When I read about the constant assault on voting rights, especially with the recent decision by the US Supreme Court to uphold the Arizona laws that were legislated to suppress the votes of BIPoC I mourn. I don't only use the term "suppress" because some of these laws are meant to nullify voting as well.
My family sacrificed for us to come to "a land of opportunity" in the 1960s, frankly when the US opened its borders more widely to those of non-European descent. We do not enjoy a true democracy if all the citizens aren’t able to vote. This is why I have always advocated registering people, and supporting the system of voting wherever I have lived. I also support any policy that is structured where one must opt out of voting versus registering, and Election Day being a national holiday (how about changing Columbus Day to Election Day? *smiley*). I believe democracies should provide a social security card and a voter registration card at birth.
The downside of being born a citizen is that many United Statesians don't know how the country operates. That, coupled with the removal of Civics from many school's curricula is setting us up for ignorance to undermine our national results - as we have been suffering since the rise of our former Oval Office holder. I hear many of his acolytes spewing so much ignorance that I really feel sorry for how they have been manipulated. Unfortunately, they will probably be fossilized by the manifestation of truth, and be a laughable reference by future historians.
Please read this article about the importance of Civics from the NEA and this one from the Immigration and Naturalization Service about being a citizen.
As I mourned the latest decision of SCOTUS, I heard reports about how Chief Justice John Roberts has been hammering on voting rights since he came to prominence. I was skeptical as others sang his praises about marriage equality and health care decisions. The LGBTQ+ community has big problems with racism as do many power structures, and since there are many sources writing about this, I will leave that to your internet searching. One of the ideas that stuck with me over the years of my education is the power of a double white male income, and how that informs public policy. I wonder if that is what moved John Roberts to support marriage equality. If you don't have systemic racism on your radar, you will celebrate things that are a symptom of this assault. That is the manipulation of "facially race-blind policies", they seem fair (color blind), but the results are not. This is another way the public is duped by policies that amount to literacy tests and poll taxes.
In my recent reading of the People's History of the United States, I was reminded of the construct of SCOTUS protecting the rich and keeping white at the top of the power hierarchy by attacking BIPoC voting rights. If you review the history of the highest court with that lens, do you see it?
The assault on our ability to vote and keeping this multiethnic democracy from fully expressing itself is sickening. All the ways that the lie of white supremacy is growing in expression through too many citizens of this planet is sickening as well. I know it is meant to wrench us. I am not going to pretend that it doesn't, but I don't stay wrenched. I recover through the many wellness tools I have developed over the years of work I did to get well and continue to practice staying well.
Many do not focus holistically on the activities of the actual big lie (white supremacy). Many don't see it as a system, or at least influence others not to, knowing that it is a system. Many don't recognize that the United States was an apartheid state before the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Some want to roll us back to those days.
I remember when I was an undergrad taking a Democratic Theory course, the professor talked about what makes a country a democracy. The first step he presented was to define their citizenry. I challenged him constantly that under the theory he was presenting South Africa was a democracy. It was gratifying to know that one of the underclasspersons that came behind me challenged the same idea when he took the course. One of the elements that many overlook is how a country defines its citizenry. It is the lynchpin of the difference between an apartheid state and a democracy in my view. If a minority rules a majority, that is not a democracy, and it shouldn't be viewed that way by scholars and policymakers. I personally do not regard apartheid states as a democracy, but some do, and they seem to prefer it.
That is the intersection that the United States has not fully left. We have gotten close to the multiethnic democracy a couple of times, like when preclearance was a policy. The assault on the attempts to express this multiethnic democracy has never stopped. Hopefully you see that in this recent timeline published by CNN that already needs some updates since May 2021.
The attacks on voting rights coincide with the attacks on teaching the whole story of this country/world's history. There is no accident in that. One must keep the lies going to keep those duped by the indoctrination of white nationalism on that toxin.
See this comparison between the states that required pre-clearance before it was gutted from the Voting Rights Act and those fighting against Critical Race Theory being taught in schools.
I must say that many who fight against Critical Race Theory have no idea what it is. Hopefully you will after you read this article.
With this information, what are you going to do to preserve democracy? First one must decide, do you want to continue to live in an apartheid state or an actual democracy?
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