I will go with You!!!😊
Georgia seems to be particuarly graced it's "opposition" politicians. We have now an A (Abrams), C Canon) an O (Ossoff) and a W (Warnock) now what we need to make sure that Georgia stays on course as a blue State is similar strength coming from BDEFIJKLMNPQRSTUVXYZ so that the whole alphabet of the people are heard without having to resort to another William Tecsumeh Sherman.
Georgia’s moment or Georgia on my mind.
Oh, I love Georgia on My Mind much better that a The Devil Went Down to Georgia! A little alchemy is needed with our Love (and activism) to help bring Georgia fully into the this century.
Alchemy and activism in GA
Yes, Kari. It seems conducting the people's business is none of the people's business.
Oh yes it is...it is the business of the PEOPLE, as defined by the Wall Street Journal or the Financial Times and not the Tabloid Newspaper industry.
I agree, Stuart. Tell that to KKKemp!
Witticisms abound. Thanks Lynell.
She knew just what to do in the moment. The result: every news cast reporting the signing of the bill is accompanied by what they did to Rep. Cannon, usually with equal time. We need to remind our fellow citizens over and over what this is about!
This should remind us all of the importance of continuing to knock on the doors of justice and equality for all that often seem closed in our faces.
And should be outlawed. We The People pay for them and they must be transparent as our "employees." If not, out damn spot.
This is a time to focus. Focus our attention and comments on voting rights. Channel our energy into productive action in service of democratic process, not on noisy provocateurs. Perusing the number of comments to Heather's Letters since November 2020, last night's Letter of March 25 sparked the most comments to date, except for one other--January 6. We were clearly and righteously fired up about Georgia Republicans' lightning passage and signing of a new voter suppression law.
What can we do? HCR Readers had plenty of good ideas and specific directions in which to go:
* Support HR1/S1 For the People Act.
* Protest voter suppression legislation pending in 42 other states besides Georgia.
* Lobby against corporate donations to Republicans, starting with the Top 10 corporations in
Georgia.
* Boycott corporations that donate to Republicans.
* Support MLB moving the 2021 All-star game from Atlanta.
* Support churches and religious organizations that advocate for voting rights, such as the 6th
District AME Church in Atlanta and Rev. William Barber's Poor People's Campaign.
* Donate to organizations effectively working on behalf of voting rights, such as Fair Fight.
* Do grassroots work for organizations effectively working on behalf of voting rights, such as
Common Cause.
* Write letters, texts, emails, make phone calls to newspapers, social media, and offices of elected
officials to make your position known.
Names, email addresses, phone numbers, sample letters, sample phone call messages--it's all there in last night's comments. Sound daunting to read through 871 comments? Select "Top First" and start with Daria Wilber's thread.
Turn your outrage into action. Every little bit counts. Set the good example for your children. Inspire friends and family. As Heather said, we need to be in the water rowing our boats toward the shore where we want to be. We the People--All of Us This Time!
This bold woman, Ellie, is insisting we ALL knock on that door of oppression. Thank you, Ellie, for compiling this important list from our 871(!) comments yesterday.! Pick one! Do it! Pick another! Do it! I will copy and post, then donate to FairFight. Then...
Thank you! A group of HCR Substackers has formed to channel our great discussions into effective action. You can email us at heathersherd@gmail.com
Thank you, Ellie. Good ideas. I have copied and pasted on paper.
This is excellent, Ellie. A good solid list of the many little things we can do as we can to make a difference. None take a lot of time, but will add up to a significant impact. I am going to post near my computer and assign myself at least one a day. In addition to the stuff I do anyway, as part of my responsibilities as a citizen.
Didn't someone (Cathy Learoyd?) have a list with links to write the Georgia corporations? I cannot find it.
May I copy and share on my FB page?
Please do! Thank you!
HCR began her letter today, "Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed his state’s new voter suppression law last night in a carefully staged photo op. As journalist Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Inquirer pointed out, Kemp sat at a polished table, with six white men around him, under a painting of the Callaway Plantation on which more than 100 Black people had been enslaved. As the men bore witness to the signing, Representative Park Cannon, a Black female lawmaker, was arrested and dragged away from the governor’s office.
It was a scene that conjured up a lot of history."
Not only does it conjure up a lot of history, it reminds me of how close we are to repeating a disastrous mistake again! We magnanimously sent the Confederates home to begin again. What they did was go home and maintain their cause of inequality instead.
Today the DOJ is hunting criminals who raped the Capitol in Washington, but we let these legislators and demagogues who aided and abetted them to sit free in the their chairs of power and continue to vote and spread the poison of inequality penalty-free. The folks in the cheap seats are asking themselves, if we are wrong and our legislators are wrong, why haven't they been unseated? So they use this to justify what they think and do.
As Heather wonders in conclusion, "The Military Reconstruction Act, wrote Maine politician James G. Blaine in 1893, “changed the political history of the United States.”
Today, as I looked at the photograph of Governor Kemp signing that bill, I wondered just how much."
Apparently not much. The evidence is the staged photograph. White male chauvins (as in Derek) signing a despicable act of law under a despicable piece of art.
A slight adjustment to the staged photo op -
https://twitter.com/DwayneLGill/status/1375574925482803201?s=20
Very appropriate.
You know, I imagined that scene exactly the same way. Bravo.
Brilliant. Thanks!
OH.
This could be tragic!
The other guy and his creeps have no compunction about using the lack of the filibuster to put us into a permanent minority. That will be tragic!
"The folks in the cheap seats are asking themselves, if we are wrong and our legislators are wrong, why haven't they been unseated?" Skip, I think you've hit upon the disconnect that needs to be connected.
Thank you so much, Lynell.
Exactly. If they were removed immediately for insurrection against our democracy, we would not have to be witnessing this ridiculous spectacle of debauchery in our government. It hurts my brain the mental gymnastics we have to go through with blatant anti-Americans still sitting in our government. Why the hell are they still there?
Yes! Why???
The Ds want to be seen as taking the high roads with Rs and the few "Moderates" like Manchin. They think the Rs will be pleased and do the same. WRONG!
You are spot on, Penelope!
The Union was kept “together.” The South “lost” the war. Growing up in NC in the 60’s and early 70’s, I was taught Lost Cause history. There were so many horrible things that were never mentioned like Wilmington’s coup d’etat murdering many Black people. The United Daughters of the Confederacy “won” the war perpetrating Lost Cause mythology. Fast forward to first job out of college in a small Midwestern town where my husband and l were told about escorting Black people out of town. Prejudice and discrimination don’t die when people quietly keep it alive. James G. Blaine was mistaken.
EXACTLY!! What a perfect analogy! Are we really going to repeat that horrible mistake?!?!?
As I watch the battle over voting and civil rights today not only continue but seemingly intensify I despair that this is a battle I have engaged in since entering adulthood over 60 years ago. I found selfish, racist, attitudes abhorrent then and find them no less so today.
I have spent my life it seems protesting, demonstrating, writing letters, and making phone calls to politicians, working to register voters and get them out to the polls, and supporting candidates and causes to push back against discrimination, racism, injustice, and division. I have worked tirelessly to promote inclusion, social justice, equality of opportunity for all, and, above all equal and expanded access to the ballot. I despair that it seems that the mean-spirited attitudes of those on the other side of this battle have only hardened. Justice and equality seem lately to have regressed to a state of even greater disrepair.
Can it be that a lifetime of efforts in this cause have made no difference at all? When my despair seems overwhelming, I try to remind myself that this is a multi-generational battle that many who came before me fought tirelessly as well. Why should my own spirit lag when they persisted and often made seemingly little progress either?
So, it is back to the bulwarks yet again. I do not despair, because the battle is just and the goals worth the effort. My spirits are lifted by the number of those I see engaged in this effort and their dedication to the cause. How can this fight not be won when so many believe so strongly in the cause for which we work?
I remind myself that while the number of those who oppose justice and equality is large, it is still a minority and a shrinking minority at that. They know their support of restricting ballot access and perpetuating inequality and racism is necessary to sustain their position of power as their ideology is opposed by a majority of our citizens. While they may sustain their power for longer than their cause deserves, as long as the number of those who oppose them is greater than their own, they cannot win. They can only delay the inevitable.
I remember Edmund Burke's admonishment, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." Victory or defeat in this cause is therefore in our own hands, not in the hands of those we oppose. Injustice can only triumph if we do nothing. After fighting this battle for so long, I and all those I know working for equality and justice certainly do not plan to surrender now.
I always find your posts meaningful. Thank you for your words. I just have to add on a few words from one of my most favorite beings: “Do not get lost in a sea of despair. Be hopeful, be optimistic. Our struggle is not the struggle of a day, a week, a month, or a year, it is the struggle of a lifetime.” If John Lewis can keep his chin up and stay on the path of good trouble, than I’m not giving up! ❤️
The death spasms of the right that we are witnessing are the result of irreversible changes pushed along by champions like you.
Bruce (and SO many others here!), thank you for all you have done, all you are doing, and all you will do to make this world a better place.
Bruce, I know. I walked around the house yesterday crying angrily after watching that video of the Rep being arrested simply for knocking on the door. Makes me wonder just WHY the GA gov thought the signing of something he thinks is meaningful has to be private. Reminded me once again that this kind of extreme positioning takes place when people know they are already losing. That helped lesson the despair. I think this is going to blow up on them in court. So many provisions in that bill that beg to be declared anti-constitutional. Use of that term quite deliberate. Something can be unintentionally unconstitutional. But anti-constitutional is deliberate, a taunt, a thumb in the eye.
So I am more determined than ever to resist. How, I don't know, but I do belong to ACLU and NAACP, so I donate to their legal efforts. And do believe that they will succeed. The law is so egregious that I don't see how our Supreme Court could let it go by. If it gets that far: there's the possibility it won't get past the appeals court.
This morning I chased down the photo of Kemp and Mrs with their precious painting of the old slave plantation, clearly proud. Of what? That it existed at all, or that it no longer exists? Or an aspiration? A display that they are no longer ashamed of their past? Or that it simply means nothing at all other than as a symbol of a past they revere? At any rate, the smugness of it all made me feel ill.
It is the caring compassion and opposition to injustice of you and others like you pushing back that will make a difference. Thank you.
Thank you, Bruce. All of us.
Yup, Annie you got the sentiment.
I am going to open a lemonade stand on Election Day in GA. Permit will be applied for. And if it is disallowed I will pass it out for free and let the bastiches drag me to jail.
Be right there with you. Already making plans with a number of others to arrange for donations of water and organizing an army of volunteers to distribute it to voters in lines. A small group is the opposition but thousands are the resistance. If there are thousands of volunteers handing out water to voters in lines peacefully there is no way they will be able to arrest and prosecute all of us. That is what John Lewis characterized as good trouble.
What fun! New word: bastiches: combination of the words bastard and bitch
The Republican Party seeks to return us all to the plantation and the company town where "...a few wealthy men rule[d] over a larger class with 'a low order of intellect and but little skill.'"
One supposes that Republican majority legislatures are taking quick advantage to the conservative packing of the federal judicial system, thank you very much, Mitch McConnell, and gerrymandered congressional districts to put the brakes on recent history and reverse the nation's political progress backwards.
I don't think it's going to work; the handwriting is on the wall. What we may be witnessing is, at long last, the final death rattle of the Confederacy, and the Senate filibuster along with it.
Ah, a person who sees things as I do‼️ Through most of 2020, I suspected the death knell was imminent. Through the crucible, the trial by fire, of January 2021, a month I will never forget as long as I live, I realized my suspicions were becoming a reality. It was the January 5 Georgia Senate election, a complete miracle, that I now believe is a crucial turning in US history. Combined of course with the next days events. The disintegration of the Republican Party is underway. The Old Social Order of white male straight supremacy has finally been damaged irrevocably. That awareness is less than two months old. The conviction I mean of that reality. I now consider it a fact that the Democratic Party is on its way to doing what it did in California, relegating the Republican Party to permanent minority status.
You are once again correct. I lived through that CA destruction of the Republican party. With leaders like Gray Davis (why did his parents' name him that?) they were cycling down. Get the popcorn, it's going to 'be wild'.
I lived in CA when we recalled Grey Davis, he was the heir to the presidency for the Democrats and was largely seen as such, the problem was that he was incompetent when it came to acting on the electricity crisis. Power became so expensive that a large number of companies packed up and left. It turned out that we were being gamed by Enron,(remember them)? Grey was recalled and thrown out of office and replaced by Arnold who did a credible job, didn’t need the money or the governor’s mansion and in fact flew back to LA in his own jet every night to sleep 🛌. It was only later when Enron collapsed that it all came out how they had manipulated energy supply to CA in order to massively increase the price and there by their own profits. While that was happening, no one in the Davis administration could figure it out. All of that was brought to us by the people that ran Enron, some of them convicted or about to be if they had lived longer, most of whom were great donors to the rich cultural life of Houston, at CA’s expense.
And look what the Democratic Party in California is doing to itself with the "Newsom recall movement". Once the Republicans are somewhat reduced or split into factions (still of course an hypothesis) the "all-powerful" Democratic Party will have nothing to hold it together.
Indeed--CA is not the example I would choose if I were to provide one. ANY political party that has overwhelming power is soon corrupted and that is certainly the case in CA in places that have been secure Dem bastions (SF for instance). Katie Porter is a breath of fresh air because she is a new breed of pol in a very mixed district. Her emphasis is not on political posturing but on the truth. That ought to be the goal. Helping Americans in need and preventing corruption, enhancing and guaranteeing equity and rejecting bigotry and bias should be bipartisan--it should not be the purview of one party or another. But what has happened to BOTH parties is a combination of corruption, hubris, and institutionalization so that the members perceive their own self interest as all important and forget what their actual jobs are.
Virginia has had a very hard-fought road to democratization and it has a long way to go, but their efforts are bearing fruit, despite the stupidity of the boyz at the top (who behave badly but get away with it because they actually apologize, unlike the other side). I would recommend looking there, not at CA.
You may want to 'do your research' on this one. I'm withholding judgment for now, but following it closely.
https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/mar/18/are-california-recall-leaders-tied-militias-and-qa/
Very interesting. I had not heard Newsom's comments this past week, other than his acknowledgement that the recall effort will probably make the ballot. I have no idea the numbers of "fringers" in CA thus, cannot guess if they have sufficient numbers to do the deed. But it is striking to note how many of their "leaders" are members of questionable "militia" groups and how QAnon conspiracy theories seem to be posted on their social media sites. This fact check bears out his comments, while noting that he might be "overstating" the participation of such folk. That does not mean, however, that his comments are untrue.
In g the he dustbin of history
You mixed Klingon and English but I think I got the point 😉
🙌🏻
🤣😂😅
Hmm. As if the capitalist masters and the Fraternity of the Obscene Wealthy, Wall Street titans and our regular monopolistic corporate heads who are funding ALEC, the Chamber of Commerce and the Republican Senatorial traitors with their Captain McConnell at the helm and all the state Republican legislators are going to lay their weaponized money down instead of jacking up the pillaging of the democratic republic just when their calculated aggression is about to win a critical battle in the war? Think again. Racism is a hefty tool waged smartly to bolster the power of the existent capitalistic power players.
I am optimistic, because we "slaves" of all races do NOT have 'a low order of intellect and but little skill' - beyond the gerrymandered and stuffed ballot box we have what I saw yesterday: rapid organization to boycott companies that support these Georgia legislators, developing plans for protests, filing of lawsuits, deep discussions of what exactly is democracy and how do we protect it from this internal invasion. And one strong woman boldly knocking on the door of oppression.
Yes!! Exactly this! The white patriarchy are a bunch is scared skunks spraying as if their lives depend on it. That skunk spray might hurt but it surely wont stop us. Their time is up. All they have left is violence and lies. #WethepeopleAllthepeopleThistime
What a fabulous image! Thank you!!
That's what scares them: strong females, and oh my God some are not white. Toxic masculinity with really down deep poor self-esteem. Wonder where that came from?
Such toxicity can turn a man Orange.
“And one strong woman boldly knocking on the door of oppression.” Love it for so many reasons. The idea that one person can make a difference. That a woman has strength. That a simple action taken boldly can make a profound statement. The symbolism of oppression being a door leading to the room you want to be in so your voice can be heard. This could easily be my new rallying call!
YES!!
Right on, sister! Your post is the reason for my own optimism.
Beautifully said!
A Worthy effort!
Maybe. We're both projecting into the future. You're glass is half empty, mine is half full. History will likely show that we were both right and wrong.
Thanks for responding to my post.
Let’s hope so. A pundit speculated that this retrograde “law” will impede poor voters of all races. It’s a desperate act of reactionaries who refuse to share. I can’t imagine what these guys were like as children.
Everybody knows a "frat brat" or two and you probably frequented vestiges of their earlier form since starting school yourself.....the school bully, the "sports king" who had little between the ears but thought it was enough to have it all between his legs!
Yes. The "other brain".
I cling to your last paragraph, Ralph. Please be right!
Nicely Put!!🤔😊
Yes.
What follows is a long post, and I’m going to make it even longer by way of a short explanation.
Some weeks ago, I drafted a Letter to the Editor, with editorial help from some of the people in this forum – Ellie, Cathy, Annette, Steve and likely one or two I’ve forgotten. What follows is that Letter (edited again this morning) with additional observations from recent events.
Each time I have voted, from that very first time 50 years ago, to this day, I have felt the awesome power and responsibility we share in shaping our nation’s destiny.
In that moment, I recognize the immense good fortune I enjoy, and the sacrifices my parents and their parents made, to preserve that right. Through wars and economic crises – even pandemics – nothing has prevented us from holding our elections.
To our great shame, many Americans have not enjoyed that same freedom to vote. From the moment African Americans were granted citizenship and the right to vote, they have been made to suffer loss of life, physical injury, and intimidation at the hands of people who did not think they were deserving of the vote. The same holds true for other people of color who came to this country in search of freedom and were met by resistance, often violent, by those who feared any challenge to their dominance.
On Election Day in 1920, a white mob massacred Black Americans (the number of dead has never been definitively reckoned but ranges from 30--60) in Ocoee, Florida. Their homes and businesses were burned, Black men were lynched and castrated, and when Federal agents finally arrived weeks later to investigate, not one person was prosecuted. The agents said they were not there to investigate murder, arson, or assault – only accusations of voter fraud. Sound familiar?
Today, 43 states are considering legislation to limit the voting rights, primarily of people of color, but also of the elderly and disabled, all predicated on the lie that Joe Biden was not fairly elected. There can be no doubt, at long last, that voter fraud prevention is not the true motivation behind these laws – they are motivated by racism and fear of a fair election. This must end.
The Senate is now considering the For the People voting rights act that will give more people access to the vote, introduce redistricting reforms that would stop the partisan gerrymandering of election districts by both parties, and provide for small-donor public financing of Congressional and Presidential elections to give average voters a chance to compete with the huge PACS that currently dominate our elections.
President Biden has taken up the cause and named the torrent of anti-democratic laws pulsing from Republican controlled State Houses for what they are – modern versions of Jim Crow laws from the post-Reconstruction era.
The House of Representatives has done its work, it is time for the Senate to act to ensure every citizen the opportunity to vote. If “We the People” means anything, it means we must all have the right to vote. Whatever pressure we, as citizens, can exert on our elected representatives in Washington and in our communities, now is the time to act. Everything hangs on this – the right of the people to make their voices heard through the peaceful process of voting.
President Biden will advocate for passage of the For the People Act and there is a good chance that Senate rules will be changed to return the institution of the Filibuster to the painful physical process it once was. But, we must be prepared for the reaction that is, IMO, likely to result from a vote to pass this legislation.
Today, Republicans/Trumpists are bashing Covid measures as attacks on freedom, ranting about how cruel President Biden’s border policies are (that serving of hypocrisy is a breakfast-tosser) and flapping their gums about the horror of taxes. But all of that will be put aside and forgotten once their guns and votes are at risk.
Insurrectionists stormed the Capitol on January 6th as much in support of Donald Trump the man, as for what he represented. The racist policies at the heart of Trumpism are embodied in the current Republican-supported anti-voting laws.
Should those policies be threatened and should that threat be coupled with legislation to curb the national orgy of gun violence through even modest measures such as background checks and a ban on assault rifles, it is possible the events of January 6th will be viewed by history as the dress rehearsal for the mayhem that ensues.
I hope I’m wrong - I fear I’m not.
(Sources: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/new-exhibition-florida-honors-victims-bloodiest-election-massacre-american-history-180976283/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocoee_massacre)
Thank you for this post. I had not heard of the Ocoee massacre, and we do know that it was emblematic of other horrific lynchings and acts of terror against Blacks. The fact that the Ocoee massacre took place on an Election Day puts it right out there in plain sight, like when KKK felt emboldened enough to no longer hide their faces. Such acts of terror, intimidation, and voter suppression are not artifacts of history, but as you point out, carry a straight line to the January 6 insurrection and the March 25 signing of a voter suppression law for Georgia by white men triumphantly posed in front of a painting of a slave owner’s plantation.
And today we cannot just indulge that intellectual insight. All of us must follow through with action in support of HR1/S1 For the People Act to make our voices heard.
Pictures speak so much louder than words.
The explicit Kemp scenario against the backdrop of the Callaway Plantation brings to mind the improvised “courtroom” in a police station to which Alexei Navalny was brought after his return to Russia. There he was sentenced to be held for 30 days at Moscow’s high-security Matrosskaya Tishina prison.
What blasted the real message to the world at maximum volume was the picture hanging on the wall behind the judge: a portrait of Genrikh Yagoda, head of Stalin’s NKVD secret police at the beginning of the Great Purges. Not just the blatant continuity, but the fact that Yagoda was notoriously corrupt and when he was eventually arrested by his boss and eliminated for knowing too much, his house was found to be full of loot including gold coin and… a vast stock of precious wines. As in Navalny’s much-viewed film of the palace “built for Putin”.
Here, as in Soviet times, we have EXEMPLARY INJUSTICE, designed to show that the regime is all-powerful and ordinary Russians are nothing, but may at any moment be arraigned and imprisoned on trumped-up charges… to encourage the others. The Yagoda portrait is in-your-face gangster propaganda:
WE ARE THE LAW. WE CAN DO WHATEVER WE LIKE… WITH THE COUNTRY… WITH YOU.
Likewise the Callaway Plantation picture tells us who owns America… and Americans.
Don’t you see what the resemblances portend for Americans, for the world? If citizens, their associations and economic actors don’t join hands to defend your freedoms, no one will be safe anywhere.
Wow, Yagoda. I follow the story of Navalny, but had not known about the secret police head Yagoda’s portrait in the background of Navalny’s “trial.”
It is rumored that the boss wants N to suffer so much that he'll regret having survived poisoning. No doubt apocryphal.
Another HCR Reader is a former Russian ambassador and thought N should have stayed in Germany to run his organization. He and his wife are people of incredible courage, but I fear for their kids.
You are right.
Your words "I hope I’m wrong - I fear I’m not" have become a constant refrain for me.
I hear you.
Thank you for your excellent letter and this important history. It hit me really hard. Just so important. Let us know when we can share it.
You are welcome to use it as you wish, MaryPat. All good your way.
Thank you for writing this LTE. I copied and would like to share.
Make it your own, Fred and use it as you will. I'm glad it resonated with you.
Can I too?
Yes.
Bruce, you wrote: "Today, 43 states are considering legislation to limit the voting rights...". I'd like to give that a little more perspective. I have no doubt 43 states may have had bills introduced along those lines. But that does not mean that 43 legislatures are considering those bills. I suspect that in most case one or a few legislators in a state are following the anti-constitutional line and introduced bills of that type. Most of those bills will simply die unconsidered or rejected in committee. It is helpful to consider the entire process that a bill must go through and the various points at which it can be sidelined. BTW, it appears that fewer Rightists are complaining about Covid measures these days. That didn't take long.
I'm with Bill Sewell. May I also repost with credit to you?
Ellen, this LTE was a communal effort with other folks here on this forum, I only drafted it. No need to credit me. Feel free to share it - that was our original intent.
Thank you!
Thank you, R, that’s a beautiful letter.
Well said, Mr. Dooley. Thanks.
May I repost this with credit to you?
Bill, you are welcome to use it and make it your own. No need to credit me. Good luck with it.
Thank you so much. We all need to speak up as you have done. As the President said, “Silence is complicity.”
End the filibuster for the For the People Act. Then we can defend voting with the National Guard if necessary. Here we are again, 62 years after six-year-old Ruby Bridges was escorted by the National Guard through an enraged, verbally abusive, white crowd to attend elementary school. Effectively, Jim Crow never completely died. Camouflaged with gerrymandering, unnecessary voter ID laws and myriad, peculiar acts of voter suppression, it has metastasized. Let's kill it now.
I agree that passage of the For The People Act is essential. But I also worry about... what happens then? What do those GOP-led state legislatures do in those states? How is it enforced? You KNOW they're going to try to get around it. I mean, they didn't just desegregate schools overnight when a law was passed. How will this actually work??
A very important question...the battle truly does not stop there. elections must thereafter be won to consolidate the victories and so people still have to register and get out to vote.
The For the People Act needs to pass. It is unconstitutional if it doesn't! So then the filibuster cannot be defended in this case.
One filibuster reform is needed:
1) You have to talk and talk and talk and make a fool of yourself if your position is ridiculous
I was going to add a second, that you can't filibuster laws upholding constitutional rights. This may be a good idea. But I'm uncertain about potential for abuse from the other side.
I like it that you have to talk but it must be relevant. You can't just read the dictionary.
Maybe the exception would be, you can’t filibuster laws protecting the right to vote. Certainly it would have to be written carefully.
I think every representative has to be present the entire time during a filibuster. No leaving the chamber.
Right now, no one has to show. If they only go back to requiring talking, then only a few senators need to be present to continue, and it takes 60 present and voting to set a limit on remaining debate time. If they flip that requirement, so that it takes 41 present and voting to continue a filibuster, it will be much more tiring for the obstructing side.
The trouble is, the radical right so-called Republicans will go to any lengths to block voting rights.
A true path forward would both require 41 senators present to continue a filibuster, and exempt protection of the right to vote from filibusters entirely. The exemption would have to be written very, very carefully to hold up and allow the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to be covered, and ideally to make repeal of them subject to filibuster if it still exists.
I hope everyone understands that the USA is teetering on the edge of the abyss. It is make-or-break, put-up-or-shut-up time. It is appropriate to be alarmed.
I am not religious. Raised Christian, I saw a bunch of holes in that religion by my early teen years and declared my Atheism by the time I was 16. My evil stepmother on catching me skipping Sunday school once called me a heathen. I looked it up and it was spot on. But at least I am open about it, not like those lying, cheating, hypocritical, poser Christians in the Deep South such as Governor Kemp of Georgia et al. Part of that voter suppression law goes beyond just putting up obstacles for minority non-white ppl to vote but actually adds a clearly ANTI-CHRISTIAN clause that we heathens find repulsive.
From their own “Holy Buybull” they blatantly ignore a lesson from Jesus Christ. Matthew 25:35 “For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, ...” They just made a law in Georgia that will force voters to stand in long lines for hours and added that Good Samaritans not be allowed to ease their discomfort. These poser White Christians in the Georgia legislature are as evil as the robed Klansmen that sully all the Southern states.
Excellent quote from scripture!!
I said it yesterday and I’ll say it again: This is “put up or shut up” time for the Democrats. If they allow this law to stand, you can be 💯 certain that identical laws will follow elsewhere in the South, not to mention Ohio, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, Pennsylvania and any state where the Republicans control the legislatures. Democrats will never win these states ever again. The courts, which have been filled with Trump appointees (including three on the Supreme Court) will not help. So, this falls on the Senate, where Manchin and Sinema need to be bluntly told what’s at stake here.
Historical perspective is important here and it is a disturbing parallel with the past. This new election law is surely heading for the courts.
Marc Elias filed a lawsuit immediately on behalf of several GA voting rights groups. He was the attorney who fought many of Trump's voting lawsuits last Fall. (I hope he has an understudy!)
Yes, I certainly hope it is headed for the courts with a good result. Someone will have to temporarily go to jail in its defense, which will hopefully come swiftly.
Morning, all!! Morning Dr. R!!
I was confused when the voice of the previous administration kept hammering down that the election was stolen due to the counting of illegitimate/illegal votes. I simply could not understand why this idea could take hold. There then came my aha moment as the white of us embraced the idea and ran with it. Just as the coronavirus has spread throughout the country, so too has the devil spread. We have and are using the tools to beat back the coronavirus. There's a golden fiddle down in hell...
Good words except we are not really using the tools to beat back the virus. With the exception of the vaccine the response is largely the same as it has been throughout the pandemic - “open open open”
Paying people to stay home for a five week lockdown has always been the answer, from day one, but this country is run by the stock market and corporations, so it will never happen here. We just write 100s of thousands of deaths off as a cost of doing business.
And, unless enough of us agree to get vaccinated, or are able to, both here and around the world, even the vaccine won’t be enough. We are not out of these woods.
Thanks, Joe. You are right. I kept focusing on the vaccine when I wrote those words, and blocked out how people are behaving re masks, and opening up.
...and the thousands of crafty and contagious COVID19 variants may keep us paying that cost for decades.
For about the last 25 years I have had nothing but contempt for the leaders of the "Open, open," chant: the US Chamber of Commerce. Not sure that I could name a more anti-worker organization in the country.
I need the vaccine to help beat back th devil in GA.
From Allison Leigh Touchton Parsons:
"Reaction to Georgia Suppression Law:
Mangold
(The director of “Ford v Ferrari,” “The Wolverine,” “Walk the Line” and “The Call of the Wild”)
I will not direct a film in Georgia
11:26 PM · Mar 25, 2021
François Audouy
(Production Designer)
I will not design a film in Georgia
Jon Ossoff
@ossoff
Tonight Georgia’s legislature passed a bill brazenly intended to make it harder for Georgians to vote.
Among its outrageous provisions: it criminalizes *giving water to voters who are waiting in line.*
It’s no wonder Gov. Kemp hid behind closed doors while he signed it.
9:30 PM · Mar 25, 2021
Justin Amash
Imagine making it a crime to offer water to people waiting in line to vote
Representative Park Cannon
@Cannonfor58
Hey everyone, thank you for your support. I’ve been released from jail. I am not the first Georgian to be arrested for fighting voter suppression. I’d love to say I’m the last, but we know that isn’t true. #SB202
12:28 AM · Mar 26, 2021·
Mollie Katzen
(an American cookbook author and artist.)
I’m gonna straight-up cater the voting lines in the next GA election. Who wants to help with the prep?
10:55 AM · Mar 26, 2021
Will Bunch
Something looked odd Thursday night when GA Gov. Brian Kemp signed his new Jim Crow voting law
With some Twitter sleuthing, we learned Kemp was in front of a painting of a notorious slave plantation. The symbolism is overpowering.
Teri Anulewicz
@tanulewicz
On Thursday, in the wake of voting-restriction legislation signed into law by the GA governor, the executive director of the MLB Players Association said the players are ready to discuss moving their annual midsummer exhibition out of GA. #gapol
3:04 PM · Mar 26, 2021
Ted Lieu
@tedlieu
Dear @GovKemp: Next year, Congressman @RubenGallego and I are going to provide water to GA voters waiting in lines caused by your voter suppression law. My sense is many, many people will be providing water to voters. Because your law is unAmerican and insane.
Ari Berman
One of most dangerous parts of GA voter suppression bill allows state legislature to appoint majority of state election board & take over county election boards in order to challenge election results
"It will make what we all lived through in 2020 child’s play."
And as Kemp was signing the bill, surrounded by six white men, and in front of a painting of a plantation, Rep. Cannon, a Black woman, knocked on his office door and was promptly, instantaneously handcuffed and arrested. That is the height of outrageous. She was subsequently released, vowing to continue to fight for voter rights, as we all must do.
Substack added the extra line spacings, not I.
Thank you for these copy and paste quotes! 🙏🏼
Allison Leigh Touchton Parsons compiled them and posted them on Facebook.