Save your Confederate money, boys, the South is rising with cancel culture and voter suppression

 I am old enough to remember the revival in movie theaters of, Gone the Wind. It inspired my 10-year-old playmates to re-enact the glory of the lost cause of the South in the civil war and we chose up sides of either North or South. (I went North because I liked winners more than losers and Abraham Lincoln was my patriotic hero) Those who cheered the south had one favorite battle cry: "Save your Confederate money, boys, the South will rise again". That was in the latter 1940s. I lived in the most southern part of a non-southern state, eastern Oklahoma, and, in a very segregated city of Muskogee,.The Confederacy is still trying to rise again in 2021, though it seems it has never stopped trying.

Politically the GOP has morphed into a latter-day Confederacy party with their Jim Crow voter suppression attempts, the reason they say is widespread voter fraud. The left calls that alleged fraud is a lie. In 2021, watching the antics at CPAC and another, more radical group, what looks like what is happening is that the Confederacy is still trying to rise, with their focus holding together the white crowd in an obvious attempt to keep demographic changes from overcoming them. Platitudes like "protecting vote security" are what they may be saying, but their party actions and proposals are doing something else. Complaining the left is canceling their culture begs the question of "what is their culture?"Top of their oratorical list was the demonstrably false claim that Trump won but he was kept from getting sworn in because of widespread fraud. This is why the left calls this "The Big Lie".This persistent lie is still being touted by Trump and the GOP at CPAC. They keep on lying in spite of 60 judges tossing Trump lawsuit attorneys and their proofless claims out the door in November and December. Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud (apnews.com) In December, Trump's attorney general Bill Barr had testified there was no widespread fraud. On March 2, FBI Director Wray, testifying before a House committee, also confirmed his support of Barr's findings.

The 5 biggest takeaways from FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony about the Capitol insurrection | Business Insider India

.To fix what "aint broke", the GOP has launched a campaign for state legislatures they control to tighten and make more difficult access to the ballot in a series of laws conveniently aimed at undermining African-American voting habits. GOP-dominated legislatures have proposed or enacted measures to suppress the minority vote in the very states where that demographic helped Biden win. Likewise, in Hispanic-populated states like Arizona, not only is their access to voting being suppressed by proposed election laws, their GOP legislature is trying to remove the popular vote by their citizens in presidential elections, letting the state legislature choose their presidential electors.

If the only way the GOP thinks it can win is to discourage people from voting, especially those they think will vote for their opponents, there is something wrong with their message. This kind of attitude from the GOP is an admission of their failure to attract enough voters to their cause. In Colorado since 2018 over 40 thousand registered as Republicans changed their affiliation to independent or Democrat. 4600 alone left the GOP after January 6.

Update 4/6/21:: In protest to Georgia's just passed voter suppression legislation, the MLB has moved the All-Star game to Denver. Colorado's voter laws are considered the Gold Standard for voter participation and security. Colorado Vs. Georgia Voting Laws: What Are The Differences? | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

I am not sure I am grasping the "cancel culture" thing. It was a big deal at CPAC...but could it be that those who are feeling canceled would like to be politically incorrect? Or is this just right-wing ideological silliness? I fear the culture the left they accuse of canceling is the Confederacy...or at least a culture that permits and exhorts racist remarks and denigrates people of color. Is that it? The Washington Post asked the right question: What exactly is your culture? FYI: the left did not cancel Dr Suess books; the Dr. Suess owners of the publishing rights did:"Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrated by announcing that it will no longer publish six of his books because they contain racist and insensitive imagery. Dr. Seuss -- Theodor Seuss Geisel -- wrote more than 60 books, but some of them were under other pseudonyms.
The six books that the organization decided to stop selling aren't any of the biggies like "Green Eggs and Ham" or "The Cat in the Hat," but you may know them:

"And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street"
"If I Ran the Zoo"
"McElligot's Pool"
"On Beyond Zebra!"
"Scrambled Eggs Super!"
"The Cat's Quizzer"

A lot of the problematic content has to do with harmful stereotypes, such as Asians portrayed in conical hats and carrying chopsticks, or barefoot Black men in grass skirts."  MORE VACCINE NEWS - FELICIAMUFTIC@GMAIL.COM - GMAIL (GOOGLE.COM)


WASHINGTONPOST.COM

Analysis | If curtailing racist imagery in Dr. Seuss is ‘cancel culture,’ what, exactly, is your culture?

Supreme Court Seems Ready to Sustain Arizona Voting Limits - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

.GOP bill would override will of Arizona voters, elections boss Hobbs says (ktar.com)

Voting Laws Roundup: February 2021 | Brennan Center for Justice

Trump’s CPAC 2021 speech was heavy on lies about the election - Vox

CPAC is promoting Donald Trump’s big lie of election fraud | The Independent

 Colorado’s Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney was alarmed by falsehoods about Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems (coloradosun.com)

Lawyers Who Pushed Trump's Big Lie Face Immediate Bar Suspension (bipartisanreport.com)

Pro-Trump Attorney Lin Wood Could Lose License As Georgia Bar Asks For Mental Health Evaluation (forbes.com)

Trump-Backing Lawyer May Face Discipline in Election Case - Bloomberg

Most Republicans say the election was stolen — especially the ones who hate Democrats and don’t mind White nationalists - The Washington Post

65% of GOP believe the big lie, per an AP poll: Poll finds 65% of Republicans say they don’t believe Biden’s election was legitimate - MarketWatch

Voter Fraud Map: Election Fraud Database | The Heritage Foundation

Fact check: What's true about 2020 election, vote counts, certification (usatoday.com)

https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/its-time-to-talk-about-dr-seuss This posting resulted in a very interesting exchange on a Facebook site: with a dialogue with X...who presented the long history of the Republlican party's support of civil rights.   Me: Thanks for your reminder. of the Republican party history. From the 1860s to even the 1960s, I would have been a Republican. Since the passage of the civil rights act, in 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965, the political parties traded places on human and civil rights. With the Trump takeover of the GOP, the GOP does not even resemble the GOP of my parents who were great supporters of Ronald Reagan. In fact, the Trump GOP party more resembles the Dixiecrats on civil rights. the party of George Wallace, and. on fiscal issues and democracy, anarchy, and autocracy. While I love the lessons of history, I live in 2021. Like  ·  Reply  · 1h  ·  Edited Replies X:  first, I never have and I never will buy the "magic fairy dust" theory that somehow the Democrat and Republican parties magically changed positions at some point in time. But let's do a little thought experiment. Let's accept your premise that the Democrats only had horrible policies prior to 1960. Now let's apply that to your Doctor Seuss post that kicked off this conversation. Dr. Seuss was a great man, who benefited Society. He taught children, and adults, how not to discriminate. He was a man who spent his life publishing positive, life-affirming stories with fantastic underlying messages. Some decided that some of his images should not be viewed by children. As a result six books have been canceled. Using that as the basis, shouldn't the Democrat Party change their name? I'm a big believer in differing viewpoints. I believe very strongly that there should be two parties. But shouldn't the name "Democrat" be relegated to the Dustbin of History, due to its association with slavery, Jim Crow, and the KKK? Even today's Democrat governor of Virginia has a college picture of him either in blackface or a KKK robe. He can't remember which. I guarantee you that if I ever did anything that horrific, I would remember. Felicia Muftic  The sensitivities of the publishers of Seuss books are to be applauded, but the main body survives.  One of my favorite Seuss books was one of his earliest.. which has a strange relevance to today's GOP dilemma: I even remember the punch line: "I meant what I said and I said what I meant: an elephant is faithful 100 percent" Pledging allegiance to a party is a very stubborn habit, and I cannot abide the current GOP, but there is still a big enough tent in the Democratic party for me to have a place. And you? 1 Like  ·  Reply  · 50m  ·  Edited X replies: Felicia Muftic , we agree on so many things. Can we agree that the Democrats should update the name of their party? Like  ·  Reply  · 47m Felicia Muftic No on Democrats and Trump has signaled he is not forming a third party My preferred, Biden, won and represents the majority. It is also true with the Colorado Democrats. So far as culture is concerned, the Democrats fit mine OK. Back to the culture cancel thing...We do agree on much. The size of the tent makes it worth my time. Is there room for you in the current GOP? Back to the question: what is your culture? The basic problem is that the two-party system is so entrenched by gerrymandering and voting structures that primaries reign supreme and control the candidates, third parties have no chance to succeed. Belonging to a party is a matter of relativity, not absolutes. Here is the problem.The changes must take place within the parties...but instead of fighting for the changes, people are more likely to become independents. When they do that, they lose their right to vote in primaries and have any say in their party's direction. .

Colorado's vote by mail...antidote to voter suppression legislation

 The antidote to the racist-inspired poison of voter suppression law being enacted by GOP-dominated state legislatures is to put the issue on the next state-wide election by petition, permitting universal vote by mail using the fraud-free Colorado system. The reason it could pass is that: even the white vote is also being inconvenienced. Making it harder for them to vote is not a popular move, either. The attempt is based on a lie: there was widespread fraud in 2020. 60 court cases with the last Supreme Court ruling in February 2020, Supreme Court rejects final Trump bid to nullify 2020 election results | TheHill exposed the lie with rulings and the opportunity of Trump partisan lawyers to present their evidence of fraud. They could not because there was none that would have changed the outcome of the November 2020 election. The lie lived on in spite of this providing the January 6 capitol attackers with a rationale and the battle cry of "stop the steal". Those attackers were both fools and fooled though the Big Lie was not the motivation driving the violence. As we learn more about the attack, we learn the bad actors were mostly an armed militia group called domestic terrorists by the FBI and in particular, the Oath Keepers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/oattkeepers-capitol-riots-conspiracy/2021/03/11/03c26114-8291-11eb-9ca6-54e187ee4939_story.html . Their motivation was "stop the steal". The participation in the riot also involved a number of white nationalists. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/several-well-known-hate-groups-identified-at-capitol-riot/ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/video/extremist-signs-symbols-capitol-riot.html

Another antidote to state-based voter suppression laws is for Congress to pass HR1 which would expand protection of voters' rights and nullify much of what the GOP-dominated state legislatures are proposing and passing into legislation.. The GOP state legislators are using the "Big Lie", the Democrat's shorthand tag for the GOP's false claims of widespread fraud, to justify their voter suppression legislation attempts anyway. Never mind the evidence and court decisions. Even if it "ain't broke", they still want to "fix it". The real reason for their attempts to make it inconvenient for citizens to vote is not fraud. The evidence for such accusations is how their proposals would keep especially African American voters from voting using their custom of voting on Sundays (after church "souls to the polls") and by mail. If the GOP cannot win on their merits and demographics to expand their appeal, then their answer is to keep the opposition from voting.

HR1 passed the House on March 4 with a menu of what Democrats would like to do to combat voter suppression...probably the most important piece of legislation concerning voting rights since 1965. Even with Democrats having the White House and with marginal control of the Senate, the filibuster may have to be blown up. The alternative strategy is passing Senate rules with a simple majority that would exempt all issues concerning voters' rights from filibusters . This is a carveout strategy that would not destroy the filibuster on other issues. That approach has been implemented, in exempting Supreme Court appointments from the filibuster 60 vote threshold.

Within the voting rights reforms in the voting rights bill HR 1 now in the Senate is a way to address the distortion of voter voices is ending political gerrymandering by having independent commissions draw federal district boundaries. Colorado is ahead of the nation on this one, too. Voters approved this and the state has begun implementing it in 2021. https://www.denverpost.com/2020/12/22/colorado-redistricting-2021-process/

The GOP's current line is that HR1 would destroy the GOP. If the only way the GOP thinks it can win is to discourage people from voting, especially those they think will vote for their opponents, there is something wrong with their message. This kind of attitude from the GOP is an admission of their failure to attract enough voters to their cause. In Colorado since 2018 over 40 thousand registered as Republicans changed their affiliation to independent or Democrat. 4600 alone left the GOP after January 6.

For those wondering about the hows and whys of the filibuster issue in the Senate rules, the definition per the senate.gov website is: "The Senate tradition of unlimited debate has allowed for the use of the filibuster, a loosely defined term for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question. Prior to 1917, the Senate rules did not provide for a way to end debate and force a vote on a measure. That year, the Senate adopted a rule to allow a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster, a procedure known as "cloture." In 1975 the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds (67) to three-fifths (60) of the 100-member Senate."

House Democrats pass HR 1, their massive voting rights bill - Vox

Registered Republicans Ditch Party After Capitol Riot : NPR

What 9 Extremely Detailed Maps Tell Us About Colorado’s 2020 Election | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

"I don't think 2022 is going to be competitive": GOP voter registration tumbles in Colorado (yahoo.com)

FactCheck.org's Weekly Update (mailchi.mp)

Colorado’s Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney was alarmed by falsehoods about Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems (coloradosun.com)

Tens of thousands of voters drop Republican affiliation after Capitol riot | TheHill

Supreme Court Seems Ready to Sustain Arizona Voting Limits - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

In Supreme Court, GOP attorney defends voting restrictions by saying they help Republicans win (nbcnews.com)

Colorado Mail-in Voting Is Secure, Increases Voter Turnout (5280.com)

How to automatically track your Colorado mail-in ballot | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

,The Confederacy will rise again....or at least a similar mentality is still trying...and voter suppression and charging the left with cancel culture  are the 2021 version on their menu featured in the CPAC meeting.   Comments about this  have been moved to a separate posting: Save your Confederate money, boys, the South is rising again with cancel culture and voter suppression 

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