Republicans’ kryptonite: The For The People Act 2021

19th April 2021 · 0 Comments

Senate Republicans are running scared over the potential passage of HR1, the For The People Act, which some are calling the new Voting Rights Act.

When Georgia voters gave democrats a slim majority in the U.S. Senate by electing the Reverend Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, it was the trifecta Republicans weren’t expecting. Democrats now control the White House, the House of Representatives, and the Senate. Republicans lost their minds and went into voter suppression hyperdrive. Currently, more than 300 voter suppression bills are on the table in 45 states.

It’s been more than a month since the U.S. House passed the For The People Act. The legislation is now pending in the Senate. American democracy is at risk and this bill aims to preserve the electoral system of one man, one vote, that has existed since Ame-rica became the United States of America.

Why are Republicans so up in arms about legislation that would protect voting rights and election security?

Senator Mitchell McConnell (R-Ky.) called the bill a Democratic “power grab,” other Republicans called it “anti-Republican,” a way for Democrats to “unlevel the playing field and take away the rights of roughly half of the voters in the country,” “a naked federal overreach of states’ rights,” and some, like Senator Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.) is on record saying such reforms will cause them (Republicans) to lose the election.

Guess what, Republicans? Your reverse psychology isn’t working.

We can say the same things about your motives for continuing to suppress our votes. You’re the ones who have been grabbing power, you’re anti-Democratic, and you’re masters at creating an unlevel playing field and taking away the rights of Blacks and people of color. You love states’ rights when it benefits you but you always have your hand out for federal taxpayers’ dollars.

So, let’s see what all the Republican fear is about. What’s so devastating in the For the People Act that is for Republicans what kryptonite is to Superman?

In explaining the need to pass the For the People Act in the Senate, the congressional sponsors of S1 wrote:

“The 2020 election has underscored the urgent need for transformational democracy reform. Across the nation, Americans experienced unprecedented voter suppression, historic levels of dark money spent to drown out the voices of everyday Americans, and rampant ethical abuses by special interests. The comprehensive For the People Act addresses many of these problems, opening the door for legislative solutions. The bill has three overarching goals: protect and strengthen the sacred right to vote, end the dominance of big money in politics, and implement anti-corruption, pro-ethics measures to clean up government.”

Here’s are some of the elements of the House’s For the People Act 2021:

This bill addresses voter access, election integrity and security, campaign finance, and ethics for the three branches of government.

Specifically, the bill expands voter registration (e.g., automatic, and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls.

The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting (putting an end to partisan and racial gerrymandering).

Additionally, the bill sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems.

Further, the bill addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising, and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices.

The bill addresses ethics in all three branches of government, including by requiring a code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices, prohibiting Members of the House from serving on the board of a for-profit entity, and establishing additional conflict-of-interest and ethics provisions for federal employees and the White House.

The bill requires the president, the vice president, and certain candidates for those offices to disclose 10 years of tax returns.

S.1, the companion bill in the Senate addresses the above elements and adds even more detail including guidelines for internet registration, pre-voting registration, absentee ballot tracking, restoration of voting rights to ex-felons, and more. (To see S.1, visit www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1/text.)

Without question, the For the People Act will level the electoral playing field for all U.S. citizens, not just Republicans, who have passed voter suppression laws and gerrymandered districts such that the minority (Republican Party) continues to rule and hold political offices in percentages far greater than their population numbers.

Republicans ought to be afraid, very afraid. With no platform other than racial hatred and white privilege, voters have already told Republicans, with their votes, that the majority of us don’t want you, that you are a relic of Jim Crow, and that a diverse electorate is coming for you.

The passage of the For the People Act is necessary because:

Even before voters flipped Georgia blue in January 2021 and Trump lost the White House last November, white politicians in state houses had been engaging in voter suppression tactics since the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1870, which prohibited states from disenfranchising voters “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Back then the Republican party was the party of Abraham Lincoln and the Democratic Party was favored by the Confederacy.

Politicians got around the 15th Amendment by instituting poll taxes and literacy tests.

Later in the 20th century, the script was flipped. Republicans became the party of voter suppression and racial hatred. In order to register to vote, Blacks would be asked “How many jellybeans in a jar,” and ‘how many bubbles in a bar of soap,” as President Joe Biden recently recalled.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965, taking away the part that mandated a DOJ review of the redistricted maps of certain states with a reputation of voter suppression and those who resorted to violence to keep Blacks from voting.

Today, white elected officials continue to disenfranchise Black voters through gerrymandered districts and voting suppression laws that have blocked Blacks’ and other people of color’s access to the ballot box: Specific voter ID requirements, voter roll purges, shortened early voting periods and poll hours, lengthy pre-qualifying periods, mandatory excuses for absentee ballots, moving/removing polling places and ballot drop boxes have amounted to the nullification of Black and Brown votes and the obstruction of access to the ballot.

Shocked and shook over the loss of both houses of Congress and the White House, Republicans in 45 states have proposed more than 300 voter suppression bills. Many of them are trying to keep the ballots from everyone but the “best” voters, one Republican said.

The truth is that these bills are aimed at lowering the turnout of voters for the midterm elections in 2022 and the presidential election in 2024.

Florida, Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania were all battleground states in 2020 and they will host U.S. Senate races in 2022. Texas doesn’t have a Senate race in 2022 but there is a gubernatorial race. All of these states have passed voter suppression bills.

Georgia’s recent voter suppression bills were both suppressive and illegal. They are already being challenged in the courts.

Georgia’s Republican lawmakers’ attempt to suppress the vote was so oppressive and authoritarian, that many major corporations, 200 CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, the MLB, and even actor and filmmaker Will Smith have spoken out against their voter obstruction tactics. The MLB moved it’s All-Star game to Denver, Colo., and Will Smith moved his film about an enslaved African who escapes the plantation to Louisiana.

Fighting back, Georgia’s Capitol Hill Republicans have threatened to eliminate corporate tax loopholes and exemptions. McConnell warned corporations to stay out of politics but said their campaign contributions were OK. The day after he said it, McConnell walked it back. His donors must have given him an earful about trying to take away their First Amendment rights.

All of this trauma and drama can be avoided by just doing the right thing, by just respecting everyone’s voting rights, by just passing the For The People Act.

This article originally published in the April 19, 2021 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.