OPINION:

Watching Democracy Die

By D. S. Mitchell

Wisconsin Outrage

Television images captured thousands of voters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin standing in three block long lines, face masks in place, showered intermittently with hail and rain, risking exposure to COVID-19; to exercise their right to vote. This did not need to happen. This should not have happened. Voting should not be an obstacle course. Voting should be one of the easiest things, we as citizens, ever do. It should be as easy as licking an envelope. The vote by mail push is meeting stiff resistance from the far right, particularly from Donald Trump. The politicians fear it would endanger their grip on power. Republicans in Wisconsin, and other states have used voter suppression to shrink the electorate and limit access to the polls for decades.

Anger

I was disgusted at the sight of what was happening in Wisconsin. Furious to my core. So angry, I was crying. Tears are not always shed in weakness, or defeat. Some tears are a physical manifestation of a rage so great that when held back can lead to plate smashing, door slamming, and window breaking. At other times tears are shed because the injustice of events is beyond the understanding of the human heart. In 2018, according to the Brennan Center For Justice “17 million Americans, or 8% of the nation’s electorate, were removed from voting rolls.” The clear intent was to deny particular segments of the population the right to vote.

The Whigs

In the first days of our country there was no such thing as voter registration; white men just showed up and voted. In the mid 1800’s voter registration laws began to emerge. These laws, were designed to limit participation, not encourage involvement.  One of the first voter registration laws in the country was written by New York state Whigs. The Whigs wanted to limit the voting power of Irish Catholic voters in New York City. The Irish were mostly Democratic party voters. But, the Whigs had a plan, and the legislative power to suppress the power of the growing Irish Catholic vote.

The South

After the Civil War, voter registration was used to silence the voice of newly freed slaves throughout the south. Poll taxes, literacy tests and bean counting absurdities made it nearly impossible for Black voters to successfully register to vote.  Those Blacks that managed to register were quickly denied their right to vote by targeted purges of the voter rolls. Voter suppression, through the targeted use of voter registration and voter purges are the tools of the powerful to quiet the voices of opposition.

Laws Fail

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 outlawed many voter suppression schemes. But, it motivated Republicans throughout the country to come up with new ways to evade the law.  The intent of National Voter Registration Act of 1993, was to open public agencies, such as the DMV, to facilitate voter registration. However, Republicans had a different agenda. In an unofficial effort to purge voters, the RNC created lists of voters in specific districts to challenge people at the polls. In Black and Latino districts of Newark and Trenton the GOP stationed men wearing “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands. This tactic was obviously intended to intimidate and discourage voters.

In 2000

The election of George W. Bush is  directly related to Republican efforts to suppress the Black vote. Jeb Bush, George W’s brother, was governor of Florida. Jeb, under the guise of protecting the vote, actively participated in voter suppression. At the time, Blacks made up only about 11% of the Florida population. Yet the Black demographic made up more than 44% of the Republican purge list. According to a June 2020 Mother Jones magazine article, Florida then used felony arrest records to strip people of their voting rights, for life. That same Mother Jones article, claimed “an official audit found that as many as 12,000 registered voters had been mislabeled as having felony records, a number 22 times greater than George W. Bush’s 537 vote margin of victory”.

Endangering Democracy

The Supreme Court has become more conservative since George W. Bush’s election. Donald Trump has nominated, and the Senate has confirmed two extreme conservatives to the Court, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. At the end of 2019 the Chief Justice wrote and published his annual report. In his much discussed report, John Roberts detailed his concern for the state of American democracy. He railed that social media, was fueling rumor and disseminating false information on a “grand scale.” He declared public awareness and discussion of political issues on such sites, in fact, endangered democracy itself.  I for one thought Robert’s assessment to be both hypocritical and self-indulgent.

Look Inward Chief Justice John Roberts

John Roberts has in fact, presided over the most damaging decisions to democracy in our 243 year history. A list of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, with Robert’s at the helm, have been hair-raising. Legal decisions supporting partisan gerrymandering, voter purges, voter suppression, disenfranchisement, and dark money in politics, have dealt a devastating blow to the underpinnings of democracy. We are at a perilous time, our democracy is on life support. Our legal system has become so indulgent to the wealthy that I am not sure what we have left is worth saving.

Fifteen Years

Crushing social inequality, unequal access to voting, and perhaps most frightening an entrenched minority rule has led to the Twitter rages, Robert’s  complains about. The Chief Justice’s assessment of our dissolving democracy ignores that it is the deep social injustice that has created the schism in our country.  In his fifteen years at the Supreme Court, Roberts has bent our democracy so radically in favor of the rich and away for the common man, I wonder if we as a society will ever recover. Environmental protections, reproductive health, criminal justice, consumer protection, and voting rights are in the crosshairs of the Chief Justice’s judicial agenda.

Bad Decisions

No Longer Relevant

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 eliminated barriers to Black voting in the South, banning poll taxes, literacy tests, and other tactics that effectively prevented African-Americans from voting. Roberts, came under sharp attack for his opinion in the Voting Rights case. He decided that pre-clearance might have been necessary in 1965, but today those race-based barriers to voting no longer existed. He concluded, pre-clearance itself was based on what he called “eradicated practices.” Racial disparities and literacy tests were a thing of the past. Roberts declared,“There is no longer such a disparity.” His decision ended the very measure that had prevented voter suppression for over fifty years.

Pedal To The Metal

Within 24 hours of the Shelby County v Holder  5-4 decision, Texas moved to enforce one of the nation’s most restrictive voter ID laws. A storm surge of immense proportions followed. Mississippi, North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Alabama, Arizona and Ohio quickly implemented extreme new voting restrictions. North Carolina led the nation in strict photo ID requirements, limited early voting and pre-registration. Ohio purged voters who had not voted in two election cycles. It was obvious that Republican state legislatures were intentionally creating laws to disenfranchise people of color.  The “eradicated practices” Robert’s dismissed so easily, have proven to be as virile and muscular today, as in 1964.

In 2017 in a Texas case, Abbot v Perez, the Robert’s Supreme Court upheld all but one district of a state legislative map that lower courts had ruled unconstitutional.  Complainants sought relief from state legislature gerrymandering that led to the diluting of Latino voters. The evidence was overwhelming, but the Robert’s Court in the predictable 5-4 decision dismissed the complaint. The Court suggested that a “presumption of legislative good faith” outweighed racial discrimination. With the 2019 Rucho v Common Cause, case Roberts, again in a 5-4 decision closed the casket lid on partisan gerrymandering. Roberts declared it was up to the voters to undo the gerrymandered mapping. This despite overwhelming evidence that election results have advantaged the party that draws the maps.

Citizens United

In 2010,  the John Robert’s Supreme Court heard Citizens United v. FEC.  For a decade, this case has been the rallying cry for Democrats across the country. Citizens United  symbolizes the corporate take over of democracy. This decision, perhaps more than any other, exposes the extent to which wealthy and powerful interests are dominating American politics and policy. Big money continues to disrupt every part of the progressive agenda. Environmental protections, health care, abortion rights, criminal justice, and the minimum wage are under assault, and Robert’s has the gun.  The decision was just one more terrible decision by the Roberts Unjust Court.

Conclusion

The implications of who sits on the Supreme Court is more clear today than at any other time in history. The Court under Robert’s has substantially moved toward inequality in every social dimension. It isn’t just Trump. It isn’t just Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, or Charlie Koch. Each of these bad actors are guilty of terrible crimes against our society.  While they are the face of voter suppression, and social injustice, the living breathing heart of this outrage is conservative Chief Justice, John Roberts. John Roberts along with the other four radically conservative justices on the Court have turned that body into an instrument of the wealthy and powerful. It has become, due to the solid 5-4 voting block, the most immoral court in my life time.