“There is no such thing as the united states.”[i]
I was shocked that a nationally recognized columnist came to that conclusion. He wrote those words in an essay about how the covid-19 pandemic should have brought us together as a nation but didn’t.
It is shocking to hear a sitting President tells us that our democracy is in peril.
It is shocking when a former Army General and National Security Advisor tells his followers that a military coup may be necessary for the US.
We see the divide in too many ways these days. A Member of Congress equates wearing a facemask, a standard public health measure, to the horrors of the Holocaust. In spite of or maybe because of her bellicose rhetoric, and that she is all but censured by Congress, Representative Green will be reelected by her constituents who relish the idea of a Member of Congress that opposes a unified country’s approach to anything.
The Governors took wildly differing measures to combat the virus, decisions based mostly on political whim and fear of The Donald, each pulling their own oar, rather than working as a team. It continues.
The nation’s insurrection on January 6, 2021, deemed so inconsequential by many members of Congress that they saw no need for an independent commission to investigate how it happened and how to prevent another. The British army invaded our Capitol in 1812. This time US citizens invaded our Temple of Democracy, trying to halt the counting of ballots, hell bent on destroying our free and democratic way of life. Some Members of Congress equated the invasion to a typical day of typical tourists visiting the building. When I toured the Capital, other visitors did not carry war-grade weapons, they did not bust down doors and windows; they did not take over the Senate chamber or the Well of the House, or call for the lynching of the Vice President and death to the Speaker.
The Arizona State Senate instituted a recount of the last election ballots to prove a fraudulent process that no one else has been able to find. They hired a conspiracy theorist to conduct the survey; his company, Cyber Ninja has zero experience in auditing or voting processes. The once private ballot of millions of Arizona voters is now, illegally, in the hands of unqualified folks searching for bamboo in the paper and other spurious theories. Yet, other state legislators are visiting the charade to determine if they should use the same company in their state.
States across the continent are passing new legislation aimed at reducing the number of people who will vote and making it harder for them to vote the next time around. Instead of making it easier for more people to vote, they are doing the opposite. Senator King called American democracy “a 240-year experiment that runs against the tide of human history,” and that tide usually leads … to authoritarianism.[ii] He said he feared the empowerment of state legislatures to decide election results more than the curtailment of the franchise.
Just imagine what it will be like when legislatures have the power, that they are enacting in several states, to overthrow the election results if they don’t like them. Why vote? Every American citizen who wants to vote should be able to register with minimum hassle; show the registrar their address and that they are over 18 years old, and that is sufficient. When it is time to vote, send registered voters a ballot, ask them to make their choices, and mail it back to the election office. Done!
Making voter registration difficult is voter suppression. Making absentee voting difficult is voter suppression. Reducing the number of places to drop off ballots is voter suppression. Reducing the number of hours to vote, or eliminating early voting is voter suppression. Allowing the state legislature to overturn election outcomes and appoint their own Presidential Electors is unconstitutional voter suppression.
We an open and free election in 2020 and there was no fraud, no packing of the ballot box by dead dictators in South America, or planeloads of ballots shipped in from China; nada. The effort to suppress the vote is not an organic process. It is sponsored by people who have decided that democracy does not work for them. Most of the proposed voter suppression bills in 20 or more states are almost identical. They are the result of super-PACs throwing money at the issue. They are the work of groups who write the proposed laws and then find sponsors in each state. When one suppresses the vote, makes it harder to vote, they are suppressing democracy.
A recent Ipso poll showed consequential data that QAnon duped a large cohort of people.[iii] Twenty-three percent of Republicans and 15% of all Americans believe the government, the financial system, and the media are led by satanic worshiping pedophiles who run a global child sex trafficking operation; that is nearly 49 million people. Twenty percent of Americans and 28 percent of Republicans believe a storm is coming that will sweep elites out of their positions and restore the country’s rightful leader. Fifteen percent of Americans believe true patriots must resort to violence to save the country. This is shocking! What the hell is happening to our country?
It is shocking to hear a reporter on Fox News complaining about how submissive schools and other agencies are to a government request to wear a mask to lower the risk of spreading a worldwide virus, one that is the cause 600,000 deaths in the US, and millions of others around the world. On an NBC news broadcast early this month an interviewee suggested that the government should not ask us to watch out for our fellow citizens when it comes to preventing the spread of covid, but that we should only be concerned with ourselves, because when the government asks you to watch for others, he said, that is communism. What?
A recent Simple Organic Life cartoon opined that most people do not really want the truth. They just want the constant reassurance that what they believe is the truth; they are willing to live with comforting lies rather than unpleasant truths.
Democracies are more than laws and regulations. Free countries rely on people respecting institutions, working together, believing in their ideals and social norms, and their aspirations. The US democracy relies on citizens having a strong faith and belief in the founding documents.
Organizations, political parties, and individuals who try to limit who can vote and how they vote are not living up to the expectations of a free democratic country. Maybe we are no longer a group of united states, a nation of united people. Maybe our democracy and way of life really are in peril.
The good news is that those who are trying to bring down America are a small group. The bad news is that they control the power strings in about half of the states. The better news is that they do not have the support of the majority of the people of the country. They are outliers. They can be overcome.
The new voter suppression laws call for freedom-loving voters to get to the polls at the next election. The majority should be able to overcome the minority anti-democracy cabals.
[i] Leonard
Pitts Jr. – Miami Herald, 5/25/21
[ii] New
York Times –June 14, 2021
[iii] QAnon
Conspiracy Theories, by Party Affiliation – Axios-Ipso survey – May 2021
