The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
The threat of minority rule in the United States
“There are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.” Led Zeppelin, Stairway to Heaven
Cheating in politics, like baseball, is a national pastime. Major League Baseball’s playoffs feature an American League championship between the cheating Houston Astros versus the Boston Red Sox, whose manager was part of the cheating while a coach with the 2017 Astros. In politics, the Republican Party is trying to cheat its way into power and create white minority rule. Just as baseball had to rewrite and enforce its rules to keep up with the creativity of rule abusers, to protect our political processes, we must update our political rules. If we don’t make changes, we will end up with white minority rule, like what took place in disgraced apartheid South Africa.
Updating the rules is something that America needs to consider when it comes to our election processes, but not in the way most Republicans have been advocating. Republicans are trying to change the election rules to prevent “widespread voter fraud” that even the highest-level federal election officials in the Trump administration stipulate did not happen. Nor did those stealthy Cyber Ninjas, despite months of looking in Maricopa County, Ariz., find anything other than a larger margin for the winning candidate, Joe Biden.
Democrats need to rewrite the rules to prevent Republicans from actively stealing the 2022 and 2024 elections. But it is not just Democrats who need to raise the alarm; all Americans interested in democracy need to clearly be on the side of free, fair, transparent and open elections.
According to the National Conference of State Legislators, Republicans currently control 54 percent of all state legislative elected offices with Democrats controlling 45 percent. In 23 states, Republicans control both houses and the governorship. In 16 states, Democrats control both houses and the governorship, and in 11 states there is divided government.
If 2020, the 16 solid blue states with 195 electoral votes all voted for President Biden. In 2020, the 23 solid red states with 221 electoral votes all voted for Trump, except Georgia and Arizona (surprise-surprise). Twelve states with split control of the legislature and the governor’s office had 122 electoral votes. Biden won 81 electoral votes from those states and 41 went for Trump. Included in those politically divided states are Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania with a total of 46 electoral college votes — all three of those states went to Biden.
The game plan for the Republicans is as clear as day — restrict voting in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia, and if they are successful limiting or nullifying votes in those five states and they hold the states they won in 2020, it would give the Republicans the White House in 2024.
Plan B for Republicans is to change the laws so that the secretaries of state in those five states can overturn the results of the election by claiming voting fraud. Voter suppression and election nullification are the cheating game that is taking place right in front of our eyes.
An even closer look at the Republican strategy reveals a very clear racial strategy to suppress Black and brown voters. The five key states are also home to cities with large populations of Black and brown voters — Atlanta, Philadelphia, Detroit, Milwaukee and Phoenix. The average nonwhite and Hispanic population in those five cities in 2019 was 65.2 percent. It was in those cities/ counties where Trump lawyers were thankfully thrown out of court. For Republicans, it is not about voter fraud. It is about suppressing Black and brown voting in these critical cities and winning at any cost.
What is the solution? Some are calling for independent election monitors and arbiters — kind of like what the U.N. does in countries without long democratic traditions. Umpires are absolutely needed in baseball, and I suspect they are needed to keep our elections clean. However, I do not believe Americans would ever stand for a committee of Americans not to mention U.N.-appointed observers supervising our elections.
The more realistic solution to counter Republican efforts to steal future elections is to get massive voter registration and turnout, particularly in these five urban centers. In 2020, nonHispanic whites voted at 71 percent, Blacks voted at 63 percent, Asian Americans voted at 60 percent and Latinx voters voted at 54 percent. Biden won the 2020 election by over 7 million votes. If the rate of participation by Black, Asian and Latinx voters increased to just 65 percent, the national vote would make it all but impossible to steal the election. This level of participation would give Democrats a Gavin Newsom-sized win in 2022 and 2024 and eliminate any doubt about the outcome.
The key to fair elections is participation. Without participation, I am afraid we are looking at an American future of white minority rule. Minority rule is inconsistent with democracy and minority rule based on race is a recipe for national disaster. If baseball can enforce fair games, we should be able to enforce fair elections. Former President Trump repeatedly claimed the election was rigged. The way to fix that is for Americans to vote in record numbers.
There are two diametrically opposed potential futures. One is white minority rule. The second is multiracial, multi-ethnic democracy. I hope we choose the latter.