John Cornyn Lies About Voting Rights Bill

In Austin the Travis County Clerk's office says that as of today, their office "has rejected about fifty percent of applications for ballot by mail that have been received for the March 1, 2022 primary election," due to changes to ID requirements made by Texas' new voting law.

Last week in San Antonio a Bexar County election official told Texas Public Radio “Yesterday we received about 80 mail-in ballot applications. Forty-two of those did not fulfill the new requirements. So we have to reject those.”

In Houston Harris County elections officials are reporting similar issues rejection rates and it’s all because of the recently passed Senate Bill 1.

Sen. Cornyn called the Freedom to Vote Act "unconstitutional" in remarks on the senate floor. Coming from a former judge you’d think he’d know better since the United States constitution states in: Article I, section 4, clause 1 - "The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators."

Also Justice Scalia wrote when interpreting Article I, section 4, clause 1 in AZ v. Inter Tribal Council of AZ: “The power of Congress over the ‘Times, Places and Manner’ of congressional elections ‘is paramount, and may be exercised at any time, and to any extent which it deems expedient.’”

John Cornyn publicly stated “Based on the way our Democratic colleagues talk about the state of voting rights in America, you would think the Supreme Court had struck down the Voting Rights Act.” Cornyn also claims the Voting Rights Act of 1965 "worked as congress intended" but fails to mention that it was Section 4, pre-clearance that did all the work and that’s the part the Supreme Court overturned. Cornyn also fails to mention that Texas was repeatedly sued under Section 4 and found guilty of violating the Voting Rights Act when redistricting, including during the last redistricting cycle.

Cornyn calls Democratic efforts to pass voting rights legislation "power grab" when in fact it is Texas Republicans who have grabbed power by packing and cracking congressional districts to gain partisan advantage. Without pre-clearance a state can redistrict or change any election law in a totally illegal way then until they are sued and lose, those laws or districts are in effect often for several election cycles. Texas was sued in 2011 and the case took several election cycles to get through the courts without anything ever being done about the violations. In the latest round of redistricting last year minority voters suffered discrimination again as Texas Republicans redistricted in such a way that African-American voters lost the only district from which they could elect a representative of their choosing even while Texas gained two additional congressional seats.

Cornyn’s remarks on the senate floor included the claim that Democratic concerns over voter ID are a sham but fails to mention it isn’t the requirement for a photo ID that Democrats object to it’s the difficulty that low income minority voters have in getting the very limited kind of ID that is required. Only the Texas Department of Public Safety offers the necessary ID and getting there then waiting in line can take all day which can be a real hardship for working people who don’t drive.

Cornyn makes much of Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema as Democrats being unwilling to vote for the bill but fails to mention that the reason is they want Republicans to support it too.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 19, 2022

Defend Our Democracy

Last week was the anniversary of the violent insurrection at the United States capitol by right wing activists attempting to stop the certification of presidential election results. The attack included ransacking congressional offices, theft of official computers, and vandalism including smearing their own feces on walls. Our democracy is so imperiled that Civil War historian David Blight recently wrote "Trump has birthed a dangerous new ‘Lost Cause’ myth" to describe the claims Trump lost the 2020 election due to voter fraud.

Reports is various media outlets say that the House select committee investigating the insurrection received copies of communications turned over by Trump’s former chief of staff Mark Meadows and others suggesting the White House coordinated efforts to stop Biden’s certification. The documents have led House investigators to become interested in whether Trump oversaw a criminal conspiracy. Some of the documents indicate the Trump White House briefed several House Republicans on its plan for then-vice president Mike Pence to abuse his ceremonial role and not certify Biden’s win. Having these documents could give reason for the panel to consider criminal referrals of Trump administration members and possibly Trump as well. The committee’s first step is to determine whether the attempt to stop certification violated federal laws prohibiting obstruction of congressional proceedings.

Regardless of whether or not Trump is ever charged and convicted of an attempt to overthrow the government it’s important that the Freedom to Vote Act that I described last week be passed so that the gerrymandering that allows the Republican party to hold a disproportionate number of congressional seats as compared to the number of votes they earn. Our senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, refuse to support such efforts to restore our democratic institutions. Cruz in a recent interview with Fox News host Tucker Carlson even backpedaled on calling the January 6 insurrection at the capitol a “terrorist attack”.

Cruz like most other Republicans holding federal and state office continue to abase themselves to Donald Trump because Trump supporters are so vocal. Around the country some state level Republicans have retired from office because they are unwilling to toe the Trump line and are afraid for themselves and their families due to the threats of violence made by local Trump supporters.

Sen. Cornyn, a former state judge, projects the elder statesman persona but has been instrumental in organizing Republican opposition to all efforts by Democrats to take the necessary steps to hold any officials accountable for organizing or assisting the insurrection as well as the effort to prevent passage of the Freedom to Vote Act or the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. It’s all about gaining and retaining power in service to their wealthy campaign donors, they make no effort to helping anyone else while giving lip service to the middle class even as their policies and actions cause the middle class to shrink as a percentage of the population.

Trump’s authoritarian populism aligns with white nationalist rhetoric while Republican ideology has drifted into neo-fascism. Remember that the characteristics of fascism are: absolute power of the state - such as making all abortions illegal, rule by a dictator – Trump’s claim that “I alone can fix the system”, corporatism – controlling labor by making unions, strikes, and other labor actions illegal, something Reagan started, extreme nationalism – such as the ginned up threats about immigrants especially those from the southern border, and superiority of the nation’s people – Trump’s appeal to white supremacists.

We the people must fight back, call our senators  and demand that they publicly support and vote for the Freedom to Vote Act today.

Looking Forward to Strengthen Our Democracy

Last week I reminded readers of some of the Joe Biden and the Democrats major accomplishments since the inauguration on January 20th such as rejoining the Paris Climate Accord, a 100 country pledge to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas methane by at least 30 percent by 2030, another agreement to end and reverse deforestation, reinstatement of a pause on federal executions, significant improvements in job and wage growth, the unemployment rate fell to the lowest level since March 2020 while jobless claims fell to the lowest level since 1969 in early December, disposable income grew 3% after inflation, and finally the American Rescue Plan along with the historic economy recovery combined to cut child poverty in half.

Looking forward two very important pieces of legislation are on the docket, the Build Back Better Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Build Back Better is a wide ranging bill that combines major infrastructure projects with improvements in economic fairness. The bill funds government purchases of electric vehicles and zero-emission, heavy-duty vehicles in addition to incentives to consumers for buying electric cars and trucks. This is an important step in both reducing the damage from climate change and developing energy independence. There is also funding for wildfire prevention, drought relief, conservation efforts, and climate change research; all of which affect Texas greatly. The bill also provides funding transit services and clean energy projects in low-income communities, some of which Seguin would likely qualify for.

The Build Back Better Act also includes funding for up to six semesters of free community college so that our young people who aren’t interested in university degrees have a chance to develop skills that lead to good paying jobs in construction, healthcare, and a wide range of fields. For families with very young children the bill will provide funding for universal preschool. An important provision here in Texas is funding health benefits for eligible individuals who reside in states that have not expanded Medicaid. There’s plenty more in the bill like expanding Medicare to cover dental, vision and hearing along with require that Medicare negotiate prices on prescription drugs which is currently prohibited.

The Freedom to Vote Act would ban partisan gerrymandering and establish clear, neutral standards for congressional redistricting and strengthened protections for communities of color. These rules would be applicable to all maps created in the current cycle, including those that have already been enacted. This provision would significantly change the district lines and likely the partisan makeup of the Texas congressional delegation as Republicans have used extreme gerrymandering techniques to increase the number of white Republican districts while the percentage of white Texas voters has declined.

The Freedom to Vote Act would require all 50 states to offer early voting periods for at least two weeks prior to Election Day, including on nights and weekends, for at least 10 hours per day just like Texas does. The bill would create a national standard permitting no-excuse vote by mail for every eligible voter and states would be required to permit voters to apply for absentee ballots online. The bill would promote a national standard for states that have an identification requirement for in-person voting, allowing for the use of a wide range of forms of identification (including electronic copies) and alternative options for voter validation meaning that Texas college students could use their student ID to vote.

Republican leaders object to the Freedom to Vote Act with the ridiculous claim that making it easier to vote and supporting the notion of one person – one vote is somehow a Democratic takeover.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - January 5, 2022

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

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.