Milwaukee resident Jennifer Taff holds a sign as she waits in line to vote at Washington High School in Milwaukee during the April primary on April 7, 2020. Photo credit: Patricia McKnight, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Milwaukee resident Jennifer Taff holds a sign as she waits in line to vote at Washington High School in Milwaukee during the April primary on April 7, 2020. Photo credit: Patricia McKnight, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Republican members of Congress and state legislatures are still stuck in their belief in the "big lie" that the election was stolen from from the other guy.
In the movie The Shawshank Redemption, our hero, Andy Dufresne, confronted with the warden’s disbelief of the new evidence of his innocence asks, “Why are you being so obtuse? Is it deliberate?”
The same could be asked of the various Republican members of Congress and state legislatures of their belief in the “big lie” from the other guy that the election was stolen from him.
No shred of evidence was ever produced, even after 60 lawsuits—all tossed out for lack thereof. But you would think, by their actions that these folks all know something we don’t. Nope, they don’t. But still Republicans push forward to prevent “another occurrence” with hundreds of laws designed to make it more difficult—for the people who didn’t pick Trump—to vote.
Georgia’s notorious “Election Integrity Act” is a triumph of right wing double speak since the law itself is the opposite of “integrity.”
The other guy lost the 2020 election, by over 7 million votes. Then he also lost the Electoral College. Then a blizzard of lawsuits were filed, all of which failed. Next came outright insurrection—happily it was also a failure. One of the true blessings we have in life is that truly anti-social people, the real nutcases, are also monumentally incompetent.
Overt actions to overturn the election obviously failed spectacularly. So what does the supposed “loyal opposition” do? Try to prevent it from happening again by preventing all those nasty Democratic voters from voting next time. That’ll show ’em.
Jim Crow laws may have been rendered moot years ago, but Jim Crow still lives between the ears of Republican lawmakers in some 43 states.
Going back to Andy Dufresne’s question, “Why are you being so obtuse? Is it deliberate?” The answer is a resounding, “Yes.”
The original question is “Why?” The answer I think is simple. Terror. These legislators are terrified of the very people they are supposed to represent. We can call it racism, but racism itself is a deep-seated fear of “others” who have some perceived or manufactured difference. It is the mentality of exclusion. And when you get down to it, any politician who thinks in terms of exclusion has no business being in office. And deep down, these Republican lawmakers know this. They are terrified of getting tossed out. Which is exactly what should happen—and what their “laws” are trying to prevent.
These anti-voting laws, each and every one, are a perversion of the very nature of democracy.
And this is why H.R. 1 must be passed, immediately.
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