Yes, I’ve been writing about voting a lot over the past few weeks. I’ll likely continue until the Tuesday, Nov. 6, midterm elections where, in Alabama, we also elect a governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, justices to the state Supreme Court, and other constitutional offices.
There also are a limited number of local elections. Some constitutional amendments are on the ballot, so voters need to know about those.
And Alabama elects the seven members of the Alabama delegation to the U.S. House of Representatives. There could be some competitive races between Republican incumbents and Democrats in some of those races.
Most important for potential voters: Monday, Oct. 22, is the last day people qualified to vote can register to vote. There are probably hundreds, if not thousands, of young voters who just turned 18 who aren’t registered. They need to so they can have a voice in the Nov. 6 elections.
And others, who have just felt they had no reason to vote are potential voters as well. But they have to be registered.
Alabama is one of many states where Republicans, led by Secretary of State John Merrill, is trying to keep non-Republican voters away from the ballot box.
Republican efforts to suppress the vote have been successful over the past several elections. Republicans claim that it’s important to control the ballot to keep at-the-polls voter fraud at bay. That, despite studies that repeatedly have shown that there is very little voter fraud at the polls. It’s a guise Republicans use to keep voters they don’t like at home.
In Alabama, voters need to get to the polls. We have an unelected governor, Republican Kay Ivey, who refuses to debate her opponent, Tuscaloosa mayor and Democrat Walt Maddox.
Clearly, Maddox is much more qualified than Ivey, but Ivey, like most Republicans, are refusing to debate their Democratic Party opponents. That’s because they know if they go head-to-head with their more qualified Democratic rivals, they’ll be unmasked.
Just ask yourself: What have Republicans truly done to make Alabama a better state to live in? Sure, they tout a strong economy and new industries coming to Alabama. The truth is, those jobs were coming here anyway. And as far as the economy, this resurgence started under President Barack Obama, not Donald Trump. That’s the fact. That’s the truth. Low-information voters who would rather support Russia than a Democrat will never admit it, but facts don’t lie. Republicans do.
Point to one real effort Republican members of the Alabama congressional delegation have made to improve Alabama. What they are doing is folding under the Crazy Town politics of Donald Trump. The result, of course is that these “fiscal conservatives” have allowed the national deficit and debt to explode.
Year after year, the deficit is what Republicans pounded Democrats for, even as Democrats helped bring the deficit under control. Now, it’s expected with those Republican tax cuts for billionaires passed this year, the debt will go up at least $1 trillion a year for the foreseeable future. That’s not being fiscally responsible, but too many voters don’t seem to care if their children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren are going to be in debt for the rest of their lives.
And on a whole range of issues, from climate change to protecting the environment to health care, Republicans are on the wrong side of history and the issues.
Important for older voters, many of whom vote overwhelmingly for Republicans, the GOP is targeting Medicare and Social Security to bring down the deficit they created with their tax cuts. The rich get their big tax breaks, while Social Security recipients and Medicare users face cuts that will hit them hard in their pocketbooks.
People will die because of their decisions.
Republicans stoke hate for the very diversity that helps make our country great. They are the party of white nationalists. They claim they care for children, yet allow the government to remove children from refugee families seeking asylum in the United States and throw them into cages. They revictimize women who have been sexually assaulted and raped.
What should we expect when a sexual assaulter occupies the White House and a sexual predator runs for the U.S. Senate on the Republican ticket?
This we’re-better-than-anyone nationalism Republicans love so much is not making America greater. It’s making America uglier than it’s ever been since slavery and the Indian wars of the 19th century and before.
So, yeah, I’m likely to write about voting for a few more weeks. Smart voters must make it to the polls this time. What we might become permanently isn’t very pretty if they don’t.
Joey Kennedy, a Pulitzer Prize winner, writes a column each week for Alabama Political Reporter. Email: jkennedy@alreporter.com.
