In South Africa, before blacks won the right to vote in 1994, “baasskap” was the word for the concept of white supremacy during apartheid. By controlling the ballot box a small number of white Afrikaners could control and dominate a much larger number of black and brown Africans.
This is analogous to the coming situation in America where census projections forecast that in less than two decades (a few years more or a few years less, according to whose figures you believe) whites will no longer be in the majority in this country, and therefore won’t be able to dominate via the ballot box. While the white right has always sought to limit the franchise of people of color by various means, this coming demographic shift has added a new sense of urgency to their efforts.
The results of this fear on the part of these whites in regards to losing hegemony at the ballot box has been palpable for many decades and has manifested itself in the variety of strategies enacted to suppress the number of non-white voters. The most obvious example is the current effort to build a wall along our southeastern border. The real fear is not that these would be immigrants will take our jobs; it’s that they will vote other than Republican if made citizens.
One of the other major strategies is to make felons out of as many people of color, and then prevent them from ever voting again, a policy that’s been in place for as long as anyone can remember in 10 (mostly southern) states. While a mechanism is in place in a few of those states whereby a felon can petition to have their voting rights restored, it is so onerous and cumbersome few, if any, successfully apply.
Indeed, on Nov. 24, 2015, outgoing Kentucky Gov. Steven L. Beshear restored the right to vote to nonviolent felons who have completed probation, parole, and who have no outstanding court-ordered restitution payments. However, on Dec. 22, 2015, the newly elected Gov. Matthew G. Bevin rescinded the previous Governor’s executive order.
And legislators in these states have shown zero interest in changing state laws, except to make them harsher and less inclusive. However, there is a way for citizens to take the matter into their own hands by collecting enough signatures on a statewide initiative to put the question of felons voting on the ballot. And changing opinions of felons makes it much easier for such initiatives to pass.
This fall Amendment 4, which would give the franchise to 1.4 Floridian felons will appear on the ballot. If it passes as predicted the influx of new voters — a group that is more likely to vote to the left than to the right — could permanently alter Florida politics by turning what is now a reddish state bluer.
Across the nation, over 6.1 million felons are currently disenfranchised. If successful efforts are made to change the law in the nine other states that still bar them from voting it becomes an entirely new national political ballgame. In contest after contest, we have seen dead heats; outcomes that are only a few thousand votes apart, and in some cases, a few hundred. If the right to vote is restored to this demographic a demagogue like Donald Trump could never again ascend to the presidency.
This is some really big shit.
If you want to help turn America around, this is a great opportunity that is guaranteed to work. Rightwing politicians can’t stop the will of the people. Go to: https://secondchancesfl.org/
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.