This past week I wondered: will this be the last Memorial Day? With all the assaults on democracy by DT and his authoritarian party, will this be the last year the holiday is commemorated to remember and honor those who gave their lives defending democracy?
For example, I’ve been reading about the hidden contents of the House Reconciliation bill, or what DT calls “a big beautiful bill” and others call the Big Ugly. DT calls it “beautiful” because it gives him what no law should ever give a president in a democracy. It gives him not only more economic means to rule unopposed, to be the boss, King, Dictator, the absolute word on everything by gifting him tax cuts on the rich. And as it’s clearly developed in Project 2025, it also gives him the political power to make his dreams come true.
On May 22, Robert Reich wrote an article revealing details of what is hidden from most news discussions. He describes how DT has been working for years to neuter the courts. For example, several lower court justices and then the Supreme Court told him to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal resident of this country, illegally deported to a cruel prison in El Salvador. But DT wouldn’t comply with the orders. A federal judge ruled that the DT regime willfully disregarded a court order restraining them from such deportations.
Courts have only one power to make their orders stick—to hold a politician or anyone in contempt. But the Big Ugly Bill has a hidden agenda. There’s a provision which says, “No court of the United States may use appropriated funds to enforce a contempt citation for failure to comply with an injunction or temporary restraining order if no security was given when the injunction was issued…” Translation: this provision would stop courts from enforcing contempt citations and end any power they had over DT.
An article in the Campaign Legal Center for Advancing Democracy Through Law news outlet, by Eric Kashdan not only gives more details on the provision described by Reich, but provides other hidden anti-democratic material in the 1000 page bill.
For example, in section 43201(c) is buried a provision imposing a ban of ten years on enforcing any state or local law that would regulate AI, including laws controlling its use in political campaigns and elections. This means its use to fabricate images and spread disinformation. It actually stops the enforcement of laws passed by any government bodies other than DT’s Congress, preventing any lawmakers outside Congress from protecting us, their constituents.
Kashdan spells out this could⎼ and would⎼ mean giving free reign to the spread of lies and disinformation that undermine our ability to make informed decisions. It would create an even more dangerous situation than what we have now, one that further debilitates any trust in the existence of truth or trust in our elections. It takes us right through the doors of the Ministry of Truth/Disinformation George Orwell described in his novel 1984.
This is only one part of the DT GOP assault on “we the people” of the U. S. Consider the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (“SAVE”) Act. This act would require all voters to prove their American citizenship in order to register to vote or update their voter information. It doesn’t sound threatening until we get the details. Firstly, to register to vote we’re already required to verify our eligibility. This is not new. Also, our current system detects the vast majority of voter fraud. What’s new are requirements which would exclude millions of eligible voters from voting just because they can’t meet extreme document requirements.
For example, the Center for American Progress estimates 69 million women who changed their names when they married may lose the right to vote, because the required documents, like a birth certificate, do not match their current legal name.
And, according to the Brookings Institute, with this bill “most Americans would not be able to register to vote using their driver’s license alone, because even licenses that meet Real ID requirements do not indicate citizenship. Only a document called an ‘Enhanced Driver’s License’ indicates citizenship, and these are available in just five states. Similarly, most Tribal citizens would be unable to register using their Tribal ID alone. The SAVE Act would require Tribal ID to show the holder’s place of birth as the U.S., but most Tribal IDs do not list a place of birth.” And the list of abuses of our rights under this potential law go on and on. It would undermine the bipartisan neutrality of election workers, by threatening to imprison any who register citizen voters who do not meet the extreme requirements in this bill.
Some polls and news outlets claim voters just don’t care as much about preserving democracy as they care about “economic issues.” Before the election, polls and analysts listed the economy slightly above democracy as the top issue, especially for Republicans. Even after the election, polls show more concern about inflation and the economy than democracy. But what would happen to the concern by politicians for food prices, worker salaries and job protections, or the cost and availability of good healthcare, insurance, and prescription drugs if we lose our right to vote? The economy and democracy are two sides of the same reality.
Please speak out immediately and tell our Senators to oppose the Big Ugly Bill and the SAVE Act.
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This Post is republished on Medium.
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Photo credit: iStock
