In the past two months, judges on both sides of the aisle threw out over 80 Trump claims of 2020 voter election fraud; the reason: lack of evidence. All nine Supreme Court judges and even Bill Barr reached the same conclusion; there was no proof, and therefore, Joe Biden was and is the winner of the 2020 Presidential election.
However, weeks ago, a dozen Senate Republican Trump loyalists announced they planned to band together to reject the election results and vote to block the Electoral College certification of Biden and Harris on January 6th. There was no valid reason for this other than trying to appease Trump and ingratiate themselves to his base of 70 million-plus supporters.
On January 2nd, Trump made an infamous and likely criminal call to the Secretary of State of Georgia, requesting help in overturning the results of the 2020 election. The leaked conversation exposed the ramblings of a man in desperation. However, Georgia officials remained unswayed by Trump’s persistence and publicly debunked every claim of fraud he and other conspiracy theorists promoted.
Trump’s efforts to steal the election yielded no fruit. And as for the Republican Senators who planned on overturning the voting outcome, that was never a real possibility. Both the House and Senate divisions of Congress would have to vote and be unified in rejection of election results, which would never happen. So, all these antics seem to be no more than time-wasting theatrics. However, there was something far more sinister going on, which was played out on January 6th, as Donald J. Trump led a rally that formed into a white nationalist, violent mob that attacked America’s Congress and democracy itself.
With last week’s dangerous insurrection, people of color should be more energized than ever to participate in our country’s democratic voting process. We know what this is really about. In response to Donald Trump and countless Republican senators’ attempts to nullify our voting power during the election, we black voters mobilized and fought back. A collective sentiment of “enough is enough” became prominent among us as we reflected on this country’s history of violence against African Americans for simply trying to exercise our right to vote.
So let’s be clear about who and what we are dealing with today in 2021; politicians agreeing to challenge and overturn the 2020 election are synonymous with Donald Trump’s vile, antiquated, racist depravity.
We witnessed a white male-led mob swarm the Capitol and hunt for Pence and Pelosi’s necks, demanding the reinstatement of their head racist-in-chief for a second presidential term. He is their God, the one they’ve been waiting for to assure them an allowance to publicly despise, violate, harm, hate, and even murder the “others.”
What is occurring is a meltdown, in real-time, of those who subscribe to a separatist, white male hierarchy. Many of these subscribers are Republican leaders from the southern and midwestern states where ingrained racism is part of their regional day to day culture. Blatant gerrymandering and voter intimidation in these areas are just a normal part of the political landscape.
For years, these tactics have proven successful for the GOP’s retention of power, especially in Senate races. Furthermore, many analysts predict Republicans would win far fewer elections nationwide if not for the antiquated Electoral College system. Just ask both Trump(2016) and George W. Bush (2000).
However, the recent presidential election harbored a surprise nobody saw coming – a global pandemic that inadvertently balanced the electoral playing field.
COVID-19 threw a wrench into the GOP suppression machine, exposing their true objectives and somewhat dismantling their systemic ability to manipulate the electorate to their advantage. Mail-in ballots became the great nemesis of the GOP, and they did everything in their power to fight this option, which allowed more national participation in the election of the “others.”
The loss of this sense of “absolute power” is unbearable to those who fear the browning of America. It represents fear of diminished influence, fear of whites becoming the racial minority, and an inevitable reckoning by the very people whose voices have been suppressed.
Over 81,000,000 voters cast their ballots for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The record turn-out of black voters in urban cities and battleground states sealed Trump’s defeat on election day. Republicans fighting the results are arguing that Biden only won because more people were able to vote. Let that sink in. That means they fear that when more people get to vote, Republicans lose elections. That is what kept Trump and his sycophants awake at night, trying to undo the results. It’s the threat of an end to their legacy of rezoning districts, closing polling stations, removing mailboxes, and even the recent slowing down of the postal service to steal elections.
It is particularly egregious that after the deadly insurrection on January 6th, after Congress resumed its session, 147 Republicans – notably Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, still voted to reject Joseph Biden’s certification as President. Two black Republicans were among the tally, a disgrace considering their ancestral history. But at least now, there should be no more question that there are members of the Republican Party who have no issue going on record and voting to discard 20,000,000 legally cast African Americans votes.
There is also no more question that Donald Trump is precisely the despicable sociopathic character half the country had been warning the world about since he launched his 2016 Presidential bid.
January 20th can’t come fast enough.
Read more about the voter certification process at NYTimes
This piece is an opinion piece by one Contributing Writer for Instinct Magazine and may not reflect the opinion of the magazine or other Contributing Writers.
