A Liberal
Dose
December 30,
2021
Troy D.
Smith
“The
Present Attack on Voting in America”
Last time I discussed how voter ID laws disproportionately
affect poor people -the elderly, the working poor, and people of color -and
cases of GOP politicians admitting (or facing proof) that their initiatives
were meant to favor their own party in elections, because those affected
adversely the most were in groups that voted Democratic. Especially African
Americans. I also pointed out a Supreme Court ruling in 2013 that removed
protections against discrimination enshrined in the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The
conservative judges who voted in favor of that action explained that racial
discrimination is no longer an issue in the 21st century, since
after all we had a black president at the time, so those laws were no longer
needed. Like dominos, red state legislatures immediately started passing laws
restricting voting that primarily affected African American voters and
districts.
At around the same time, conservative politicians and media
started raising a cry about another alleged problem: “illegal aliens” in large
numbers voting in national elections (which, of course, is illegal). This cry
has persisted; just recently I have seen several headlines claiming Democrats
are soft on immigration because they want to let in a huge number of
undocumented immigrants whom they encourage to vote illegally. Statistics have
shown that, from 2000 to 2011, there were just 56 cases of noncitizens voting. Again,
a matter of calling for solutions to a problem that does not exist. I don’t
know about you, but every undocumented immigrant I’ve ever known would bend
over backwards to avoid drawing attention to themselves or doing anything
risky. Like brazenly going down to the polling station knowing it was illegal.
There have been a lot of conservative claims in the last few years of huge
numbers of such incidents, but without any documentation (ironically). Sure,
there are a few individual cases you can point to, but no evidence of it
happening in significant numbers. I’ve probably seen as many reports of
Republicans getting caught double-voting for Trump.
Numbers don’t seem to matter, though, as the goal is to
evoke fear in the Republican base AND to erode faith in the voting process, all
with a view to restricting the vote of minorities who might vote Democratic.
Notice that the swing-state cities that Trump targeted as centers of massive
voter fraud, whose votes should not count, were primarily cities with large
black populations (Philadelphia, Atlanta, Detroit). Again, I remind you of
those Jim Crow tactics we discussed earlier.
Since I brought up the T-word, let’s discuss Donald Trump:
he took all the dog whistles and plausible deniabilities that Republicans had
been using since Nixon and amplified them, taking direct aim at the integrity
of the American voting process. Remember when every Republican candidate was
willing to swear that they would accept the results of the primary… except
Trump? He believes that the only possible way he could lose any election is if
the other side cheated. By announcing ahead of time that he would never concede
any election, because his loss would be proof of voter fraud, he was priming
his supporters, too, to refuse to believe the numbers if he lost. This goes
against a long tradition of the losers in very close elections conceding defeat
to avoid dividing the country. This divides the country in advance.
The day before the election in November, 2016, polls said
Hillary Clinton was going to win. This enraged many Trump voters, because it
was proof to them that the election was being “stolen.” I made a mild comment
on a friend’s Facebook page that day, and I received physical threats. Someone
I knew personally and thought of as a friend said that if Trump lost the next
day he would lead a group of people to my house to beat me up. Another, whom I
barely knew, threatened to come after me with a gun.
This was only the beginning.
--Troy D. Smith,
a White County native, is a novelist and a history professor at Tennessee Tech.
His words do not necessarily represent TTU.
A complete list of Liberal Dose columns can be found HERE
A list of other historical essays that have appeared on this blog can be found HERE
Author's website: www.troyduanesmith.com
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