By Lafe Tolliver, Esq
Guest Column
If you are one of those persons who still sings along with Judy Garland’s signature song, “Somewhere Over The Rainbow,” out of the famed movie, The Wizard of Oz, and are holding out for a political rainbow, the feckless GOP senate just ruined your song.
In an expected vote that still is reverberating the political landscape, the cringe worthy GOP, still saluting Trump’s BIG LIE, told black and brown people and poor and college-aged voting students that second class citizenship is what is in your future, not a hopey-dopey song of promise and hope.
The vote by Trump’s walking dead party, has dealt a death blow to any hopes that they are remotely interested in having “you” people vote en masse as you recently did in the 2020 mid-term elections.
The party of old white men, conspiracy theory followers, white supremacists and white nationalists, just unloaded a ton of misery on voters who were misguided into thinking that voting should be a civic duty and not an obstacle course loaded with man-made land mines.
States that are controlled by the Republican Party and that are still mesmerized by Trump and that implicitly or explicitly support his BIG LIE are more than happy to throw minority voters under the bus when it comes to draconian voting laws.
The GOP knows the same thing that pollsters and demographers know: That white people, as the current majority population in the United States, are on the decline and by the year 2042, they will be a minority “ethnic grouping.”
As opposed to accepting this population trend, the fearful GOP is using knee jerk legislation to inhibit or stop minority people from voting. The GOP is hoping that such voting blocs will tire of the voting hurdles, long waits in line and other punitive measures, so that enough will simply tire out and stay home.
The GOP knows that it is a numbers game and if they can get their base to come out in record numbers, they can beat the “black and brown” hordes that could offset their voting strength, at least for a while.
For the GOP it is worth a try until they are stopped in their tracks and that will only happen if minority voters and independents and others of goodwill see the GOP shenanigans for what they are, a brazen attempt based upon racial grounds to hold the line and stay in power.
American democracy is at a critical crossroads for if the GOP continues to gerrymander political seats at the local level and throw up the boogeyman that black and brown people majorities spell the end of white civilization in America, the GOP wins.
The GOP is not concerned about fair play or winning by means of solid policy proposals. They want to win by injecting images of a perceived cultural war in which evil is portrayed in black and brown shades.
The vote in the upcoming 2022 mid terms will be gigantic and momentous because if the GOP Senate were to regain control and the GOP House were to flip to the Republicans, the voting nightmare would become a way of life until contested in the courts or overruled by legislation if the Democrats return to power.
Oh, did I say that the BIG LIE and the GOP’s voting suppression campaign is based upon black and brown people being chopped off at the knees when they try to both register to vote and try to vote?
The GOP no longer is engaged in any niceties about what they are up to. They are practically texting to all who will listen that the presence of the minority voter is a clear and present danger to the GOP continuing to rule the roost.
That is one reason why Trump and the slime coated GOP is hungrily seeking to encourage former Georgia football star, Hershel Walker to run against black senator, Ralph Warnock. To pit a hyper Trump supporter, Hershel Walker against Ralph Warnock, the racially motivated GOP is seeking to use the age-old tactic of divide and conqueror and have Hershel Walker bowl over Warnock by Walker grinning and smiling for white Georgia voters and using his football status as his launching pad.
Trump and Walker have a relationship going back for decades and Walker simply can not get enough of being in the glow of Trump; and Trump will use this “innocent” to prove that he still controls the GOP.
So, look for upcoming pictures of Trump and Hershel throwing kisses at each other and Walker walking and smiling hat in hand behind the Trump bandwagon.
The only remedy to any GOP voter suppression tactics is for black and brown people to do the following at the earliest: (1) go to your state’s voting website and check for crucial deadlines as to when things must be done (2) double check the precinct or ward where you are supposed to go to cast your ballot (3) make sure you have some form of current voter identification, be it a current driver’s license, state ID card or any other form of ID being required by your state laws (4) if you have been purged from the voter rolls, make sure you are placed back on the list of registered voters (5) double check the requirements for an absentee ballot or a mail in ballot (6) do not assume, even for a nanosecond, that someone other than yourself is watching out for your best interest (7) plan on the day of voting that you are cleared of any work obligations; and that you have a portable chair, a good book to read and a bottle of water and a bag of snacks because the lines will be made intentionally long by having fewer open precincts and working voting machines.
The sooner you realize that your vote may be challenged by those of ill-will and you are prepared for their foolishness, you will not be a casualty of their voter suppression/racial voting tactics against you.
Contact Lafe Tolliver at tolliver@juno.com