More Than Voter I.D.

The GOP and its acolytes (including the Santa Barbara daily paper) continue to question the legitimacy of President Biden’s popular and electoral vote victories as their “Empire” maliciously strikes back by encouraging and passing voter suppression and voter subversion laws from coast-to-coast.

These disgraceful laws are about much more than voter I.D. requirements and they know it! Several of these so-called “election integrity” laws give power to Rethuglican controlled state legislatures to nullify the results of any election in which their candidate loses. Drop boxes and mail-in ballots will be considered petri dishes for fraud (with no evidence whatsoever) and will be severely restricted on that basis. Polling places will be eliminated in predominantly minority districts. GOP goons will make threats against volunteer election workers and will be given carte blanche to intimidate voters.

Such tactics have been used in other countries (see Belarus, Poland, Hungary, Turkey, India, Brazil). They provide a tutorial on how a democracy can quickly descend into autocracy. We underestimate this threat at our own peril.

The Party of a unanimous “No” vote on desperately needed COVID relief and on critical infrastructure (for which they are boldly trying to take credit!) is now proudly the Party of “No” on voting rights and (along with co-conspirators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) on democracy itself. Will they also take credit when our once beloved democracy morphs into a Putin-like one party dictatorship led by their “Lord of the Lies” jefe, Donald J. Trump? Probably.

Q: How is President Joe Biden different from Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers?
A: Joe Biden won.