GOP dreams of a return to Jim Crow -- and not just through racist voting laws

[marmar]

GOP dreams of a return to Jim Crow — and not just through racist voting laws
Republicans come ever closer to embracing overt white supremacy. At least that would be honest

By CHAUNCEY DEVEGA
MARCH 17, 2021 9:03AM


(Salon) It is the year 2021. But Republicans and the right-wing movement are trying to pull the American people back to the past.

Their ultimate destination? It could be Jim Crow white supremacist America of the 1950s. It could be the end of Reconstruction in 1876 – or even a time before that.

In that sense, the Republican Party and its allies and followers are time-breakers, not content with harmless nostalgia and happy-pill lies about the past. Their goal? To radically remake society in their own grotesque vision where white, right-wing "Christians" — men, by definition — rule America unopposed and for all time.

....(snip)....

Zachary Roth of the Brennan Center for Justice describes this racialized "legislative anti-democracy" and what it entails:

It's upon us: a wave of legislation, in states across the country, aimed at making voting harder. The Brennan Center has tallied over 250 bills in 43 states this year that would restrict access to the ballot. Many would reverse the expansion of vote by mail, which helped lead to the soaring turnout of 2020, or would tighten ID requirements.

But the latest assault on voting shouldn't be seen in isolation. Some of the same Republican state lawmakers behind these measures are also taking steps to suppress any form of democracy that threatens them — afraid, it seems, that the more say voters have in any form, the worse their side will fare. …

It's hard to ignore that this explosion of what we might call "legislative anti-democracy" is coming from some of the same people who helped stoke an even more troubling effort to overturn the will of the people. At least 14 Republican state lawmakers attended the January 6 "Stop the Steal" rally that led to the Capitol insurrection, and they continue to serve. At least one, State Sen. Doug Mastriano of Pennsylvania, has been a leader in his state's effort to pass restrictive voting laws.

These attacks are targeting those Americans at the base of the Democratic Party: young people, the poor and working-class, college students, urban residents and nonwhite people. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/03/17/gop-dreams-of-a-return-to-jim-crow--and-not-just-through-racist-voting-laws/