REFUSING TO BE BULLIED

 

@Wendell Griffen, 2022

 

 

Voting for primary elections began May 9 and will end on May 24 across Arkansas. Candidates are making their final appeals to undecided voters. Their campaigns are working to get regular voters to the polls. Campaign ads are broadcast on radio, television, social media, and delivered by mail.

Meanwhile, people who oppose democracy are working to discourage, intimidate, and suppress voting by people who are Black, Latinx, LGBTQI+, workers, and the elderly. Those voters are often viewed as preferring candidates who support civil rights, social justice, environmental justice, fair and safe working conditions, and governmental assistance for vulnerable people.

Yes, there are people who do not want you to vote if you are not white, cisgender, wealthy, and not likely to support the hateful policies and actions associated with the MAGA agenda.

Laws that make it more difficult to vote are not about reducing election fraud. They are about choking the life out of democracy – government by the many – so that a minority can run roughshod over many others.

So, when you go vote, carry your photo ID and be prepared to present it at the polling place. Know your polling precinct and the hours it will be open. Walk confidently into the polling precinct and stand firm in your right to cast your ballot.

If your right to vote is challenged insist on casting a regular ballot. Refuse to be bullied by people associated with so-called “voter integrity” operations who try to challenge your right to vote.

Know why you are voting. Know the candidates. Know the issues

And, know the candidates you will not be fooled or bullied into voting for.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who support the MAGA agenda of former President Donald Trump.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who support overturning the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade that recognizes that women have a constitutional right to choose whether to bear children.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who believe that society needs more police and that police need more power to use lethal force.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who want to expand the power of businesses and corporations to pollute the air, water, and soil.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who want more jails, more prisons, and fewer parks, playgrounds, schools, and job training programs.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who want to prevent students from knowing the truth about the systemic injustice in this society.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who want to ban books.

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who call themselves “religious.”

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who want to give tax dollars to schools that discriminate based on religion, race, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and ability.  

Remember that people who called themselves “family values voters” cast votes for Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush, and Donald Trump. Those voters were the foot soldiers in the Tea Party movement that fought passage of the Affordable Care Act known popularly as “Obamacare.”  

Do not be fooled or bullied into voting for candidates who supported Trump in 2016, 2020, and who believe Trump’s lies that he won the 2020 presidential election. Trump lost the popular vote. He lost the electoral college vote. Then he lost efforts to challenge his defeat in the courts.

Go to the polls and vote.

Vote because our future depends on who is elected and what they believe.

Vote because our views matter.

Vote because you refuse to be bullied or fooled by politicians who use hateful religion, fear, and bigotry as excuses for behaving like thugs and tyrants.

Vote!