In this, my final before election day, I will not be laying our a case on any policy positions for or against Trump or Biden. The last month has made one thing abundantly clear, this will be the last free (relatively depending on your state) and fair election of my life time if Trump wins a second term and/or the Senate stays with the GOP. In this final blog, I am going to make a case for Joe Biden that has nothing to do with his policies, most of which I love, and would love him expand on. The case I will make for Biden is that he, unlike the entirety of the Republican party, is the candidate that is for Democracy over autocracy. The confirmation of ACB this week was not only hypocritical and cynical after the Merrick Garland fiasco in 2016, but is adds another, unqualified, conservative judge to a SCOTUS that has already put Democracy on death’s doorstep. 2020 is the end game year for the Republican party. Another Trump victory, would kill democracy in America for generations to come. This has been the GOP goal since the Reagan administration. A shifting demographic in the country to a more diverse electorate and a growing wage gap, has made the GOP platform unsustainable if you still need more votes than a democrat to win. Without institutions that encourage minority rule, like the U.S. Senate, and partisan Gerrymandering at the state and congressional level, the GOP would never win another election. This isn’t some liberal fear mongering either, this is right from our President’s mouth.
Minority Rule
Currently, we are country of minority rule. The current Senate is a Republican majority. 53 Republicans, 45 Democrats and 2 Independents (Sanders -VT and King -ME) that caucus with democrats. This majority does not represent a majority of Americans, it actually represents nearly 15 million fewer Americans than the Democratic minority does. ACB being confirmed by 52 Republican senators (all except Susan Collins who is in a last gasp effort to save her seat from Sara Gideon in ME), cements a conservative majority Supreme Court that does not represent that values or even a simple majority of the American people.
None of this is an accident. This is by design of the Republican party. Look no further than how Gerrymandered some congressional and state legislative districts are. Republicans in places like Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas have put their thumb on the scale of electoral politics by drawing congressional maps that keep Democrats from having any shot at power. Before I get into how this is happening, let’s take a look at the funniest example of this. Here’s the district of Congressman Jim Jordan, you know, the same congressman that knowingly covered up his players being sexually assaulted at Ohio State (If you are wondering why he’s still in congress, it’s because he’s a white republican male so rules nor morals apply to him and typically Republican voters are more afraid of what a Democrat COULD do rather than what republicans actually do).
Districts like Jordan’s exist all around the country and lead to Democrats not being as equally represented in congress or in state legislatures as Republicans are. Consider this, in 2012, Democrats in PA won 51% of the state wide vote but that only translated to about 25% of the congressional seats in PA. Since the redistricting after the 2010 census, the same thing has happened in North Carolina, Michigan and Wisconsin at both the national and state levels. In those three states, when the governor’s mansions went to Democrats, the gerrymandered state legislatures stripped them of executive powers during their lame duck sessions (before the inauguration of the incoming class of reps). This year is a census year so redistricting will happen very shortly. If Republicans win majorities in the state legislatures this year, where all these maps are drawn, they will skew the map in even worse ways to make up for the demographic shifts that have happened since 2010. This means, an increasingly more diverse, more liberal majority, will be governed by a more white, more conservative minority. This transitions nicely into my next topic.
Republicans Don’t Want you to Vote
You may have noticed tons of people like me and people in general urging you to vote. That is because voter turnout is usually so low, that it cements this idea of the minority ruling over the majority. The more I’ve studied/observed modern American politics, the more aware I have become about the blatant voter suppression that happens primarily in districts where people of color live. You have for sure seen the insanely long voting lines in Atlanta, Milwaukee and NYC in recent months. People have had to take sick days (if possible) and bring camping chairs and multiple meals in some precincts in order to cast their ballot. Myself, living in predominantly white areas of Massachusetts my entire life, have never waited longer than 5 minutes and certainly never had to rearrange my day or take time off, in order to vote. This stark contrast can be drawn directly back to a Supreme Court case in 2013, Shelby v Holder. A 5-4 conservative (sensing a trend yet) majority ruled that section 5 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, a section that addressed states needing to certify that their actions around voting availability are not discriminatory, be struck down do to being outdated, essentially arguing that racism no longer existed in this capacity. This was proven wrong almost immediately when Texas passed an extremely strict voter I.D. law. Infamously, this law allows you to use a gun licences to vote but not a Student I.D. (again, the point is to make it harder for liberals to vote). This also led to hundreds of polling places being closed in these States that were a part of the Shelby lawsuit including Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. As we speak, Texas is trying like hell to limit the number of mail ballot drop off locations to one per county, in order to suppress the vote. You don’t have to be an expert in electoral politics to know that this will make it much harder for diverse, large cities, like Houston to cast their vote, than in extremely rural counties in Texas. They advance these claims using the fictional “voter fraud” issue and their Conservative, lap dog, judges uphold them.
Long lines in Georgia, strict, racist, voter laws in Texas and bad, but wait until you hear about Florida. Florida recently passed a referendum (you know, the things where the people literally vote “yes” or “no” on a question), that allowed people formerly convicted of a felony to vote. Obviously an easy decision. You pay your debt to society, you get your second chance. Well, because of institutional racism, this population of people are predominantly black or Latino. The conservatives in Florida saw this as people of color being able to have their voices heard at the ballot box, so the conservative majority in the state legislature passed a law requiring all ex-felon to pay court fines and fees prior to having their voter rights restored. The conservative Majority on SCOTUS, refused to hear the case so the law stood.” Until court fines were paid, they would have their right to vote. This Poll tax is unconstitutional in itself, but it gets worse. NBA superstar Lebron James, set up a fund to pay off these court fines so these people could vote. Now, Florida republicans are trying to make that illegal as well. It was never about “court fines” it was about keeping their power. Not even overt racism like these examples are enough to turn Republican voters off.
These racist, Jim Crow era voter laws in the South could be immediately curtailed in the Voting Rights Act, which had a provision added to it that would watch/punish this type of activity, would be passed by Congress and signed into law again. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act passed the House of Reps in 2019, thanks to the Democrat majority. To this day, it is still sitting on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s desk. Not even the death of Congressman Lewis, whose blood was spilled by racist police officers on the Edmond Pettis Bridge in Alabama, for the those rights to happen in the first place, could bring the cold, dead, heart of Mitch McConnell to the side of democracy. Again, this is because Republicans do not want you to vote. Even here in MA, our Republican Governor, who has distanced himself from the national Republican platform (for the most part) is against Ranked Choice voting, a policy that will make it easier for third party candidates to win elections and ensure the winner is actually supported by a majority of the electorate. This is not at the level of other Republican voter suppression tactics, but it anti-democracy all the same.
All this matters because these type of voter suppression tactics limit voter turnout, and increase the likelihood of Republican minority rule. It has very little to do with engagement, from what I’ve seen, people want to know about politics and want to vote for politicians that have their best interest in mind and earn their vote. How can you blame someone for staying home from voting when their states are actively trying to keep them from voting. Sewing this type of distrust helps Republicans stay in power and avoid accountability for their narrow agenda that keeps people from getting ahead.
The SCOTUS Problem
The conservatives on the supreme court, are the reason this mess of voter suppression and anti-democracy exists. When you look at how they rule, it isn’t hard to figure out how all this happened. Not only have they allowed voter suppression to run rampant, but they have allowed dark money and billionaire donors to dictate political funding. The Citizens United decision in 2010 ushered in a decade of pay for play politics that we are currently enduring. Before the conservative led SCOTUS ruled 5-4 to overturn this law, corporations were limited in what they could donate to political campaigns. Conservative justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the majority opinion that this law violated the first amendment rights around free speech. In 2014, they ruled on a case that eliminated a cap on how much an individual could donate to a political campaign. This has allowed the rich and powerful to sink millions of dollars into political campaigns, leaving politicians beholden to their wealthy donors. This era of patronage, where you can pay for influence, corrupts all politicians. Leading to a minority rule of the elite.
Additionally a conservative SCOTUS doesn’t share the values of the american people. Never will that be more apparent than in the next few weeks, when a 6-3 conservative majority will almost certainly strike down the Affordable Care Act. The Affordable Care Act is popular with a majority of Americans. Overturning the ACA would lead to people with preexisting conditions losing their health care, higher drug prices for Medicare and Medicaid recipients, and people being under the age of 26 being thrown off their family’s health care plan. Insurance companies are the only people who will benefit from this endeavor. Roe v Wade is in the cross-hairs of this court as well. Last June, a poll showed 75% of Americans wanted to keep the law as it is. This 50 year Republican jihad against a women’s right to choose is set to be completed by this Conservative majority on the court despite the extreme popularity among most Americans.
The current makeup of SCOTUS is a testament to minority rule. Through obstructionism (and probably a little racism), President Obama was denied his nominee in February of 2016 when Scalia died. Despite Republican Senators claiming they wanted to wait for the election to appoint someone, a move that has proven out to be nothing but bad faith (and probably racism), they still were going to hold open Scalia’s seat if Hillary Clinton won.
“I promise you that we will be united against any Supreme Court nominee that Hillary Clinton, if she were president, would put up,”
Senator John McCain in Arizona prior to the 2016 Election.
He was not the only U.S Senator to say so as such. They were ready to operate the SCOTUS with only 8 justices until they either won the presidency again, or lost their majority in the Senate. Trump would go on to lose the popular vote by 3 million votes to Hillary Clinton, but win the electoral college (more on this racist Constitutional Compromise later). He has since been allowed to appoint 3 judges to the Supreme court and hundreds of Federal judges to lower courts. Amy Coney Barrett, who has only been a judge for three years, was appointed by Trump to her first position on a lower court, to a see that was held open during the Obama administration by our democracy grim reaper, Mitch McConnell. This makes four Justices who were appointed by Presidents who lost the popular vote for that term. Chief Justice Roberts was a first term Bush appointee, a nice prize for helping him hand deliver the election in 2000 over the Florida recount scandal. And of course you have credibility accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Amy Coney Barrett being appointed by Trump, who lost the popular vote by 3 million votes in 2016. The current SCOTUS is nothing more than a symbol of minoirty rule and authoritarianism in America.
“Stand Back and Stand By”
Not only does this comment reflect the racist rhetoric our racist president has lived off of since he came onto the political scene by spewing racist BS about Obama being from Kenya, but it is also a rhetoric of violence that he has used time and time again to intimidate the press and his opponents, as well as to inspire right wing terrorists to do terrible things. His “Liberate Michigan!” tweet directly led to a kidnapping plot against the Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer (who currently has a higher approval rating in her state than Trump does). Other Governor’s have been targeted as well by terrorists. These right-wing terrorists are the largest threat to American safety according to the FBI. Trump has encouraged arm poll watchers to intimidate voters at polling locations. Something we have already seen in practice as early voting has been happening. Not only has he tried to intimidate voters by casting doubts on mail ballots, hilariously claiming during an interview that he saw a box of ballots floating down a river, but he has refused to adhere to the peaceful transition of power, something that has made our democracy a shining example on the world stage. The peaceful transition was so important to George Washington, he decided had had to model it and not seek a third term, when he would have been resoundingly elected. Any refusal of Trump to leave office in the event of a loss, or any claiming of victory before the votes of been counted, should result in him being dragged out of the White House in chains.
Any vote for Trump, or any Republican this year, is a vote against democracy. It’s a vote against your own voice being herd. A Trump win and/or a GOP Senate majority, would spell doom for millions of Americans who value any type of say the political process. It will mean much needed reforms like the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, will never see the light of day. However, it will not be enough simply to have a Democratic trifecta of government to get these reforms done.
What has to Happen for Democracy to Survive
- End the Filibuster in the Senate: There is no scenario where the GOP minority in the senate allows any of these reforms to see a vote if this isn’t dealt with. The filibuster is a Jim Crow relic that is a procedural item that only needs a simple majority to undo. Ending the Filibuster will allow Democrats to act swiftly on these reforms.
- Expand the Supreme Court and Federal Courts: A Biden administration that refuses to re-balance the courts, all the way up to the SCOTUS, will be a failed administration. for the past decade, the Republican Senate has packed the court with conservative judges that do not believe in “creating a more perfect union.” They have done this through denying scores of Obama nominees in his final term, as well as through ramming through judges while the country struggles through a pandemic in an election year. Biden needs to add at least 4 justices to the supreme court, in order to re-balance the swing that happened because of Gorsuch and ACB. This is not unprecedented, the Constitution allows for there to be any number of judges. Nine is an arbitrary number that has just been the norm since the late 1800s. Again, if Clinton beat Trump in 2016, we would absolutely have eight so spare me your court packing accusation tears.
- End Partisan Gerrymandering : Some states actually have non-partisan or Bipartisan committees that draw their congressional lines. What a concept. Equal representation.
- Expand Voting Rights : It is insane that Elections day isn’t a national holiday or on a Sunday. This has to be first. Move it to veterans day for all I care but there is no way anybody should have to take time off from work to vote. Other things that must become federal law are automatic voter registration and universal vote by mail. If the IRS can find you when you turn 18 for tax purposes, there’s no reason why you can be automatically registered to vote.
- Abolish/work around the electoral college:Simply put, the electoral college was established by racist slave owners who were afraid of their norther counterparts having too much say in government. Not only would something like a national popular vote compact end a racist institution, it would force presidential candidates to adopt policy that actually reflected the majority of Americans. Things like Climate change, health care, and civil rights would stop being hot issues because they are agreed upon by a majority of Americans. Currently, campaigns need to be tailored to white suburbanites in the Midwest for a candidate to have any shot at winning the election.
- Vote for Joe Biden : Look, he is by non means the perfect candidate, but actually is trying to appeal to as many people as possible and encouraging people to vote. If anything is certain, he has proven over his tenure to be bale to take advice. He fancies himself as an FDR type of president. FDR of course brought about the New Deal and laid the foundation for a liberal and progressive America. FDR was not a socialist nor was Lincoln an abolitionist, but when the moment called for big action, they met the moment. Once Joe is elected, we can push him to the left on certain issues, especially around expanding democracy.
The stakes have never been higher. The good news is, Biden is winning by so high in the polls that even an identical polling error from 2016 would still have him win the electoral college. With how the Republicans operate, we have to always run up the score, this year is no different.
To Trump voters. I could understand in 2016. I still knew he was a racist jerk who would use his office for personal gain and coddle up to dictators. There are no surprises now. He has not done anything for any of you. he cares only about himself and his business interests. He was willing to let you die in a pandemic if you live in a blue state. He has alienated us from our allies and become friends with dictators like Putin, Xi, Kim Jong Un and Jair Bolsonaro. We are no longer respected around the world. Voting for him is an endorsement of racism. Voting for him is an endorsement for everything America stands against. It’s a vote against the foundational principals of democracy, the right to vote, and majority rule. Wake up. A Vote for Trump is a vote for the end of America as we know it.
She's Worth It 