What happened in the mid-western state of Wisconsin on Tuesday should alarm everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike, or at least those who claim to love America.
The Republican Legislature’s decision to oppose the State’s Democratic executive order, to push the Democratic primary elections back because of COVID-19 was stark.
It demonstrated that Republicans do not care what it takes to attain and hold power, even it means exposing millions of democratic primary election voters to a dangerous life-threatening disease.
The Republican-dominated state legislature, with the majority since 2011, due in part to gerrymandered maps, refused to allow the Democratic governor’s request to mail absentee ballots to all voters or move the primary. Then the State Supreme Court, which is controlled by Republican judges, overturned the governor’s ruling to postpone the election until June. According to the New York times, former Vice President Joe Biden Jr. and Senator Bernie Sanders were on the ballot in Wisconsin, but the main event is the State Supreme Court race between the conservative incumbent justice, Daniel Kelly, and a liberal challenger, Jill Karofsky.
The winner will be in a position to cast a deciding vote on a case before the court that seeks to purge more than 200,000 people from Wisconsin’s voter rolls — in a state where 2.6 million people voted in the last governor’s race. When the matter was first before the court in January, Mr. Kelly recused himself, citing his upcoming election. He indicated he would “rethink” his position following the April election, which comes with a 10-year term.
But the election proceeding on Tuesday is not just about the voter purge case. It is the latest example of what many in the state see as a decade-long effort by Wisconsin Republicans to dilute the voting power of the state’s Democratic and African-American voters.(new york times)
The outcome of the Wisconsin elections aside, comes the larger issue of the consequences of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s actions in blocking President Barack Obama’s choice of Judge Merrick Garland’s ascension to the US supreme court.
The seat that Obama had every right to fill, but failed to fight for, was eventually filled by Neil Gorsuch, a Donald Trump appointee.
In a typical 5 – 4 decision, the five Republicans on the US supreme court upheld the decision of the Wisconsin state supreme court to disenfranchise the state’s Democratic voters.
In vintage fashion, the US supreme court under John Roberts with its 5 – 4 Republican majority has essentially become another arm of the Trump administration and the Republican party.
The real damage to the process is really not Donald Trump’s lies, we know he is a pathological liar. Although the acceptance of lies inexorable diminishes the fabric of our collective moral existence, the real damage is being done through the Justice Department and Trump packing the courts with right-wing ideologues.
It is for that reason that African-Americans must stay on top of their lives and pay attention and where possible, get up go out and vote like their lives depend on voting.
Because it does.……There seem to be a sense among African-Americans that eventually their interest will eventually be legislated and ensured by the white power structure which has for over four hundred years done the exact opposite.
I understand that there may also be a sense of resignation that blacks cannot change their circumstances in America so they have essentially checked out of the process.
In fairness to African-American women, they have generally not thrown up their hands in despair. Nevertheless, there seems to be a pervasive sense of escapism that has become self-evident among our men.
They are able to talk about any movie or video game, but knows nothing about the critical political issues that affect their lives.
Communicating the seriousness of the existential crisis facing black people in America, is seriously hampered by the refusal of our people to read anything.
Whether its newspaper articles, blogs, or to process textual data that is compiled and made easily available on websites, or in other forums, Black people have demonstrably refused to consume that information.
Should we produce that information in crayon, we don’t know.
In Wisconsin, on Tuesday Democratic voters braved the COVID-19 virus and hailstorms just to exercise their right to vote.
A plurality of the American people still believe that the US Supreme court will do the right thing for the Republic but they are woefully misguided in that mindset.
The nation’s highest court has always gotten it wrong when comes to fairness for the plurality of the different people in America.
.* On slavery.
* On Jim crow
*On inter-racial marriage
* On the Japanese internment
* On separate but equal
* On citizens united, et al.
On issue after issue, the Supreme Court of the United States has come down against people of color. There is no reason or precedent for people of color to ever believe that the SCOTUS will ever do the right thing when the rubber meets the road.
Mike Beckles is a former Jamaican police Detective corporal, businessman, researcher, and blogger.
He is a black achiever honoree, and publisher of the blog chatt-a-box.com.
He’s also a contributor to several websites.
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