Heed John Lewis

Civil rights hero, Congressman John Lewis, has taken to social media recently to encourage voters to use their right to vote. He tweeted “I have been beaten, my skull fractured, and arrested more than forty times so that each and every person has the right to register and vote. Friends of mine gave their lives. Do your part. Get out there and vote like you’ve never voted before.”

Congressman Lewis’ remarks are especially important this week when many Americans are going to the polls for early voting at the same time a right wing terrorist has mailed and hand delivered at least seven bombs to former president Obama, Hillary Clinton, former Attorney General Eric Holder, Congresswoman Maxine Waters, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, progressive billionaire George Soros, and the New York offices of CNN. Hate from the right; like the white nationalist/Nazi march in Charlottesville, Virginia last year that ended in the death of Heather Heyer, has been on the rise since Barack Obama began his campaign for president in 2007. The current White House stoked that hate during his campaign and enough Americans in the certain states accepted his hateful message so that he managed to take office even though he received nearly 3 million fewer votes. Since his inauguration he has thrown more fuel in the fire and claimed that the bigots marching in Charlottesville were nice people.

By continuing to spout hateful language toward his opponents and those in the media not associated with Fox News and AM talk radio the popular vote loser in the White House has incited and given permission for his followers to act on his words by striking out at those with whom they disagree. No prior president of either party has pushed the envelope the way the man in the White House today has done. Even Reagan using dog whistles like his imaginary welfare queen remarks didn’t stoop to calling for violence.

In the face of attacks and calls for violence it is of the utmost importance that we all heed John Lewis’ call to vote. Even though they were subjected to violence from both police and civilian bigots Lewis, Rev. Martin Luther King, Dolores Huerta, Bayard Rustin, Rosa Parks, Cesar Chavez, and the many other activists forged a highly effective and non-violent path to achieve their voting rights and civil rights goals. Once their right to vote was established those pioneers were able to achieve and protect other civil rights for a time.

Over the last 30 years as the right has recognized the opportunity to rule by exploiting division amongst the electorate. One of the main fault lines exploited is race, others are generally religious biases like non-Christian faiths, a woman’s right to control her body, and non-traditional sexuality. Exploiting these fault lines requires generating fear, anger, and hate to move those who are susceptible to voting for those who claim to be protecting them. Of course the politicians who use these methods including the record setting liar in the White House aren’t really interested in or concerned about the issues surrounding race or religion. Their vociferous calls to protect white, Christian America are just tools to get access to the levers of power for the purposes of enriching themselves and their billionaire and corporate sponsors. The evidence for this is the single significant piece of legislation that the Republican controlled congress was able to pass was a giant tax break for those billionaire and corporate sponsors.

If you, your family, your friends, and your neighbors don’t vote, the hate mongers and their rich sponsors win. Don’t let them.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 26, 2018