Right now, many political pundits are giving their opinions about the outcome of the midterm elections without talking about the poison pills that affected voter turnout.
These pills begin with the redesigning of Congressional and state legislative districts that minimize the voting strength of people of color. When you look at these maps and where people of color live, you can see that this is a most racist agenda of suppression.
The next pill is restrictive voter laws that discourage participation of the color community. Two states where I worked in this year, Texas and Georgia, passed ridiculous laws that were not needed since the elections worked well in 2020. These laws limited the number of drop boxes, the hours of voting, the number of days for early voting, and serious restrictions on absentee voting. And there were many other restrictions plus, as always, the challenging and/or purging of many voters.
In some locations, men with long guns and military-type uniforms showed up at polling places trying to intimidate voters. In 1981, I worked an election in New Jersey where I saw firsthand this form of voter suppression. Working then with a lot of Puerto Ricans and Afro-Americans, I wanted to round up some of our good men and women to nonviolently confront these individuals. These drugstore soldiers need guns to stand outside a polling place trying to scare voters of color, but I can tell you that if a Truth SWAT team confronted them, they would soon melt away.
It is interesting that most of the individual cases of fraud in the 2020 elections involved Anglo Americans and most, if not all of them, were supporters of the former president. And there were never enough cases of fraud to affect the results of any election.
In addition, many candidates campaigned against people of color by overstating crime issues, accusing the opposition party of wanting to defund the police, and by overstating border issues to bring out the racist fear of many individuals These candidates who did not condemn the violence against our police on January 6, 2021, at the same time called for defunding the FBI. This toxic rhetoric was filled with serious falsehoods pushed by the 2020 election deniers.
We as citizens are limited about how much we can contribute to a candidate for the primary and general election. But because of a Supreme Court ruling, billionaires and corporations can contribute huge amounts and can never be held accountable because they are not required to disclose who they are. Such funds are called dark money. History will prove that the use of these funds was wrong and most undemocratic.
Our goal as a country should be that encouraging everyone to vote and make voting as easy as possible. And we should draw political maps that make sense and don’t damage any voting community. And we should limit all money going to campaigns. In past years, certain right-wing elements have been pushing to limit the voting strength of people of color, students, and other groups.
Our antidote to these poison pills is a fair and open democratic process.
There is a growing call in America for a voting holiday when all workers can vote and take other people to the polls without endangering their employment.
Our country must not act like a fascist country. Instead, it should be the best example of a working democracy that helps other countries see the value of embracing freedom and protecting the human rights of all.
Just a reminder: Democracy needs all of us working together to give our children and grandchildren a country they will be proud of.
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