A lot of Americans firmly believe Republicans are on a crusade to stifle democracy by restricting voting rights to white people who vote for Republicans. Although there is plenty of truth to that belief, Republicans would be neutered without valuable assistance from the fascist sympathizers on the nation’s Supreme Court.
The recent approval by the SCOTUS conservatives of Arizona’s voter suppression law has nothing whatsoever to do with preventing the non-existent massive voter fraud or ballot security, and everything to do with preventing people of color from voting – because they likely vote for Democrats.
The key takeaway of the Conservatives’ attack on democracy in their Arizona decision came courtesy of anti-voting access creep and Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito.
In writing for the rest of the Jim Crow advocates on the High Court, the fascist Alito admitted that vote suppression targeting people of color is “not necessarily†a bad thing by any measure. He was likely loath to say what the SCOTUS conservatives meant in their anti-democracy decision; Arizona’s law was the best tool for fascist Republicans to restrict people of color’s access to the ballot box.
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The conservatives upheld the Arizona law that the Ninth Circuit Appellate Court ruled was created specifically to “discriminate against Native American, Latino, and Black voters.â€
Alito wrote in defending the fascists’ ruling:
“The mere fact that there is disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that a system is not equally open or that it does not give everyone an equal opportunity to vote,â€
Since the start of the year, and after months of Trump and Republicans’ BIG LIE that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, seventeen states have passed 28 new laws restricting, mostly people of color’s, access to the ballot box according to the Brennan Center for Justice. And the reason has nothing to do with non-existent voter fraud or a desperate attempt to ensure election integrity according to Republicans.
Republicans openly admitted they are passing voter suppression laws for purely partisan gain. During arguments in front of the Supreme Court, a lawyer for the RNC said that if the High Court strikes down any Republican voting restrictions “it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats.â€
The SCOTUS’ decision sends a strong signal to Republican legislatures that their voter suppression efforts will be successful because the fascist conservatives on the High Court “will not stand in the way of the greatest rollback of voting rights since the end of Reconstruction.†It is the newest and most nefarious method of vote suppression since the Jim Crow era.
It is important to state that the conservative Justices’ attack on the concept of “one man, one vote†began long before Trump and Republicans tried to claim they only lose elections due to widespread voter fraud. In fact, it began in the minds of Chief Justice John Roberts and Associate Justice Samuel Alito long before they began their crusade to dismantle the Voting Rights Act in 2013 in the Shelby ruling.
The 2013 Shelby decision paved the way for a massive wave of voter suppression laws targeting people of color in states such as Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas. Twenty-six states enacted new voter restrictions since the Shelby decision where the conservatives on the court claimed racism is non-existent in Southern states. Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in defending the conservative’s dismantling of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act::
“Our decision in no way affects the permanent, nationwide ban on racial discrimination in voting found in Section 2. Voting discrimination against African-Americans was so entrenched and pervasive in 1965 that less than 7% of African-Americans of voting age in Mississippi had been able to register to vote. Today, both Philadelphia and Mississippi and Selma, Alabama have African-Americans mayors. Our country has changed.â€
As if that preposterous statement wasn’t bad enough, the conservative majority overwhelmingly approved of Arizona’s voting restrictions they admit “disparately†impacts a class of voters that just happen to be primarily African Americans; the country has not changed because the anti-democracy fascists on the High Court continue making decisions restricting people of color’s right to vote. With this latest abominable ruling, the conservative Court overtly weakened what remains of the country’s most important voting rights law and it is a crusade they aren’t finished with until only white Republicans are allowed to vote.
In 2018 Justice Alito wrote the majority opinion upholding redistricting maps for the US House and state legislature drawn by Texas Republicans. A  federal court found that the Texas maps were drawn with “racially discriminatory intent†against Latino and Black voters. The conservatives on the High Court said good work; we like where you Republicans are going with this.
In the 1980s, Alito explained that he only became interested in constitutional law because of his vehement opposition to the rulings by the Warren Court in the 1960s. In particular what drew his ire was “one person, one vote†cases that rectified widespread racial and partisan gerrymandering enacted by states to preserve rural white political power. Alito is in the process of rectifying what he considers unfair for white people – allowing people of color to vote.
Many Americans are aware, and some are terrified, that Republicans are in the midst of a crusade to decimate democracy to create a permanent fascist Republican regime. However, their greatest fear should be that there are six anti-democracy justices on the nation’s highest court legalizing every filthy voting restriction Republicans come up with.
This nasty, fascist conservative SCOTUS is on pace to approve every new iteration of Jim Crow Republicans can devise and it will be the undoing of America as a representative democratic republic – which is precisely what Republicans dream of at night.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
