There was a time when we all watched the same news. There were three or four channels available from which to choose your evening news and they all reported on the same things for the most part. The anchors were veteran journalists, not entertainers or mouthpieces for one political party or the other.
Today half the country watches and
listens to two different sets of news and commentary, maybe five or ten, which
results in a nation divided in its views of reality, and neither trusts the
other. The divide is so great that too many citizens distrust our election process.
The young may be too young to know and
the old may be too old to remember, but there was a time, long, long ago, when
voting in the United States was easy for white folks but forbidden for other people.
The people in power, especially in the South, tried to make voting inconvenient
for those in the opposing party and impossible for Black people.
The Civil Rights Movement of the
sixties put pressure on Congress to pass a monumental Civil Rights Act, intended
to make voting fair and easy for everyone and to reinforce our national
commitment to equality. Most people thought it settled the issue; it didn’t. We
need another call to rouse our better angels, to make voting fair once again
and easy for all, and to protect the bulwark of our democracy.
Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi chief of
propaganda, told us that “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it,
people eventually come to believe it and you will come to believe it
yourself.” Even a far-left activist,
Saul Alinsky, tells us that “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push
through and become a positive.” Far-right extremists in the U.S. have duped a
large group of people that the last presidential election was stolen from
President Trump, with all evidence to the contrary.
Fox News and conservative talk radio
continue a daily barrage of misinformation that supports the “big lie” about a
stolen election, about people from South and Central America being imported to
replace whites as the ruling class, about non-Christians trying to change
historical values, and educated elites trying to do who knows what.
In the upcoming mid-term elections, many
people who deny the results of the last election are running for governor and for
secretary of state. People in those positions are responsible for certifying
elections. Democracy is being chipped away.
Television programs show videos of
armed militia in camo and masks camped out at ballot drop boxes in Arizona.
There are videos of militia taking pictures of voters’ license plates so that
they can identify them by name and home address. Groups are calling for armed
insurrection if their party loses the next election. That is intimidating, yet
a federal judge has ruled that it is free speech and cannot be made illegal.
Members of Congress, judges, and
families of politicians are being threatened daily. There were over 9,000
reported threats to members of Congress in 2021. Representative Debbie Dingell
of Michigan and Senator Collins of Maine have both warned that the vitriol is
so strong that “Somebody is going to die.”
In Nye County, Nevada, early voting has
begun. The election department is forced to hand-count ballots because of the
overwhelming belief that voting machines are programmed to favor one candidate
over another. It is taking hours to count as few as 40 ballots. It could take
days to determine who won close elections. In some states, people are asking for
the hand-counting of ballots and an end to the use of voting machines.
In some states, extremists require the
election offices to check the addresses of tens of thousands of voters. In
other states voting hours are shortened, voting by mail is discouraged, and early
voting is unavailable. These actions are designed to reduce people’s ability to
vote and create a distrust of the voting process. It is a threat to our
democracy.
Thousands of people in some states are
trained to monitor those who monitor the voting process or count the ballots. including
the opening of mail-in ballots, which could afford a view of a person’s voting
choices. People who work at polling stations are being threatened and their
families intimidated. It is on the news nearly every night.
The movement to make the voting process
favor the minority of voters rather than the majority has been building for
decades. Technology is one reason for the movement of large numbers of people
from the small-town heartland to urban areas. Urban living draws the better
educated, the better trained, and the more progressive risk-takers.
Urban living tends to be more diverse
and inclusive than rural areas with smaller communities. Urban areas are more
likely to accept different beliefs and viewpoints more easily than non-urban
areas because they live with that diversity all around them.
A recent NYT research study found that in
districts whose members of Congress were election deniers, there had been a
reduction of the white population 35% greater than in other districts. For
many, the loss of white power means the loss of a way of life. Many whites feel
that diversity is a euphemism for replacing them. They need someone to blame.
They are willing to follow those who articulate their plight.
It is one thing to disagree with
another person’s position in an election. It is another thing when they try to discourage
someone from voting. What results is a country in which about 50% of the people
think democracy is at risk and the other 50% think that democracy is at risk,
but for distinct reasons.
It's almost cliché at this point, but
Benjamin Franklin was correct when he warned that the republic needed nurturing
to maintain it. These mid-term elections aren’t so much about which candidate
gets elected or which party wins the most seats in Congress. It is about saving
our democracy. Each side thinks the other side wants to tear it down. You
decide which is which. But vote for democracy or we won’t have it the next time.
