The Republican Party, The Voting Rights Act, and Donald Trump

The Republican Party appears to be going all in to obstruct or completely block American citizens that they have targeted from voting. Kansas is one of the states with Republican held legislatures that is among the identifiable reconnaissance states that are taking the point position in absorbing any primary challenges to this unwarranted voter ID legislation and providing intelligence to other Republican held states that are sure to follow after they tweak their own legislation based on this intelligence.

Kris Kobach, the current Secretary of State of Kansas is leading this drive to unfairly disenfranchise legitimate American voters. When voters go to the polls to vote, if they do not have the required ID they are placed on a suspense list and are later purged from the registered voters list if they do not provide the requisite ID within a given period of time.  According to a recent Reuters’ analysis of this suspense list, those who are having the hardest time registering to vote are young voters, unaffiliated voters and other voters who normally vote for Democrats.

Although, as determined in most of the cases where enhanced voter ID requirements have been put into place there was little to no evidence of voter fraud to begin with, Mr. Kobach forged ahead anyway.  And, just like as published in many other cases where these laws have been enacted, since this law was implemented; only a few (single digit) individuals who are alleged to have committed voter fraud have actually been prosecuted and/or found guilty.

Still, Republicans defend their actions and say that they are putting these laws into place to defend against rampant voter fraud and protect the American people. This kind of obstruction and blocking of legitimate voters’ right to vote has been going on ever since the John Roberts led Supreme Court struck down Section 4 (b) of the Voting Rights Acts.  Despite what might have been the good intentions of the court, the decision has thrown the country into chaos, in some cases, causing each state to come up with its own laws as to what will be required of citizens in their state in order for them to be able to vote.

On top of this situation, Republicans have been publicly expressing their concern about the possibility of the Supreme Court becoming more liberal if a Democrat is elected president. They think that that would be a terrible thing.  If Republicans believe that taking away voters right to vote in order to get a Republican elected president so that they can assure that the Supreme Court remains a conservative leaning court, then perhaps America needs what Republicans think would be a ‘terrible thing.’

To make the situation even worse, Republicans – with the blessings of the Republican elites and Republican congressional leaders in Washington, are slowly but surely lining up in support of Donald Trump. As for the ones who are not openly supporting him, their silence is deafening.  One can only imagine what will happen under Mr. Trump’s leadership.  It is not just a question of the direction that the Supreme Court will take; the larger question is which direction will the country take?

I am well aware that I am at risk of completely exhausting the subject of how concerned I am and how concerned America should be about Donald Trump’s flaws that make him unsuited to hold the most powerful office in the world. But there is so much at stake that I want to be sure that I do everything that I can to get voters to go beyond Mr. Trump’s superficial rhetoric, dig deep beneath the shinny facade that he is presenting to the public and explore those things that are close to his core.  Find out what he is all about, how knowledgeable he is about domestic and world affairs, how willing he is to learn about those things that he does not understand and how willing and capable a student he will be.  It is obvious who he is as a CEO; but who is he, really: and is he capable of subordinating his ego to those who perchance could help him to become presidential and suitable to hold the esteemed office of President of the United States of America?

A normal, reasonable Republican politician would be (gulp) fine. But Mr. Trump is not a normal and reasonable Republican politician and he must not be allowed to normalize himself by wrapping himself in a veil of normalcy just long enough to possibly win a general election.  All of those Republican politicians who support him and those who have so far chosen to remain silent know this but they are allowing loyalty to their Party to ‘trump’ (pun intended) their duty to put country ahead of politics.

I will try not to revisit this, what I am sure that many of you consider, worn-out subject any time soon so that you will have some time to recover from it. But I am not making any promises.  If duty demands it, I will be right back at it; sounding the alarm bell and hoping that although you might not want to, you will take a deep breath, swallow and read it anyway.  With so much at stake, I can’t help myself.

Eulus Dennis – author, Operation Rubik’s Cube and Living Between The Line