“Let me be very clear ... if you think this is something happening down in Georgia, you are misapprehending the moment that we’re living in,”
“It is about whether we are who we say we are. Either we’re a democracy or we’re not. Either we believe in the idea of one person, one vote, or we don’t. Either I’m a citizen or I’m not.”Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock in a conversation with Rachel Maddow on MSNBC last week.
My handful of regular readers will know that I have not had a lot to say regarding threats to our democracy here in Canada in recent years being somewhat less concerned since the demise of the right wing conservative federal government. I cannot however fail to be concerned about the reaction of the republican types south of us to the installation of a democratic president and their efforts to suppress certain segments of the population from voting in the future.
Fortunately there are those recently elected individuals who are affected the most fighting this abomination. Read on.....
Since the January election, some 250 voter suppression bills have been introduced by state legislatures all across the country, from Georgia to Arizona, from New Hampshire to Florida, using the big lie of voter fraud as a pretext for voter suppression, the same big lie that led to a violent insurrection on this very Capitol
And how did some politicians respond? Well, they are trying to make it a crime to give people water and a snack as they wait in lines that are obviously being made longer by their draconian actions. Think about that. Think about that. They are the ones making the lines longer, through these draconian actions. And then they want to make it a crime to bring grandma some water while she’s waiting in a line that they’re making longer. Make no mistake: This is democracy in reverse. Rather than voters being able to pick the politicians, the politicians are trying to cherry-pick their voters. I say this cannot stand.
“If you think that this is something happening to Black voters, you still don’t quite clearly understand,” he added. “This is a defining moment for American democracy. If this is happening in the state Capitol in Georgia, it will not take very long for it to visit a state capitol near you.” (and indeed elsewhere across the world as is already evident in so many countries)
Read Georgia Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock’s first Senate speech. He’s the first Black senator to represent Georgia and the first Black Democrat to be elected to the Senate in the South. Reverend Warnock is also a pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was the spiritual home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
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