March 9, 2021
The only big thing I see today is that Bob Smietana of the Religion News Service broke the story that evangelical Beth Moore, a hugely popular leader, has left the Southern Baptist Church. A survivor of sexual assault, Moore objected to her denomination’s support for Trump in light of the Access Hollywood tapes in which he boasted of sexual assault. She has increasingly parted ways with church leaders and now has announced that she is leaving the denomination. Her departure could lead a number of women out of that church.
The departure of a leader from the Southern Baptist Church sparked by opposition to Trump and church support for him indicates the growing split in the Republican Party. Trump today continued his attempt to undercut the Republican National Committee by hamstringing its fundraising. He issued a statement saying that while he “fully” supports the Republican Party, “I do not support RINOS [Republicans in Name Only] and fools, and it is not their right to use my likeness or image to raise funds.” He urged people to donate to his own political action committee to help the America First movement. “We will WIN, and we will WIN BIG!” he wrote. “Our Country is being destroyed by the Democrats!”
The party split is intense enough that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who is pro-Trump at this point, declined to appear today with Republican conference leader Liz Cheney, who said last week that Trump had no future in the party.
Meanwhile, Illinois Representative Adam Kinzinger, a Republican, is pushing back against the former president, calling him desperate to remain relevant. Kinzinger says his goal is to rebuild the Republican Party, reclaiming it from Trump and fearmongering and divisiveness to become a conservative party again. “I think part of saving the Republican Party is just being really clear about what the Republican Party has become,” Kinzinger told Jeff Zeleny of CNN. “We have such a great history, I think, but now we’re off the rails.”
Republican lawmakers are planning to get around their unpopularity by suppressing the vote. Iowa’s Republican Governor Kim Reynolds yesterday signed into law what election lawyer Marc Elias called the “first major suppression law since the 2020 election.” Among other things, it shortens early voting and seriously restricts mail-in voting. Today, the League of United Latin American Citizens of Iowa sued to keep much of the law from being enforced. The lawsuit calls the new measure “a cynical manipulation of the electoral process.”
Elias has been in the courts defending the security of the election since the 2020 election, pushing back against the lawsuit designed to delegitimize President Biden’s election. Now he has turned his efforts to trying to hold at bay the voter suppression laws being pushed by Republican legislatures around the country.
“I am very worried about the future of our Democracy,” he tweeted.
He told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow: “I am begging America and the media to pay attention to this. Right now we are facing an avalanche of voter suppression that we have not seen before, at least not since Jim Crow. In state after state—it’s not just Iowa; it’s not just Georgia; it’s not just Arizona… It’s also Montana. It’s also Missouri. It’s also Florida. It’s also Texas. The list goes on and on. Donald Trump told a Big Lie that led to an assault on democracy in the Capitol on January 6. The assaults we’re seeing going on now in state capitols with the legislatures may be less deadly, and be less violent, but they are every bit as damaging to our democracy.”
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Notes:
https://www.newsweek.com/adam-kinzinger-responds-donald-trump-rino-statement-1574685
https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/09/politics/adam-kinzinger-illinois-voters/index.html
As Brian Williams pointed out tonight on "11th Hour" (shouting mine) THERE ARE ONLY SEVEN STATES IN THE UNION WHERE THERE ARE NOT BILLS BEING PUSHED IN LEGISLATURES TO DESTROY DEMOCRACY IN THE UNITED STATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As Joe Biden once said to Barack Obama, "This is a Big Fucking Deal!!!"
In his interview with Rachel Maddow tonight, Mark Elias also called on American citizens, who care about our country and about saving our democracy, to speak out in every way possible against the proliferation of voter suppression bills.
I have to think that there is a movement to suppress the vote in every state. There are at least 5 bills pending in Colorado, which haven’t gotten a lot of press, perhaps because our only daily regional newspaper, The Denver Post, has been stripped of its reporters who covered the legislature, thanks to the vulture investment fund, Alden Global Capital, which purchased the Post several years ago. Alden is intent on destroying the Post and any other newspaper it purchases. Their most recent grab is The Chicago Tribune.
I digress, but my point is that in many cities and states, newspapers have been crippled from comprehensive state and local news coverage, so it is likely to take some effort to stay on top of what is happening in state legislatures. It is essential for every concerned citizen to know what bills are pending, and to go directly to your legislators to insure your voice is heard. We need to understand how a bill becomes a law, how to reach our legislative representatives, and how to testify at legislative hearings. We have been very focused nationally, but we can’t overlook the important work that needs to be done every day at the local and state level.
Others have posted organizations that are working on many issues. I have found one of the best sources of information to be my local and regional Indivisible groups. Join one of these groups or start one; connect on social media, such as FaceBook, even if that is all you do on social media; write letters to your newspaper’s editors; find any pathway, any platform, to speak out against voter suppression, because it is happening right now.