Purging the voice and will of the people

By David W. Marshall
TriceEdneyWire.com Columnist

Whether you’re a Republican, Democrat, or Independent, President Joe Biden needs to be re-elected regardless of whether you like him. During the 2020 presidential election, many people voted for Biden simply because he was not Donald Trump. The upcoming election in 2024 looks to be a rematch between Biden and Trump, with the risks and consequences being much greater than before. While we often encourage voters to be informed and objective concerning election issues and candidates, the United States has never had a presidential party nominee indicted in a criminal case or one who publicly suggested that all rules, regulations, and articles within the Constitution be terminated. Normally, those two issues alone would be enough negative baggage to prevent any candidate from being considered a viable party nominee.

The Republican Party of today is not what they claim to be, placing the nation at risk. In accepting Trump as the presumptive party nominee, the GOP is knowingly choosing a person who was twice impeached, disrespected veterans, POWs, women, minorities, mocked the disabled, dishonored a “Gold Star” family, discredited the CIA, cheated vendors, perpetuated the birther conspiracy, is tied to past tax evasion fraud, a Trump University scam, union busting, housing discrimination, multiple bankruptcies, white supremacy, colluding with Russia, and nepotism, not to mention several pending investigations and a civil rape trial. With all of Trump’s personal and political baggage, he remains a powerful force due to the many Republican enablers covering for him from their elected offices and the MAGA voters who see him as their cultural war champion.

Harris County, with its population of nearly five million people, is the largest county in Texas and the third most populous county in the nation. Its county seat is Houston, the largest city in the state and the fourth largest in the nation. Houston has become the most diverse city in the country. While the number of people in Harris County who identify as non-Hispanic white declined by nearly three percent, all other racial groups—including Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders, Native Americans, and Alaskan Natives—increased. The changing demographics, along with the shifting electoral landscape of Harris County, is what scares the GOP. This once Republican stronghold, which now leans reliably Democratic, could turn Texas from red to blue in future presidential elections. Without Texas’ 38 votes in the Electoral College, the Republicans would be hard-pressed to win any future presidential elections without winning Texas.

Like 2020, the next presidential election is not about free and fair elections. The Texas Republican-controlled Senate passed a bill allowing the secretary of state to redo elections in Harris County, where several Democratic candidates gained strong midterm results. The Democratic candidate edged out the closely contested race for Harris County judge, the highest position in the county. The bill applies to all counties with a population over 2.7 million, of which there is only one, Harris County. If the House passes the bill and Gov. Greg Abbott signs it, the party claiming to be about free and fair elections has provided a built-in contingency if the 2024 election results in Texas fail to go their way.

It is safe to say that had Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams won her race for governor of Georgia, the legislation known as SB-92 would never have been signed. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the legislation that will create an oversight commission with the power to remove local prosecutors and district attorneys from their jobs. The measure comes as Fani Willis, a Democrat serving as the Fulton County district attorney, investigates Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. A special purpose grand jury has already recommended indictments in the matter, and Willis has said if there are charges, they would be announced this summer. Willis has opposed the legislation, warning that it would be “dangerous” to undo decisions made by voters. “This bill was never deemed necessary until a historic thing happened in 2020. And let’s just talk about it and tell the truth,” said Willis, who testified before the Judiciary Committee of the Georgia Senate and criticized the bill as “racist,” noting earlier this year that Republicans were pushing the measure after the number of minority district attorneys grew from five to 14 in 2020. Now that Republicans can remove a district attorney, will they retaliate if Trump is charged with a crime?

The Republicans are not the party of law and order when they constantly refuse to address the nation’s gun violence by supporting a responsible assault weapon ban. The country experienced another mass shooting, with eight victims killed in an Allen, Texas, mall. The GOP was not the party of patriotism when the Republican National Committee censured the two House Republicans who participated on the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 attack. Republicans are not the party of jobs creation when their proposed legislation to address the debt ceiling crisis includes eliminating over 100,000 American manufacturing jobs in the clean energy industry. Many of the jobs are in red states. If there is one word that describes the mindset of GOP leadership, that word would be purge. They are positioning themselves to purge votes, purge elected officials they disagree with, purge jobs, and remove the written history of Black Americans. The only way to effectively respond is to do our purging at the ballot box in numbers that cannot be disputed.

David W. Marshall is the founder of the faith-based organization, TRB: The Reconciled Body, and author of the book God Bless Our Divided America. He can be reached at www.davidwmarshallauthor.com.

This article originally published in the May 15, 2023 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.