SCt granting cert on Mississippi abortion case: "First they came for Black voters ..."

[StarfishSaver]

After the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, voting rights activists begged our allies to join us in fighting voter suppression efforts across the country. Many did.

But many didn't. Because they didn't see that these voter suppression efforts impacted them. After all, they could still vote without interference and most of those measures occurred in other states, so what was the big deal?

Well, the big deal was that suppressing the Black vote meant making it easier for states across the country to elect conservative majorities and to elect Donald Trump president.

And now, here we are with an overwhelmingly conservative, anti-choice Supreme Court in perfect position to overturn Roe or give it the Shelby treatment by leaving in place but watering it down so much it hardly provides any protection at all. And if/when it does that, state legislatures around the country will be poised to pounce, just like we saw them do post-Shelby.

So now many of the people who didn't want to be bothered to fight voter suppression because they weren't being oppressed are now in a panic - and rightly so - that their own rights and those of the women in their lives are about to be ripped away.

This is a perfect example of why we must fight what we think may be other people's battles, if only to selfishly protect our own rights.

Otherwise, when they come for you, it will be too late.

[Eliot Rosewater]

1. Every "I will hold my breath and vote for her" is responsible for this

How many MILLIONS of Americans didnt vote at all or left prez blank because of her opponents ENDLESS bashing and worse, many on the left bashing.

[StarfishSaver]

2. Exactly

[Eliot Rosewater]

3. Thank you, for instance John Fugelsang should apologize, just one of many

[DonCoquixote]

9. are you talking those who VOTED FOR HER

or those that did not, because frankly, those who had criticisms of Hillary, BUT SILL VOTED FOR HER, do not deserve your acid. Save for it Jill Stein.

[Eliot Rosewater]

13. Yes, I am talking about people who in a conversation with anyone who would listen would

TRASH Hillary and then say "dont have any choice, gonna vote for her anyway."

Because when a million people say that, or 5 million or 10, and over and over, millions of others HEAR IT and many of them are on the fence about voting at all and they hear that and figure, what's the point, not gonna vote.

Happens a lot.

[Jason1961]

14. I didn't have to 'hold my nose'

I was happy to vote for Hillary.

It's lessons like really drive home the need for loyalty to our Party (really a movement) and to remain active and excited for our nominees.

While I wasn't the biggest fan of Tim Kaine I happily supported Hillary's pick as I am humble enough to admit that there may be others in our Party who are smarter than me and that they're in charge for a reason

As for now though, we need to really work on rebuilding this Country as Trump brought us to the brink of ruin

[StarfishSaver]

18. Thank you

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. Susan Sarandon and Jill Stein must be happy

The SCOTUS and Roe v. Wade was on the ballot in 2016. Every vote for Jill Stein was a vote for overturning Roe v Wade

[WhiskeyGrinder]

5. K&R.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. We are gearing up to fight voter suppression in Texas

I am part of a group forming statewide Democratic Lawyers association We will be busy in 2022

[StarfishSaver]

8. "Gearing up"?

This fight in Texas has been going on for more than a decade

[LetMyPeopleVote]

10. We were busy every cycle

We had over 500 lawyers last cycle. The next cycle may feature some really bd new laws

[StarfishSaver]

11. That's great

But it's not enough to fight this every two years because it goes beyond election cycles. These voter suppression measures are being forced through in Texas and elsewhere non-stop, not just in election years when those measures kick into place to oppress the vote at the polls. At that point, it's often too late.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

7. A big fat K&R!

[no_hypocrisy]

12. One thing to remember is this:

It is far easier to enact onerous and odious statutes like the one in Mississippi than it is to repeal them. You need Dem majorities in both houses of state legislatures (super-majority if a Republican governor who would veto the repeal) and a Democratic governor.

[StarfishSaver]

16. I know this

And was very frustrated that people didn't fight harder to stop these laws from being enacted and to get out to vote to stop these legislatures and governors' seats from being taken over by Republicans.

Much of this could have been prevented had people been more proactive on the front end.

[msfiddlestix]

15. I'm trying to remember when Mississippi had ever elected a Democrat (modern day/not Dixiecrat)

How about Democratic Senators?

Not since Dixiecrat's switched to the Republican party decades ago as far as I can remember.

Am factually incorrect about this?

Am I misunderstanding the historical nature of the state of Mississippi's electoral proclivities?

All I am saying is Mississippi isn't the analogy to make the point, regarding the extreme importance of pushing hard for VRA and S1. and 2016 wouldn't have changed a thing as far as that state is concerned the best I could tell.

Unless I'm missing something, I'm not sure this one works.

[StarfishSaver]

17. You're completely missing the point

This isn't about Mississippi. As should be clear if you read the OP.

[msfiddlestix]

19. You're correct, I see where I misunderstood your point.

After re-reading your post, I see Mississippi wasn't intended as the marker for voter suppression, (which it always has been) but the make up of the Supreme Court and why it was vital to have kept that in mind in 2016.

As an aside: not to sound like Qanon, but it has been my firm belief that Trump was illegitimately installed from day one of that election, which skews everything unfortunately. The same with Bush in 2000, and in 2004.

With each of those outcomes, a post analysis is conducted resulting in a skewed conclusion, in my view. Which in turn, skews our "national reality" of who we are as an electorate.

Apologies for misinterpreting your op on first read.