The Republicans stacked the deck

To The Eagle:

The Republican party has captured a historic majority of governorships and legislatures in the nation. Their electoral success has largely been the result of applying the principles of “Jim Crow Lite” not only upon identifiable minorities, but everyone else in the country as well.

That “Lite” treatment typically involves barely legal, and on occasion, recognizably illegal electoral re-districting notoriously known as gerrymandering. Another seasonal favorite is the egregious purging of voter rolls. Not allowing authorized third parties to collect the ballots at a retirement home for delivery to the polling site is another favorite tactic.

It’s a Republican urban legend that lower voter turnout bodes well for Republicans, but high turnout advantages Democrats.

Many state legislatures have become, and remain, lopsidedly Republican because the GOP has stacked the deck, making it more intimidating, inconvenient, and often beyond the best efforts of millions of older, impoverished, rural and minority voters, who are most likely to vote Democratic, to cast their ballot.

Surprisingly, the Republican legislature of Georgia made it possible for everyone to vote by mail in the interest of pandemic health and safety. Frustrated minorities jumped at the opportunity and flipped the state into the blue. The GOP is now vigorously back pedaling.

Republican legislators of 43 states are enacting regressive, restrictive voting laws. The party of Trump is running scared, with good reason. Republican Senator Ted Cruz summed up party paranoia nicely. He said “Democrats are trying to expand voting rights and Republicans must do all they can to stop them. If they push through far-reaching election legislation now before the Senate, the GOP won’t win elections again for generations.” He’s referring of course to HR-1, the “For The People Act.”

Trump and the Republican party recently discovered that you can lie to all of the people most of the time, and to most of the people all the time, yet still lose an election. The Republican machine’s strategy to hold onto power? Lie more, cheat harder. Spike the vote.

I’ve read the “For The People Act.” It favors neither political party. It favors every voter in this country. It’s called a government of the people, for the people and by the people, for a reason.

JB Bouchard

Puget Island