The Republican-dominated North Carolina Senate gave preliminary approval Wednesday to sweeping election law changes, including requiring voters to present photo ID at the polls and shortening early voting by a week. The bill was approved in a 32-14 party-line vote following three hours of debate. Among the bill’s 57 pages of provisions are measures ending same-day voter registration and a popular high school civics program that encourages students to register in advance of their 18th birthdays.
At times like this, I find myself thinking of the words of the late Rodney King: “Can’t we all just get along?” Like MLK, I dream of a world where people are judged for the content of the character and not the color of their skin. Then I’m reminded all over again just how far away we are from that world. I’m talking entire time zones away from being in a place where racism and fear aren’t the dominant emotions. Here we are in the 21st century and in parts of the antelbellum South, racism is still alive, well, and disturbingly overt. Apparently concerned that they were losing the race to Texas and Floriduh, the good, God-fearing White Conservative Patriots in the North Carolina legislature are determined to preserve AmeriKKKa as the bastion of White privilege God intended it to be. (If you can’t win elections on the strength of your ideas, what option do you have but to manipulate the rules to tilt the playing field in your direction?)
It seems that good Christians in North Carolina view equality as the domain of losers and Liberals. After all, if God had intended for all men to be created equal, don’tchathink all men would have been born White? And if White Conservatives are denied (what they define as) their rightful place at the top of the political and socioeconomic food chain, then surely AmeriKKKa is on the brink of revolution and race war, no?
We have real and significant problems in this country, and Republicans could (and should) play real and significant roles in solving them. Unfortunately for them, that would require things like effort, commitment, and leadership, which is way too much like actual work and doing the things needed to make the world a better place. No, far better to focus on abortion, guns, and the biggest problem facing America today: Darkies and other non-Republicans voting. Sure, our bridges are collapsing and millions remain jobless, but it seems that before America can be saved it must be preserved as the playground of the White majority. I’d offer that North Carolina’s Republican legislators should by all rights be ashamed of themselves, but that would presume they comprehend and recognize the concept of shame.
No, we can’t all just get along, and no, we still feel the need to judge people by color of their skin instead of the content of their character.
Progress? What progress??
