Republican Governor Pat McCrory and other North Carolina Republicans are continuing to work hard to block or obstruct legitimate American voters from voting. Although the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down their new voter ID law and Governor McCrory’s appeal to the Supreme Court was unsuccessful due to a 4-4 tie vote, Republicans are continuing to do everything within their power to accomplish their mission to prevent legitimate voters from voting.

This, along with what is happening in the Republican Party right now, is why that if Secretary Hillary Clinton is elected president, she should withdraw Judge Merrick Garland’s name from consideration for Supreme Court Justice and replace him with a more liberal candidate. To be sure, she should ask President Obama to withdraw his name now and not agree to a lame-duck session confirmation hearing since the Republicans have waited so long because ‘Republicans Want to Have Their Cake And Eat It too’.

Governor McCrory and these previously mentioned North Carolina Republicans’ latest ploy is to circumvent the appeal court’s and Supreme Court’s rulings by way of their County Elections Boards. These 100 board’s all of which are controlled by Republicans who wrote the law that was struck down, have now proposed changes in election ground rules as regards the number of polling places, hours, and early voting that would in essence accomplish the same thing that the new voting law would have accomplished had it not been struck down.

According to an article in The New York Times by Michael Wines that is dated 8/30/2016 and titled Critics Say North Carolina Is Curbing Black Vote. Again., ‘Republicans, who wrote and passed the 2013 law and control all 100 county election boards, deny the rules reflect anything inappropriate.’ The article went on to say; ‘”Purely bogus,” Robin C. Hayes, the state Republican Party chairman, said Tuesday in an interview. “In fact, we’re working hard to increase the vote from every region and from every interest group. And by the way, no great surprise: We want them to vote Republican.”‘

The Republican Party can do better and would likely be well on its way to accomplishing that goal if they were not so hardheaded and stubborn. Their 2012 autopsy report was right on point based on the comments contributed by RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, Henry Barbour, Zori Fonalledas, Glenn McCall, Sally Bradshaw, and Ari Fleischer all of whom were authors of the report. Republicans have always had good ideas and reasonable positions on subjects that were worth being contributed to America’s politics and worthy of serious consideration and discourse to determine whether or not their ideas would prevail. But, as previously mentioned, many in the Party are hardheaded and stubborn from the standpoint of who will control it; so much so that they would accept government gridlock rather than compromise. That hardheadedness and stubbornness is likely a large part of why they find themselves in their current situation; they have Donald J. Trump as their standard bearer.

Senator John McCain is one of the members of the Republican Party who possibly could have help them to avoid the Donald Trump takeover. I have mentioned Senator John McCain’s statesmanship in a few other articles that I posted to this site. In one of them I believe that I stated that my wife’s jaw dropped when I said that under the right circumstances I could actually vote for him. I could tell that she thought that I had lost my mind; but she has felt that way about plenty of things that I have said and done before during the ** years that we have been married. Be that as it may, I felt that way about Senator McCain because although I disagreed with him on most issues, I believed that he was a true statesman who constantly stood for what was right and fair in his eyes even if his party disagreed with him.

Senator McCain was the only Republican that truly gave me faith that their actually was a place in the Republican Party for people who look like me; that the Republican Party’s display of concern for people of color and their desire to represent all people despite their color, gender, ethnicity or religion was more than just the smoke-and-mirrors business as usual of his Party. Where is that John McCain?

I realize that I am just one person – and a diehard Democrat at that, who means zero to the Republican Party so who cares, right? But the actions of one person are oftentimes how movements begin. The actions of one person are oftentimes how things begin to change! Senator McCain could have, and perhaps should have, been that person who was there for his Party when they conducted an assessment of how to move forward in building a bigger and more inclusive tent after the 2012 elections; but he wasn’t.

Where is that John McCain; the John McCain who would have stood up to the Republican nominee bully, Donald Trump, who has now – almost singlehandedly hijacked and taken over the Republican Party and made them a laughingstock? It would be funny if the situation weren’t so dire and the nominee not so dangerous to America’s wellbeing. Where is that John McCain? As a matter of fact, where is the Republican Party itself? Given the current circumstances and what the Republican Party appears to be morphing into, boy am I glad that I was not put into a situation where I might actually have had to express by faith in Senator McCain by way of my vote.

Senator McCain has fallen into lockstep with the rest of the Republican Party in kowtowing to their nominee, Donald Trump. There was a time when he would have never surrendered his dignity and sided with his Party in selling out America and the American people in the name of putative progress like that represented in Mr. Trumps speeches of divisiveness and hate and the Republican Party’s efforts to block or obstruct legitimate American voters in their efforts to exercise their right to vote. Where is that great statesman, Senator John McCain?

There are those readers who might ask why are you blaming all of the shortcomings, weaknesses and the takeover of the Republican Party by Donald Trump on John McCain? It’s simple; I am not. But I am letting you see Senator John McCain through my eyes and in the way that I have viewed him, and to some degree still view him; as an American hero, good man, great leader and a statesman. I am also letting you see through my eyes how disappointed I have become in him and how that impacts on how I now feel about any chance of any person of color having anything other than a perfunctory place under the Republican Party’s tent let alone a meaningful place at its policymaking table.

I believe that through courage Senator McCain could have helped to steer the Republican Party in this – one of its great times of need, and perhaps helped it to avoid the pitfall that it now finds itself ensnared in. And even if he failed in his efforts, he would have tried; because that is what great leaders do. He did not do that.

In general, the example immediately above is a microcosm of how all of us, although perhaps not in the exact same way, see those political leaders that we have elected to represent us. Even though ultimately we might not agree with their decisions, we trust them to, to the very best of their ability, do the right thing. This trust may revolve around one politician -as in the case of my Senator McCain example, a group of politicians, or an entire political party, as in the case of the Republican Party and the situation that it now finds itself in. It goes to show that one person can and oftentimes does make a difference.

That even one person can make a difference and that that difference might prove to be the absolute most important thing that is needed at that particular point in time is what this article is meant to depict and emphasize. So always remember; whether you are a Democrat, Republican or Independent, your vote is the most important one of all…unless you don’t use it!

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