Coronavirus as the Ultimate Voter Suppression Tool
The current panic is convincing many of us that the right move is to delay the election. It's not.
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Stopping the election on any level suddenly stops the needed electoral mobilization to pause the accelerated meltdown of American democracy. It also potentially dismantles our ability to repair a dysfunctional federal government that is partly responsible for triggering the current global crisis.
The impeachment acquittal was, indeed, the final removal of checks and balances on the Trump presidency. Given the administration's penchant for open-air retaliation, we need to stop operating under the assumption that a political opposition will be allowed to exist if Trump is reelected. It won't.
Hence, there should be no talk or encouragement of election delays — especially from the historically disenfranchised Black electorate. Nor should we be entrusting any responsible postponement of primaries or any election to Republican policymakers. One should eye any Republican-dominated moves to delay with caution. The majority of states that have postponed primaries — three out of five — are Republican; four out of five are reliably conservative or "red states" (with the exception of split-government Maryland, where Democrats run the state capitol). Even the two states with Democratic governors — Louisiana and Kentucky — are places where the state legislatures and much of the electorates are so deeply conservative that they aren't risking re-election hopes for later on. All five states, in addition, have their elections and voter registration administered by Republican Secretaries of State.