The clock is ticking

Posted on by under Election 2020, Election 2022, Environmental Issues, History, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Re-blogs, Social commentary, voting rights

Our voting rights are on the auction block … or rather, the chopping block. Why? Because billionaires like Charles Koch, funding organizations like the Heritage Foundation, are using Republicans in Congress as their puppets to impose their will on the people of this country. Right now, their will is to take as many off the voting rolls as possible, by hook or by crook. Blogging friend Brosephus has written this post to show us the lengths to which these people are willing to go to curtail our Constitutional rights. Thanks, Bro.

The Mind of Brosephus

I’m guessing that you’ve seen this video by now. If not, take a few minutes to listen or you can read the article about it that was posted on Mother Jones. Here’s a snippet to digest.

The leaked video reveals the extent to which Heritage is leading a massive campaign to draft and pass model legislation restricting voting access, which has been swiftly adopted this year in the battleground states of Georgia, Florida, Arizona, and Iowa. It’s no coincidence that so many GOP-controlled states are rushing to pass similar pieces of legislation in such a short period of time. 

Republican legislators claim they’re tightening up election procedures to address (unfounded) concerns about fraud in the 2020 election. But what’s really behind this effort is a group of conservative Washington insiders who have been pushing these same kinds of voting restrictions for decades, with the explicit aim of helping Republicans…

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27 thoughts on “The clock is ticking”

  2. Jill, we need to emphasize this voter suppression is not a new thing. It has been going on in earnest since the 2010 midterms, when gerrymandering became more surgical with the funded entity ALEC providing cookie cutter voter suppression language to Republican led state legislatures. Democrats have also done their share of this, but my former (Republcan) party has made it an art form*. The key difference now is way too many people the former president’s BS about the election fraud, which he planned to use as a reason for losing for months before the election. Keith

    * It has been so blatant in North Carolina, a judge who ruled the Voter ID law unconstitutional cited a county GOP official who said in an interview “The Voter ID law was designed to kick Democrats’ butts.” And another GOP state senator said we gerrymandered the congressional districts to win 11 out of 14 seats because we could not figure out how to win a 12th one.

    Liked by 2 people

    • In truth, voter suppression has been going on since this country’s founding in one form or another, and that is the most disturbing part, for me. We take one step forward, then two steps backward. But yes, gerrymandering is among the worst of it, which is one reason I would love to see the electoral college gone, for then districting wouldn’t affect the outcome of presidential elections … one vote per person and tally them at the end of the day. No muss, no fuss. The voter suppression laws being passed in nearly every state are abominable and our only hope is that the courts will rule them unconstitutional. But will they? And will it be in time?

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      • Before Trump, even Republicans realized they went to far with gerrymandering as it allowed extremely zealous folks to get elected in a primary, while defeating a more rationale person Republican. And, now we have conspiracy folks in the US Congress.

        Liked by 2 people

  3. Alternative scenario to the one I suggested in ‘Then They Came For Me’…… Warning this is a ‘Scare The Horses’ one.
    What happens when the disenfranchised take to the streets in an nation where access to firearms is easy and the social divide grows wider by the day?
    These folk are playing with the same type of matches and fuel that was around in the mid 19th century, only the divides are not so geographical.

    Liked by 2 people

    • A frightening, but altogether too possible scenario. You’re right … the divides today are not at all along geographical lines, for right on my own street we have people of both types. The fight would become neighbor against neighbor and … would the victor be the one who owns the guns? A scary scenario.

      Liked by 1 person

  4. Yes, the right refined the approach with ALEC. Remember when it surfaced, and they wrote local and state laws, where they went into books almost untouched? Like ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws. ‘Tough on crime’ initiatives that privatized prisons and sent incarceration in the U.S. soaring to record levels. Let us not forget how they’ve fought climate change and the ACA, too. Sickening.

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    • Yes, how well I remember. You’re right … it’s sickening and disgusting. I’m thinking that maybe it’s time for the people of this country to stage a major, nationwide tax revolution … right now, we essentially have ‘taxation without representation’, so why should we keep paying these fools’ salaries?

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      • I said on Claytoonz t’other day, everyone should boycott fast-food chains for a month. And then spread it to other corporations. Money talks. They got it right now, but if people stop giving their money to them the corporations will be begging the government for handouts. “We can’t live without our customers!” So start treating your customers with some respect, instead of just treating them like work-slaves!

        Liked by 1 person

        • Heck, we’ve boycotted fast food chains for decades now! I don’t do fast food at all. But, we are only 3 people and I’m sure we don’t make a dent in their profit margin. I also boycott companies that mistreat their employees (Wal-Mart) or that have discriminatory policies (Hobby Lobby, Chick-Fil-A). And a few others simply because they financially donate to DJT (Home Depot). My purchasing power is small, but I try to make it count.

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  5. It’s the right wing playbook, isn’t it. Our government has announced that they will legislate to make photo ID compulsory for voting, to prevent fraud. This will take many out of the polls, removing their right to vote if they don’t have the right ID. But to be fair, this will resolve a yuuuge problem: following the 2019 general election there has so far been…. one proven case of voter fraud. We can all sleep easy in our beds knowing the government is tackling the major issues.

    Liked by 4 people

    • Wow … sounds like your government is using our playbook! A very few cases of voter fraud, so let’s disenfranchise half the nation! Here, a number of states require a photo ID, which does keep many from the polls. Many poor people do not have a driver’s license, have no need for one since they use public transit to get to work and wherever they need to go. Among those, many just happen … surely a coincidence … to be Black. Also, many elderly people who no longer drive have let their driver’s license lapse and have no other photo ID. So, the elderly, Black, and poor are at a huge disadvantage. And at least one state that I’m aware of has now passed a law requiring TWO photo IDs, which even I don’t have! And, college students cannot use their student ID as one. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

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      • The driving licence is our most common form of photo ID too. I still have a valid one, even though I don’t drive any more, but millions don’t and may not have an alternative.

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