In the fight over voting, choose more democracy
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion Lovers of democracy must vigorously fight against efforts in state capitals and in Washington by Republicans to restrict access to the ballot. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp is leading the Republican effort to roll back the expansion of the franchise. Unbelievably, in Georgia, it is now illegal to provide water to voters who are waiting in long lines. This is particularly surreal given that it is the state of Georgia that is responsible for creating these long lines by restricting early voting and limiting the number of polling places. It is exactly because of these efforts to restrict voting that the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act must be passed.
Lovers of democracy must also fight in the courts to overturn these restrictive laws that have disparate impacts on poor voters, on Black and brown voters, and on young voters. These are the very voters Republicans have chosen to alienate with policies that work directly against these voters’ interests. It should be noted that there is nothing restricting Republicans from embracing the needs of these voters. It is a strategy that is likely to fail unless antidemocratic Republicans can restrict access to the vote by these very Americans.
Lovers of democracy must also continue to fight the public relations war that includes corporate leaders who have the ear and control the purse strings of many elected Republican officials. Corporate leaders will put pressure on these misguided officials, if for no other reason than to counter boycotts by enraged citizens and their consumers. Already, we are seeing Black senior executives including Kenneth Chenault, the former CEO of American Express, Kenneth Frazier, CEO of Merck, and others say that what Georgia is doing is wrong. Frazier, “As AfricanAmerican business executives, we don’t have the luxury of being bystanders to injustice; we don’t have the luxury of sitting on the sidelines when these kinds of injustices are happening all around us.”
And President Biden weighed in by saying he would support Major League Baseball moving the All-Star game that is scheduled for Atlanta this summer to another venue because of the restrictive voting rights laws enacted in Georgia.
I like our chances fighting on the legislative, the judicial and the public relations fronts, but more than these, I like our chances to vote antidemocratic elected officials out of office over the next few election cycles because of the reaction of everyday voters to the actions of these antidemocratic Republicans. This effort by Republicans has given the supporters of voter rights and voter expansion a shot in the arm. Young people, low-income citizens, and Black, Brown and AAPI voters, to use another physics concept, have great potential energy. Like the archer who pulls back the string and arrow, antidemocratic Republicans have created conditions that can energize voters who are the very ones targeted by these efforts to restrict their ability to vote.
There are few things more motivating than to be told that you cannot do something. I suspect that voters targeted by these antidemocratic laws will feel empowered to prove Republicans wrong and that these laws will not be successful because people will register, and people will vote regardless of the intent of these new laws. I can imagine that voters and communities around the country will mobilize and go to the websites of secretaries of state across the country and will register to vote. Every citizen in every state in the country needs to visit their secretary of state’s website to learn the rules for voting in their state. This crisis has made it necessary for citizens and the lovers of democracy to register early and secure the proper documentation to exercise their rights as citizens.
We know from data reported by the Brennen Center that 15 percent of Black adult citizens do not have driver’s licenses compared to less than 5 percent of white adult citizens. Minority voters, young voters, new voters and others should use this time between elections to secure government photo IDs. Most states offer IDs even if you do not or cannot drive. Schools and universities should be educating their students on the mechanics of voting so that they know the process, and they are able to assist their parents and grandparents with the process. Is civics still taught in public schools like it was when I was an elementary school student a half a century ago? Churches, nonprofits, fraternities, and sororities need to allocate time and resources to educate their people on the mechanics of voting. And corporations, particularly influential companies like the Netflix, Google, Amazon, CNN, MSNBC, Apple, the NBA, the NFL and Major League Baseball should use that influence to educate their customers on the importance of voting and their civic duties. This groundswell of support will overwhelm the antidemocratic forces in power today.
Because of the actions of antidemocratic Republicans, Americans will vote and participate in record numbers. And for this we can thank Kemp and his antidemocratic Republican colleagues across the country.
This is not a call for oneparty rule. This is a call for Americans to make a choice between democracy and something less. We should choose more democracy.