July 19, 2017
At midweek, it is fitting to pause and reflect on the remarkable developments in our political landscape in the last 72 hours. In domestic politics, Mitch McConnell and his band of miscreants suffered stunning back to back defeats in their effort to repeal Obamacare and gut Medicaid. Over the weekend, governors, both Republican and Democratic, refused to be snowed by the avalanche of outright lies peddled by Pence, the dead-eyed Puritan, and his henchwoman, Administrator of Medicaid and Medicare, Seema Varma. Then, Monday evening, Jerry Moran of Kansas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin announced that they would vote “No” on BCRA, bringing the total to a bill defeating four. Undaunted, at 11:00 p.m. Monday night, McConnell tweeted his plan to bring a straight repeal bill to the floor, but on Tuesday, Shelley Moore Capito joined Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski as a “No” vote on repeal, announcing that she “did not come to Washington to hurt people.” She differs from most of her Republican colleagues in that regard. While we can’t take a victory lap, the defeat of the Republicans’ ignominious goal of erasing the legacy of a Black president while shredding the safety net, provides a roadmap that we should follow going forward to fight this regime’s efforts to roll back democracy.
Meanwhile, the breadth and depth of the Trump clan engagement with the Russians seems to grow on an hourly basis. We have now learned that 8 people attended Trump, Jr.’s meeting on Clinton opposition research, including Ike Kaveladze, an employee of Russian oligarchs, Emin and Aras Agalarov. In 2000, Kaveladze was alleged to be running a money laundering scheme that moved $1.4 billion of Russian and Eastern European money into American banks. As if that wasn’t enough, last night we learned that Trump and Putin had another previously undisclosed hourlong conversation after a dinner at the G-20. Trump did not have an American translator or any State Department or White House staff present. In all honesty, what more evidence do we need that Trump and his entire family are bought and paid for by Russian interests?
We may feel powerless to do anything other than sit back and wait for Robert Mueller to start issuing indictments, but the truth is that evidence of corruption on such a mammoth scale compels us to act. Trump is an illegitimate President who will not hesitate to use illegitimate means to maintain power. The purpose of the bogus Election Integrity Commission, as well as DOJ’s request for information on the maintenance of state voter rolls is to ensure voter suppression nationwide. Why else would Congressional Republicans seek to eliminate the Election Assistance Commission which is currently working with the FBI to identify the scope of Russian hacking into state voter systems? Why else have 31 states introduced legislation making it harder to vote?
It is critical that we use the same strategies that saved the ACA to protect our imperiled franchise. We must relentlessly shine a spotlight on how Republicans are working to steal the vote, support organizations like the NAACP LDF and the ACLU that are fighting these measures in court and most importantly, we have to show up, in person, at town halls, Congressional offices and state legislative offices to demand that our representatives protect the right that is preservative of all other rights. Don’t get it confused. Black and Latino people may be the low hanging fruit of voter suppression, but once they take our vote away, they’re coming for yours.