Voter suppression

Gainesville, Fl. (Special to Informed Comment) – In the United States government has been privatized by the Citizens United ruling of the SCOTUS. Government is now really up for sale and auctioned off to the highest campaign contributors.The Supreme Court ‘Citizen’s United’ decision opened the floodgates for big money in our politics, allowing giant corporations […]

Republican Party

The Nightmare of Republican Voter Suppression

Tomdispatch

By Clarence Lusane | – ( Tomdispatch.com ) – The fundamental right to vote has been a core value of Black politics since the colonial era — and so has the effort to suppress that vote right up to the present moment. In fact, the history of the suppression of Black voters is a first-rate […]

Far Right

The Holy War of Saint Ron DeSantis on Florida’s Voters

OtherWords

By Jim Hightower | – ( Otherwords.org ) – Breaking news: After years of failed Republican efforts to uncover any proof of widespread voter fraud by Democrats, Republican Governor Ron “Tough Guy” DeSantis of Florida found not one, but 20 ineligible people casting ballots. Like Donald Trump and a gaggle of other GOP governors, DeSantis […]

African-Americans

How Ron DeSantis Blew Up Black-Held Congressional Districts and May Have Broken Florida Law

ProPublica

By Joshua Kaplan | – ( ProPublica ) – Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was incensed. Late last year, the state’s Republican legislature had drawn congressional maps that largely kept districts intact, leaving the GOP with only a modest electoral advantage. DeSantis threw out the legislature’s work and redrew Florida’s congressional districts, making them far more […]

Authoritarianism

Elections: a Global Ranking rates US Weakest among Liberal Democracies

The Conversation

By Toby James, University of East Anglia; and Holly Ann Garnett, Royal Military College of Canada | – Defending democracy has suddenly become one of the central challenges of our age. The land war in Ukraine is widely considered a front line between autocratic rule and democratic freedom. The United States continues to absorb the […]

Democracy

GOP’s Voter Suppression Laws are a Five-Alarm Emergency for Democracy

OtherWords

By Robert P. Alvarez | – ( Otherwords.org ) – “Voter suppression” is a divisive and highly politicized term. But for the slate of bills Republicans are pushing across the country, it’s the only correct one. They’re introducing these bills in virtually every state, but three — Arizona, Georgia, and Wisconsin — are especially worrisome. […]

Authoritarianism

Have Sinema and Manchin Tolled the death Knell of Free and Fair Elections for a Decade?

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, CA (Special to Informed Comment) – In this Brave New World of evolving lexicons, “gerrymandering,” a dirty word to begin with; has become a euphemism for “vote-rigging.” Lessons learned in high school Civics classes about the electoral and re-districting processes are now quaintly outdated, as Republican-dominated state houses do all they can to ensure […]

Inequality

Two Sides, Same Coin: Suppressing Votes, Cutting Rich People’s Taxes

Sam Pizzigati

( Inequality.org) – America’s national media typically pay little attention to the moves the nation’s state lawmakers make. Not this year. State legislative battles have emerged over recent months as a top-tier national story. And deservedly so. The battling at the state level — on a tidal wave of proposed new voter-suppression laws — could […]

African-Americans

Why MLK would have Launched Nonviolent Disobedience to pass the Freedom to Vote Act

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Everything that the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., struggled for is at risk in today’s America, where one of the two major parties has succumbed to the deadly disease of Trumpism, which is built on white grievance. As the Republican Party has become more and more inflected by white nationalism, […]