If you’ve been reading the SCOOP Newspaper for a while, then you are familiar with this column, Civics 101. This column is now about a year old and was created by the Publisher of the SCOOP, Sherri Darden. One of the things she shared with me when she asked me if I’d like to write this column was her concern that more often than not, Civics was no longer being taught in a lot of schools, public, charter, private, catholic, or otherwise. It’s pretty rare to find a school where civics is taught anymore. The best thing out of this journey so far for me is that it has 100% refreshed my memory on some of the things I learned as a child in elementary and junior high school.
Some people might call Civics American History, and it is. But it’s also more than that. It’s a way of life, in my mind, the way life should be, in this country in many ways. Like it or not, we have to have laws. Knowing the basic laws of our government, that’s Civics. Understanding why it’s important to be a good neighbor and clean up in your community, paying taxes, understanding why it’s important to pay attention to what elected officials do, and why it’s important to vote. That’s all about civic engagement.
It seems like all summer, thus far, my Civics 101 columns have fallen right in line with current events and current history, ironically.
Today in this column, I will do a follow-up on a column I wrote about 4-weeks ago, having to do with Republican lawmakers at the state level in Texas. Republican lawmakers in Texas, from the Governor to other Republican state elected officials have been fighting like hell to suppress voter’s rights in that state. Should the Republicans in Texas have their way, the voter suppression they want to perpetuate would most negatively affect African Americans, Mexican Americans, and other people of color.
Between January 1 and July 14, 2021, at least 18 states enacted 30 laws that restrict access to the vote. These laws make mail voting and early voting more difficult, impose harsher voter ID requirements, and make faulty voter purges more likely, among other things. More than 400 bills with provisions that restrict voting access have been introduced in 49 states in the 2021 legislative sessions. The new laws restricting voting access are by no means fair and were not created with any intent on being “equal for all.”
This wave of restrictions on voting that’s been running across the nation— the most aggressive we’ve seen in more than a decade in America — is in large part, I believe motivated because of all the false statements former president Donald Trump and his Make America Great followers have been putting out to the universe. They have continuously been making false and often racist allegations about voter fraud.
If Representatives in Congress did the right thing, which they have the power to do, they could stem the tide. Hello! Support The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act that would protect voters by preventing new discriminatory laws from being implemented by Congresspersons. That will kill a lot of this crazy “voter suppression” legislation taking our nation by a tidal wave right now.
There may be more new state voting laws still to come before 2021 comes to a close. Active regular legislative sessions continue in California, Massachusetts, Michigan, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. And Maine’s special legislative session is ongoing.
Republican Texas lawmakers really carried on in July, as they attempted to hold a special session. During the 30-day special session that began in Austin on July 8, state lawmakers introduced a bunch of restrictive voting proposals, including two omnibus bills containing numerous anti-voter provisions.
In response, Democratic members of the Texas House of Representatives left the state on July 12 for Washington, DC, depriving the chamber of the quorum required to pass legislation. These Democratic state representatives brought an urgent message to Congress, stressing the need to pass federal voting protections, including the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Meanwhile, back in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott continued to promise to continue calling special sessions as needed until the Democratic lawmakers returned to the state.
Ultimately some of the Democrats did return in the last seven days, but not all of them.
The Texas bill would curb local voting options that would make voting easier, add new requirements to the voting process, ban drive-thru and 24-hour voting, bolster access for partisan poll watchers and enact stricter vote-by-mail rules. Given that Texas already has some of the most restrictive voting laws in the nation, these efforts only serve to make it harder for people to vote in the state.
The Republicans in Texas have now gotten their way on the Senate side at least. The Texas voting bill has now passed in the Senate. Let’s see what happens in the Texas House of Representatives next week.
