Republicans Eroding Our Democracy

Last week efforts to strengthen our democracy by making voting rights consistent across the nation were stymied by our United States Senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, when voted against the Freedom to Vote Act. The bill would have overridden parts of Texas’ new election laws by establishing automatic voter registration and lifting various state-level measures that hinder access to the ballot box. In addition, the bill would have strengthened the regulatory powers of the Federal Election Commission, tightened restrictions on foreign interference in elections and modified campaign finance regulations. To put it bluntly Senators Cruz and Cornyn voted to keep it hard for people to vote and to continue allowing foreigners to donate money to political campaigns and groups advertising in support of candidates.

Gov. Greg Abbott and his fellow schemers in the state legislature put on a big show about preventing non-citizens from voting, yet they have nothing to say about preventing foreign money being used to sway voters via political advertising and social media activities. Money provided by rich donors contributing to many Super PACs (Political Action Committees) is often anonymous and known as Dark Money. Since the funds are anonymous no one outside the Super PAC can be sure that the money they’re spending to elect a candidate isn’t from Iran, Russia, or China, or any other foreign nation or company. Our senators had an opportunity to shed light in the dark and willfully chose not to.

Republican lawmakers continue to push to solutions looking for a problem as they use fears of non-existent voter fraud as an excuse to limit voter access to the polls. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick still hasn’t paid the supposed million dollar bounty he offered for proof of voter fraud. Even Donald Trump’s own attorney general, Bill Barr, agreed there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud nationwide. Here in Texas, an official with the secretary of state’s office said the 2020 election was “smooth and secure.”

Sen. Cruz claims that improving access to the polls is somehow a "massive power grab by Democrats" even though measures such as same day registration, which allows a voter to register and vote on the same day, have nothing to do with the voter’s choice of candidate.

Every step that Republicans take to make it harder for citizens to register and vote weakens our democracy. Every time Republicans gerrymander districts to minimize the voting power of people of color in favor white voters erodes the foundations of our democratic institutions. Every measure Republicans take to retain power while only representing a minority of the electorate sends this country further down the road to becoming a failed democracy.

As author and lecturer James Waterman Wise Jr. once told an audience in 1936 - fascism would not come with a “shirt” or “insignia” but “wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution.” This sounds much like the rhetoric used by Gov. Greg Abbott, former president Donald Trump, and so many more Republicans I’ve lost count. That rhetoric works as we’ve all seen our formerly moderate Republican neighbors fall under the spell of Trump and his ilk; it hasn’t mattered to those neighbors one bit that Trump and his Texas boot lickers have proven themselves incompetent, power hungry, and greedy.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 27, 2021

America Needs Build Back Better

Joe Biden and Democrats in congress appear to be losing the messaging battle on his Build Back Better plan. Opponents simply shout about the cost and debt and much of the public reacts in fear. In reality much of the cost is covered by simply restoring the tax rates in place prior to Trump’s big giveaway to big business and the wealthiest among us. Even more is covered by returning to full funding of the IRS so it can collect on taxes due from tax cheats that it is unable to investigate and prosecute due to being underfunded and understaffed. Of course one of the reasons the plan is being bashed is that the wealthy tax cheats don’t want to fund the IRS so it can catch them.

The plan includes increases in educational opportunities by providing two years of free community college for all students, regardless of family income. The bill would also add $80 billion in funding for Pell Grants since funding for the program hasn't kept pace with the increasing cost of college in recent decades. It’s been clear for some years that pre-K makes a big difference in educational achievement especially to lower income children who often don’t get the kind of parental attention young minds need to fully develop. The Build Back Better plan will provide two years of universal pre-K for 3- and 4-year-olds.

For older Americans the bill would expand Medicare to include coverage of dental, hearing and vision services. Given the benefits healthy teeth and gums including protecting against heart disease it’s a wonder dental care isn’t already part of Medicare.

The Build Back Better plan aims to fix one of the problems with Medicare Part D that wasn’t addressed in the Affordable Care Act a decade ago. Americans on average pay two to three times as much as people in other countries for prescription drugs. Provisions in the legislation would allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices to get the best deal which it is currently prohibited by law from doing. Of course the pharmaceutical industry is spending millions of dollars on ads, campaign contributions, and lobbyists to fight this change just as they did back in 2009 and 2010.

The provisions I’m most interested in have to do with combating climate change. Slowing the rate at which Earth warms will mean transitioning away from fossil fuels, the major source of greenhouse gas emissions. One provision that Democratic Senator Joe Manchin has objected to is the $150 billion "clean electricity performance program," which would pay utility companies that increase their renewable energy supplies by 4% per year. Companies that do not hit this benchmark would face financial penalties. The bill also provides significant funding for forest management and other wildfire control measures. There are also measures to incentivize the buying of electric vehicles and the construction of charging stations; consumer rebates to homeowners who weatherize their houses; and financial penalties for oil and gas producers for methane leaks, among other things. Manchin’s family and major campaign donors are heavily invested in coal mining which stands to suffer further reductions as coal fired electric plants are phased out so his opposition is self-serving and not in the best interests of either his constituents or the American people.

There’s plenty more in the bill including paid family and medical leave and a wide range of other areas that would serve to improve the lot of most Americans. It would be a shame if fear of change prevented us from having what every other advanced nation on earth has.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 20, 2021

Texas Redistricting An Exercise In Racism

The Texas legislature is once again in special session, this time to draw new maps congressional, state senate, state house, and state board of education districts. The maps proposed are an exercise in using power to maintain power in that the districts are drawn to increase the number of districts that likely to be won by Republicans who already hold a majority that is not supported by the actual vote counts.

The Republican leadership has employed an out of state expert whose primary qualification for the job is successfully slicing up communities to enable Republicans to win more districts with fewer votes. The techniques for doing this are known as packing and cracking. Packing is when the mapmaker jams as many voters of the opposing party into as few districts as possible so while the opposition is guaranteed to win those seats they don’t have enough voters in other districts to win any others. Cracking is when the mapmaker spreads out opposition voters across enough districts that they can’t possibly achieve a majority in any of them. Careful use of such tactics has enabled Republicans to hold 64% congressional seats with only 52% of votes going to Republicans in 2020.

The newly proposed maps, providing two additional seats to Texas as required by the decennial census results, preserve the unwarranted Republican majority. Those two additional seats were necessary due to the population growth of which 95% was among people of color. It’s bad enough that Republicans skewed the maps to maintain a stranglehold on the vast majority of districts but they made it worse by doing it in the most disrespectful way possible. The 2020 census shows that Hispanics make up nearly the same percentage of the population as white Texans yet the new maps include 23 majority white districts and only 7 majority Hispanic districts. The new map removes the only Black majority district and one of the previous 8 Hispanic majority districts thereby diluting their voting power and reducing the opportunity to elect a representative of their own choosing.

House Speaker Dade Phelan admonished legislators not to use the term racist in their discussion of the maps yet looking at the demographic makeup of the proposed districts it’s hard not to conclude that there was racist intent in the process of drawing them. Until the Supreme Court gutted the bi-partisan Voting Rights Act the Department of Justice would have had to review and approve Texas maps. There is still hope that Congress will pass The Freedom to Vote Act which among other important provisions imposes new standards prohibiting partisan gerrymandering including maps drawn prior to passage.

Texas Senators Cornyn and Cruz both oppose The Freedom to Vote Act as do every other Senate Republican therefore passage through the Senate will require suspension or elimination of the filibuster something West Virginia senator Joe Manchin opposes. Our democracy is imperiled by power hungry Republicans supported by their Trump cultist voters. If this nation is to stand as a beacon of democracy for another century we must all hope that The Freedom to Vote Act is passed this year.