Texas Republicans Attempt Voter Suppression Again

When Governor Abbott designated “election integrity” an emergency item last month anyone who has paid attention to his rhetoric and that of the rest of the Republican Party knew it was a bad sign. Sure enough after weeks of rumors Senate Bill 7 was just introduced and it comes as no surprise that the 27 page bill contains a wide range of voter suppression and anti-democracy provisions.

SB 7 expands prosecutorial powers for the Attorney General over voter registration violations, whether intentional violations or accidental. Given Attorney General Ken Paxton’s predilection for using his office for purely political purposes; like trying to overturn the results of a presidential election, giving him expanded powers to prosecute voter registration mistakes is a profoundly bad idea.

The bill prohibits counties from proactively sending vote by mail applications which some counties did in the 2020 election cycle to encourage eligible voters to stay safe by voting by mail rather than risk infection from the coronavirus at a polling site.

SB 7 prohibits counties from operating early voting poll sites later than 7pm. Only a few counties offered later hours but it certainly helps people who work long hours to have an opportunity to vote.

The bill mandates anyone who wants to vote by mail because they are disabled must provide specific documentation. So now folks who already have a hard time getting along in life face another hurdle exercising their constitutional right to vote.

SB 7 requires that any person in the car with a voter who is voting curbside, including people who transported them there, shall officially be deemed an assistant under law who must sign the form documenting that they provided assistance. So if a disabled person takes a cab to the polls the cab driver must sign in as an assistant. How many cab drivers are going to find that acceptable?

Senate Bill 7 continues a pattern we’ve been seeing throughout the pandemic where county election workers do their best to find ways to let Texans vote safely and securely state officials do everything they can to stop them.

As Common Cause Texas Executive Director Anthony Gutierrez said recently “It’s already harder to vote in Texas than any other state and Senate Bill 7 would make it considerably harder.”

There is a reason we keep hearing so much talk from politicians in Texas about “election integrity”, without any basis in reality, it’s because they need to invent a justification for a bill that drastically limits voting rights. There is one and only one purpose to Senate Bill 7 and that is to help the politicians in charge stay in power. 

The real problem with elections in Texas that we should be addressing is too few people participating in our democratic process. We should be doing things like implementing online voter registration, improving civics education, and investing in our election infrastructure.

You have an opportunity to be a part of the process and stop this truly bad bill by contacting your state representative John Kuempel at (830) 379-8732 and depending on which part of the county you live in state senator Judith Zaffirini at (512) 463-0121 or Donna Campbell at (512) 463-0125. Both senators sit on the State Affairs committee to which SB7 is assigned.

$15 Minimum Wage Is Over Due

The pandemic relief bill, known as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 has passed the Senate we can feel fairly confident that the major points will be there when reconciliation of the House and Senate versions is complete. One aspect that was removed is raising minimum wage. Most Democrats in Congress have recognized that its past time to raise the minimum wage since inflation has eaten away at the buying power of a dollar over the nearly 12 years since it was last adjusted.

You might think that most minimum wage workers are teenagers working after school and summer jobs but you'd be wrong. In reality minimum wage earners average 35 years old, in fact only about 10% teens. 59% are women, 54% are full time employees. Most of them are in fact the frontline workers most at risk of contracting COVID-19 due to their exposure to customers while on the job.

Several groups are pushing for a gradual increase to $15 an hour so that it’s a living wage. $15 sounds like a lot until you start calculating what it costs to live in this country. Even in supposedly low cost of living states like Texas a single person working a 40 hour week needs to earn more than $12 an hour just to rent a one bedroom apartment, and pay for transportation, medical insurance, utilities, food, and clothing. In the San Antonio metro area which includes Seguin, New Braunfels and Boerne it takes almost $13.50 an hour, while that same person living in Corpus Christi needs over $14 an hour, Houston over $14.25 an hour, and Austin over $15 an hour.

If your cousin or brother-in-law tries to argue that minimum wage was never intended as a living wage, it’s just a starting place to get experience, you can let them know they don’t know their history at all. In his 1933 address following the passage of the National Industrial Recovery Act, President Franklin D. Roosevelt noted that “no business which depends for existence on paying less than living wages to its workers has any right to continue in this country. By ‘business’ I mean the whole of commerce as well as the whole of industry; by workers I mean all workers, the white collar class as well as the men in overalls; and by living wages I mean more than a bare subsistence level — I mean the wages of decent living,” he stated.

As Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren recently put it “When billionaire CEOs skimp on wages and rely on public subsidies to cover their employees’ health care, housing, and food costs, that’s not a free market. That’s a rigged system. We need to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and put power in the hands of working people.” Remember, its companies like Walmart that have high rates of employees on SNAP, Medicaid, and other federal and state benefits that your taxes pay for. Those profitable companies are being subsidized by your tax dollars.

Republicans are trash talking raising minimum wage with poor arguments like the one spouted by South Dakota Senator John Thune. He claims he did just fine just out of high school in 1978 making $6 an hour, except that when you consider inflation since then that’s equal to $24 an hour today. Even when he was making the minimum wage of $2.65 back then its equivalent to $10.90 an hour today.

Minimum wage was always intended to be a living wage and while that varies some from city to city $15 an hour is a reasonable compromise.

Yes It's A Cult

The Republican Party has become a cult of personality. The most recent evidence is the gold plated statue of a certain twice impeached former president at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) last week in Orlando, FL. Considering that the current conservative movement leans heavily evangelical Christians you’d think such a statue and the worshipping of the former president would bring to mind Exodus 32:4 in which the Israelites put together a golden calf idol and Moses and shames them for their lack of faith.

In the last 12 months more than 500,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, many of them might never have contracted it if our federal and state governments had taken it seriously rather than calling it a hoax or as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick famously suggested grandparents should be willing to sacrifice their lives for the state’s economy. Patrick made that ridiculous statement in May last year, as of last week nearly 44,000 Texans have died from COVID-19. No Republican elected officials criticized him for his callousness and many of local conservatives still don’t want to wear a mask and when they do won’t wear it properly over their nose. Much of this refusal to accept reality is shear partisanship following their cult leader, he of the golden statue above, who at times called the pandemic a hoax and said it would just go away like magic.

The violent takeover of the nation's capitol January 6^th seems to have pushed away the former president's supporters, as evidenced by the growing number of Republicans around the country who have changed their voter registration to Independent or Democrat. Unfortunately diehard Trump loyalists have become even more fervent followers. The twice impeached loser and his devotees have long been known for their divisive rhetoric, strong affinity for conspiracy theories, radical views of the world that are divorced from reality, and support for authoritarianism. Since the electoral loss in November they have started exhibiting clearer characteristics of cult followers, such as victim mentality, and a tendency to blame others.

Cultists place blind and absolute faith in their leader. They believe that they are on the side of truth and in the righteousness of their group. When presented with facts casting doubt on their beliefs, they are unwilling to seriously consider the possibility that they're wrong. Instead, they simply deny reality or embrace a conspiracy theory like the nonsense presented as QANON.

Conspiracy theories can be very attractive as they offer intriguing stories about "truth that is not reported by media" and you've been let in on the secret. Such "theories" often provide support for the persons own views and feelings. Those who become fully committed to a conspiracy theory no longer have to fact-check or evaluate information. They are spared the effort of soul-searching and agonizing over weighty questions.

The aftermath of the U.S. presidential election has unfolded is graphic evidence of the danger inherent in allowing cult thinking to quietly gain ground. A prime example of this is Japan's experiences with Aum Shinrikyo. Chizuo Matsumoto the founder of a religious cult called Aum Shinrikyo, ran for election to Japan's parliament. Confident he would win, Asahara instead suffered a massive defeat. He then claimed there was vote-rigging, saying some votes had been "replaced." Any of that sound familiar? Aum Shinrikyo was allowed to grow into a powerful organization eventually committing numerous crimes  culminating in the 1995 sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway system, the world's first indiscriminate terrorist attack using a toxic chemical.

There really is no telling how this cult will end.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - March 3, 2021