I’ve been resisting labeling Republican fascism as racist. It has certainly been bigoted with lots of dislike for disfavored groups. But now, the Republicans have crossed the line. What they are doing cannot be denied, deflected from or spun into fantasy or bullshit that just isn’t true. What the Republicans are doing arguably is racism, plain and simple.
An article in the New York Times reports that Georgia Republicans are ejecting democrats from administration of elections. In the past, both parties selected election board members and county commissioners were selected by both political parties. Now G.O.P.-controlled county commissions have he sole authority to restructure boards and appoint new members.
In Kansas, Republicans overrode a veto from Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat. That election coup enacted laws that took power to modify election laws from the governor. It also blocks the secretary of state, a Republican who repeatedly vouched for the security of voting by mail, from settling election-related lawsuits without the Legislature’s consent.
The NYT spoke with Troup County election board member, Lonnie Hollis. She is a black woman who the Republicans will ethnically cleanse from her position to Whiten the place up and move it toward fascism. The NYT writes:
Lonnie Hollis has been a member of the Troup County election board in West Georgia since 2013. A Democrat and one of two Black women on the board, she has advocated Sunday voting, helped voters on Election Days and pushed for a new precinct location at a Black church in a nearby town.
But this year, Ms. Hollis will be removed from the board, the result of a local election law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican. Previously, election board members were selected by both political parties, county commissioners and the three biggest municipalities in Troup County. Now, the G.O.P.-controlled county commission has the sole authority to restructure the board and appoint all the new members.
“I speak out and I know the laws,” Ms. Hollis said in an interview. “The bottom line is they don’t like people that have some type of intelligence and know what they’re doing, because they know they can’t influence them.”
Ms. Hollis is not alone. Across Georgia, members of at least 10 county election boards have been removed, had their position eliminated or are likely to be kicked off through local ordinances or new laws passed by the state legislature. At least five are people of color and most are Democrats — though some are Republicans — and they will most likely all be replaced by Republicans.
Ms. Hollis and local officials like her have been some of the earliest casualties as Republican-led legislatures mount an expansive takeover of election administration in a raft of new voting bills this year.
G.O.P. lawmakers have also stripped secretaries of state of their power, asserted more control over state election boards, made it easier to overturn election results, and pursued several partisan audits and inspections of 2020 results.
Republican state lawmakers have introduced at least 216 bills in 41 states to give legislatures more power over elections officials, according to the States United Democracy Center, a new bipartisan organization that aims to protect democratic norms. Of those, 24 have been enacted into law across 14 states.
G.O.P. lawmakers in Georgia say the new measures are meant to improve the performance of local boards, and reduce the influence of the political parties. But the laws allow Republicans to remove local officials they don’t like, and because several of them have been Black Democrats, voting rights groups fear that these are further attempts to disenfranchise voters of color.
“It’s a thinly veiled attempt to wrest control from officials who oversaw one of the most secure elections in our history and put it in the hands of bad actors,” said Jena Griswold, the chairwoman of the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State and the current Colorado secretary of state. “The risk is the destruction of democracy.”
Officials like Ms. Hollis are responsible for decisions like selecting drop box and precinct locations, sending out voter notices, establishing early voting hours and certifying elections. But the new laws are targeting high-level state officials as well, in particular secretaries of state — both Republican and Democratic — who stood up to Mr. Trump and his allies last year.
[L]ast month, Arkansas Republicans wrote new legislation that allows a state board of election commissioners — composed of six Republicans and one Democrat — to investigate and “institute corrective action” on a wide variety of issues at every stage of the voting process, from registration to the casting and counting of ballots to the certification of elections. The law applies to all counties, but it is widely believed to be aimed at Pulaski, one of the few in the state that favor Democrats.
Part of what is terrifying here is the sheer transparency of the lies the Republicans are spewing in defense of their fascist ethnic cleansing project. Asserting that this is just an innocent attempt to “improve the performance of local boards” is a blatant racist lie. The local boards performed just fine in the 2020 election. In the case of Arkansas, a GOP legislator defended the new measure as a “necessary extra level of oversight of elections ... because otherwise Republicans could not get a fair shake.” There was no specific reason given to believe that Republicans did not get a fair shake. None of this seems to bother most people (~95% ?) who vote for republicans.
And, it isn't just Georgia that is working to resurrect and expand the Confederacy. Arizona is joining in the Republican fascist election coup. Arizona Republicans introduced a bill that strips Katie Hobbs, the Democratic secretary of state, of most of her authority over election lawsuits. That bill would expire when she leaves office. Republicans hope to get a Republican in office to replace her. Another bill gives the Republican Legislature added power to set guidelines for election administration, which is task carried out by the secretary of state.
The Republicans are precise in their targeting of all mechanisms of power and even individual people in office right now or political offices that can exert election influence. Republicans are giving themselves complete power to steal elections and commit vote fraud on a massive scale.
Where all of is this going?
Either people can see the threat of they can’t. To a few Americans (~10% ?), the threat to democracy and elections is clear, grave and urgent. To others, e.g., Joe Manchin, the situation may feel moderately or mildly unsettling, but basically no big deal. To most Republicans (~98% ?), this is a valiant, patriotic defense of democracy and freedom against the imminent takeover of America and democracy by vicious Democratic socialism, tyranny and/or cannibalistic pedophilia.
Of course, there is no way to know how this will play out if Democrats are unable to act to defend elections. Maybe people like Manchin are right and things will just work out fine. Maybe. But what if those people are wrong? If we are witnessing the rise of a true White Christian American racist fascism, there will probably be no way to go back without civil war.
That’s a major problem with democracies. They really are fragile. They can fall to hundreds of seemingly small incremental but important attacks without alarming the masses. By the time the masses wake up, they are enslaved and stuck in an arrogant, heartless autocracy. Americans could wind up working for racist White Christian fascist kleptocratic elites.
Questions: (1) Is it objectively false, irrationally alarmist and/or unwarranted to see racism as a major driving force in Republican politics and policy, e.g., not all Republicans are racist so it is irrational to call the movement racist?
(2) If this isn’t racism, is it just morally acceptable bigotry, or is American on the verge of falling to some form of a vicious Democratic socialism, tyranny, forced atheism and/or cannibalistic pedophilia?
(3) Is it possible for racism to be one major factor and a pro-democracy mindset to be another that Republicans are targeting for removal from power, i.e., can the Republicans be targeting multiple things at the same time that stand in the way of establishing an American White Christian fascism or a new Confederacy?
(4) Is it objectively false, unfair, irrationally alarmist and/or irrationally divisive to even use the labels American White Christian fascism or to refer to resurrection and expansion of a new American Confederacy?
