The trumplicans are scared. The Republicans have been scared for years. Old white men are scared. White people are scared. They are scared of losing power. They are scared the new majority will treat them the way they have treated the minority. They see the writing on the wall and are doing anything, and everything, they can to hold onto power.
And that is why we must vote in November. We must vote out the old power structure to allow a more inclusive power structure to come into their own. We have seen the results of a white patriarchal set of laws, and the results have gotten us systemic inequality, a tanked economy, a severe health crisis, and a white nationalists in the White House working day and night to foster hate and division among our citizens.
Over the past many years the white power structure, made up mainly of older richer white men, have systematically worked to disempower, disenfranchise, and dismember communities which don’t look and act as they do.
They have written and enforced laws in biased ways to ensure higher levels of people of color are incarcerated in for-profit jails and prisons.
They have created laws stating one is found guilty of certain crimes, non-violent and violent, lose their constitutional right to vote, affecting mainly people of color and lower income communities. (Side Note: They also passed laws stating one has to tell employers if you have been convicted of certain crimes, thus limiting job possibilities and income potential although they have paid their debt (their sentence) to society.)
They have passed laws stating one must have an ID, or something similar, to vote, then closed local offices who issue those IDs in communities of color or are of lower income.
They have purged voter roles of “inactive” voters, which have been proven to mainly affect people of color.
They have created congressional districts to favor Republicans, keeping them in power in many local and national elections.
They have shortened early voting periods and hours of operation to limit the working class possibilities to vote as the working class can’t wait in line for hours to vote or have working hours that limit when they are able to vote.
They have closed or combined precincts to limit places to vote on Election Day, thus causing long lines and wait times, again hindering the ability of working folks and people of color to vote for the reasons stated above.
They have placed broken or damaged voting machines in precincts with high numbers of people of color and lower income residents, again hindering these voters from voting in the same manner of those in white and higher income communities.
They have placed non-secured voting machines in precincts with programming (provided by private companies saying they can’t share the coding due to the code being proprietary property), that switches or doesn’t register votes for Democrats.
They have chosen not to print an excess of ballots or provisional ballots, mainly in communities of color or low-income, thus not allowing duly registered voters the opportunity to vote.
They have created laws limiting ones ability to vote absentee by needing an excuse as to why you can’t vote in person, although there is nothing in the Constitution stating one must vote in person, meaning one is forced to vote in a way that may hinder the working class from voting due to working hours or waits in lines (see above).
They have put out propaganda regarding absentee voting and mail-in voting as being two totally different things, with absentee voting being good, mail-in voting being bad, even though both work pretty much the same (except for when an excuse is required).
They are suing to prevent states from sending out requests for absentee ballots to all registered voters in the middle of a pandemic, because apparently all registered voters should not be given every opportunity to vote they can.
They are slowing down the postal service in hopes of delaying the return of absentee and mail-in ballots to arrive after Election Day, because in many states, if a ballot arrives after Election Day, but has a date stamp by Election Day, it can’t be counted (hence the need to slow down the mail).
They are suing states over drop off absentee or mail-in ballots stating they must go through the postal service even as they slow the postal service down.
They have passed laws that absentee and mail-in ballots may only be counted on Election Day, not a day sooner, thus working to slow down the count and create a false pretense of election fraud.
They have stated, out loud, if voting was made easy to do, Republicans would never get elected again, an admission of their motive for everything stated above.
If we don’t want the trumplicans to steal our vote through overt and covert methods, we must be vigilant in making sure we register to vote. We must be vigilant in making sure to check often we are still on the voter rolls. We must be vigilant in showing up at the appropriate precinct. We must be vigilant in making sure we are taking care of ourselves in line by bringing a chair of some sort, an umbrella, a snack, and water, while waiting in the lines they have created to deter voting. We must know our right to have a provisional ballot if there is a dispute over our ability to vote. We must be vigilant by showing up at the polls in overwhelming numbers so there can be no dispute we have unseated a despot and halted the push towards authoritarian rule.
We. Must. Vote!
Personal Reflections of a Middle-Aged Man 