The Roberts Court is destroying voting rights -- winning back state legislatures is the only answer

[marmar]

(Salon) This week, a conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court that has dedicated itself to making it more difficult for Americans to vote struck again and drove a nail further into the heart of the already-gutted Voting Rights Act. As Republican state legislatures nationwide continue to pass restrictive laws that place additional burdens especially on voters of color, this Court, over a decade of shameful, pinched jurisprudence, has slowly eviscerated the crucial tools enacted to curb the worst instincts of lawmakers.

In a 6-3 decision that broke along sadly predictable partisan lines, the Court upheld on Thursday a pair of voter suppression laws from Arizona that banned ballot collection and severely regulated out-of-precinct voting, despite clear evidence that these laws disproportionately burdened minority voters.

The burdens and racial intent in these cases were clear to lower courts and less determined partisan judges. Arizona officials relocate the voting precincts of Black and Latino residents at a wildly higher rate than white precincts, resulting in considerable and predictable confusion. And Native American and rural Arizonans — where household mail service is rare and often unreliable — rely on volunteers and community members to return their ballots. There has been no — zero — proof of fraud in this important service.

None of that mattered to this Court, and indeed, the decision is not surprising to those following the Roberts Court's steady trajectory rightward in voting cases and other civil rights. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/07/05/the-roberts-court-is-destroying-voting-rights--winning-back-state-legislatures-is-the-only-answer/

[abqtommy]

1. What we do in the states is important but we should be planning to pack the Supreme Court,

too. Let's get it all done.

[Binkie The Clown]

2. If the Democratic voters don't start showing some enthusiasm, the only way to be on the winning side

will be to register Republican and just give in to the Christi-fascist dictatorship.

[Jay25]

9. There are those that are going to be on the winning side, whether they agree or not, because

Of their skin color. What republicans are doing goes beyond Democrats vs. republicans, these motherfuckers are trying to shut minorities down and out, make us obsolete.
They are using every avenue possible, to keep minorities from voting or finding ways to not count minority votes, whether they’re enthusiastic or not.

[certainot]

3. republican state legislators/tures are easy to target from anywhere - target the RW radio stations

that are the only unique advantage they have. the lies about democrats importing immigrants to vote illegally for them has been sold from those stations for 20+ years, since 2000 especially, to rationalize their election theft

red states are talk radio states and those states often have more than the average of 30 or so rw stations per state. there are usually a few big ones and now they are hurting because limbaugh croaked and those are often closely coordinated with local/state GOP and their stink stink tanks

artificial intelligence allows very cheap and accurate transcription and recordings can be searched for advertisers and their contact info without listening

also 87 + universities broadcast sports on 260 xlimbaugh stations and they have no fucking excuse to keep supporting radio stations that deny global warming, not to mention the racism, voter suppression, and COVID denial that got thousands killed.

states like fla 20, Ga 14, Penn 14 have many rw stations dependent on universities. once a few unis start looking for apolitical alts many more will have to follow suit. those unis are helping the republicans suppress the votes of their own students!

when the ad industry sees that activism they will have to start breaking up the monopoly and thats the end of GOP dominance in many states

[mdbl]

12. And the christians loved limbaugh, how could god take him from us?

[certainot]

15. proof there is no god! or maybe the other way around..... where has it been the last 30 yrs?

[mdbl]

18. if god is a repuglican, then the bible is all lies

oh wait, oh nevermind.

[certainot]

19. worse than that..... sex on the

wrong brain

[treestar]

4. Agree

This is a big problem with Democrats and the left. News junkies that have interest in national elections but not boring local ones.

[mountain grammy]

5. We did it in Colorado and it was a long fight.

The crazies are still there, but minimilized. We have true sanity in state government.

[DavidDvorkin]

6. We also have to focus on keeping control of the Senate

Among other reasons, so that we can control who fills the next SC vacancy. With a bit of luck, we could change the Court's complection in the near future.

[NullTuples]

7. State legislatures was key to all of this.

Post 2010 Census, Mitch McConnell led the GOP on Project Redmap. The idea was to use the Census + correlated social media info to target specific groups of people in specific counties or districts with massive amounts of outside money. I'm guessing the Koch bro's were involved, but who knows. Anyway, Dems in state legislature races that would normally have to raise maybe 100k were suddenly faced with opponents who had tens of millions to spend. They didn't stand a chance.

This continued throughout the decade and as they gained control of Legislatures, they began to redraw districts to hang on to that power indefinitely. Then they started in on voting laws to further ensure they could stay in power as a minority.

The key to regaining state legislatures & federal congressional seats is to force fair redistricting. But even then, Dems will need to be as data-savvy as their Republican counterparts when it comes time for balanced committees to fix the lines. I for one don't think they're up to the task; the GOP has entire corporations of funding and data to work with.

[DownriverDem]

8. The legislature in Michigan

is repub controlled. What is keeping them from having their awful voter suppression laws being signed is our strong Dem women: Gov Whitmer, AG Dana Nessel & SOS Jocelyn Benson. They are up for reelection in 2022 and that is where our focus has to be.

[roamer65]

10. Yup, we hafta at least flip the house.

Very doable.

[certainot]

20. meanwhile Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1 support 19 x-limbaugh stations

while mich GOP kicks mich dems ass year after year because dems stupidly ignore rw radio......

MICHIGAN 19 Michigan St. 11, Michigan 7, Western Michigan 1

really, the biggest political mistake in history

[Jakes Progress]

11. Pretty good catch - that Catch 22.

You can't stop the gerrymandering until you take back the state houses.
You can't take back the state houses until you stop the gerrymandering.

[certainot]

21. fake catch 22. that's why dems need to stop ignoring rw radio, the biggest political mistake in

history.

fix the radio and destroy this GOP

[Jakes Progress]

22. Why is it fake? What does rw radio have to do with my post?

Besides, most of the rw disinformation (lies) come from cable and internet.

Do you understand what a Catch 22 is?

[certainot]

23. i meant to fill in but got interrupted. you're right it is a catch 22 but fake in the sense that

you write that we can't take back the state houses until we stop the gerrymandering. all democrats have to do is stop ignoring what's been kiicking our ass for 30 years. trump was the talk radio president. putin's trolls piggybacked years and months of repetition - why would they just make crap up if team limbaugh has been selling useful lies to 50 mil every week?

and this is why democrats get it wrong:

most of the rw disinformation (lies) come from cable and internet

again ignoring why republicans are still winning statehouses - it's the radio - those sources might start or feed a lie or meme but it's a few hundred limbaugh wannabes blasting it all over the country for months weeks days with NO challenge or correction. dem friendly media constantly blame fox and internet because their leaders live in ciities and they have no clue that in most parts of the country there are no free easy alternatives for politics while driving or working

by cable you mean fox (that other crap is very new)but it is completely dependent on the widespread unchallenged repetition only radio can do, and got its start about 9 years after radio did the prep work for it. and fox can't be locally coordinated - for those local/state houses, issues, etc.

all this disaster is heavily dependent on thinking americans ignoring rw radio. ALEC was piddling before rw radio. it's success and todays record partisanship coincide perfectly with republicans creating their monopoly

luckily limbaugh croaked, because it seems clear democrats would prefer to keep blaming symptoms than do anything about the main cause of this crap

if dems really want fuck up republicans and stop this election crap, protest the 87 universities that support 260+ stations until they start looking for apolitical alternatives and the ad industry has to break up the talk radio monopoly or lose a shitload of advertisers

when that happens dems take most statehouses back except, maybe alabama and mississipi and manchin and sinema have no power.

[edhopper]

24. You hit it

the Repugs have stacked the decks and now adding voter suppression. Some people here think it's no problem when you need 60% or 70% just to win.

Not enough voters care about this and will continue to vote for a Party that will impoverish them.

[UCmeNdc]

13. Agree 100%

[lastlib]

14. Here is one place to start:

Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee

Support our party at the grassroots level.

[lagomorph777]

16. Time to expand SCROTUS.

This is a real emergency. This is not a drill.

[UTUSN]

17. Can anybody explain to me the wingnut court rationale for torpedoing voting rights?

I get the wider lay wingnuts about their shrinking numbers therefore diminishing their winning elections. Is this partisan slice *all* there is regarding the Court wingnuts? -- Or if there is some kind of Legal cover/agenda what is it?

[edhopper]

25. They don't think the constituion has

a "Right to Vote" and don't think they should interfere with State Laws.
This goes against 200 years of precedent and several Federal Laws.

[UTUSN]

26. Um, O.K., (Court) doesn't wash for me but am nobody. Thanks.