All voters matter
Editor, The Commercial:
The right to vote is under assault. Under the unfounded pretense of combating voter fraud, the Republican Party has launched a nationwide voter suppression campaign. The aim is to dilute the power and limit the influence of people they view as “other.”
This scheme is not new. One can trace the tentacles of this scheme back to the Jim Crow era when the south concocted laws that legally kept Black Americans away from the polls.
A statement by Sen. William Windom of Minnesota in 1879 sums up the reasoning behind the voter suppression campaign of intimidation and terror that followed the end of reconstruction and the thinking of some people in America today.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
He said, “The black man does not incite antagonism because he is black but because he is a citizen, and as such may control an election.”
His fear was well-founded because, in his day, there were areas in which African Americans under normal democratic processes would have had a voice in government. However, violence, poll taxes, and other threats discouraged many from showing up to the polls.
Trump’s big lie and the attack on the U.S. Capitol a year ago laid bare the fact that there are still people in this country who believe that some voters should not count, and they should not be allowed to wield power even if they did. Because to do so would be a threat to their way of life, comfort and privilege.
Heather McGhee writes, “To believe the big lie is to assume that votes cast by people of color are by definition taking something from rightful white voters.” And she goes on to say, “To believe the big lie, you have to think that it’s just as safe to assume that black and brown people are criminals committing fraud as it is to assume they’re eligible citizens exercising their civic duty.”
Some people respond to the threat with hateful words. Others react to the threat with violence. No matter the tools they use, a handgun used in a church, or laws restricting minority voting rights, the intent is the same. To limit the power and influence of a group of people they view as “other,” different from themselves, and therefore unworthy of not only holding high office but of having a voice in the election of those who do hold office.
Chestine Sims,
White Hall