Wednesday started off in a positive note in the midst of the maelstrom of heartache and headache that the past year has been for a black person living in 45’s America. For those unplugged, yesterday Doug Jones won Alabama’s Senate seat after a highly contested battle against Roy Moore.
While it would take me an entire post to elaborate on who Roy Moore is, talk about Doug Jones as a candidate, and wade through the long rollercoaster of Roy Moore’s sexual allegations, I will save that for your own research and opinions today. I wanted to spend my time talking about how Democracy is losing its way with manipulation of the voting process.
It’s been nearly 25 years since a Democrat has held a Senate seat in Alabama. Alabama has always been a place that people “expected” to be red because of its racist history. However, this has always been an inconsistent and incorrect assumption because of a “tale as old as the 15th amendment”, voter suppression.
The push to keep blacks and poor whites from voting has been consistent for over a century. Particularly, it has evolved into a tactic to mislead and confuse a base to maintain political superiority. Even though the use of literacy tests and other insidious devices have disappeared, many forms of voter suppression exist.
Yesterday, false text messages went out saying that polling places changed, police were called to polling sites which intimidates voters, voter rolls were switched to inactive for people who have voted in areas for decades, and even being forced to have a birth certificate with current county as voting location before being allowed to vote are all subtle ways of keeping the poor, minority, and less savvy voters from exercising their rights.
This is directly in correlation with the Shelby County v. Holder Supreme Court class that made pre-clearance before voter law modification of certain States to the Attorney General obsolete because it picked locations on 40-year-old date being “unconstitutional”. However, the striking down of one section opened the floodgates to allow states to very unique voting laws that often specifically targeted the African-American Community. (See: North Carolina)
History then leads us to ask, if the conservative party is the party of the “morally right”, why would they want fewer people to vote? Why would you make it harder to vote if your polices are sound and valid? Why would you care about voter fraud and not suppression (hint: voter fraud is not a thing). Why? Because one benefits you and the other doesn’t.
Politics has shifted so far away from “right and wrong” that it’s not about policies but about partisan victories. “Trump needs a win, GOP is desperate for a win, Democrats are tired of losing.” But, what this means is that people are playing games with the lives of others. Everyday, a group of Americans have to wake up and BEG for their representatives to not kill them. There is a problem when people are voting for representatives that will either allow them to exist versus another that believes America was better when families still owned slaves.
We’re at a tough point in history and it’s no telling what the America will look like after the end of this four years and beyond. Next week I’ll continue with a brief analysis of the Alabama election and the Democratic Party moving forward. Check back then for part 2.
What ways could we fight against voter suppression? Any Conservative prospectives people would like to share? Any opinions for other demographics that are impacted by these practices?
Turn Your Brightness (Thinking Caps) Up!
#BeMagnificent🔆
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