Rising Suppression: Voices. Voters. Books.

Fred Wertheimer’s Weekly Note | April 27, 2023

Attacks on our democracy are rising, led by efforts to suppress voices, voters, and even books.

Voices

This week, state Democratic Representative Zooey Zephyr, Montana’s first transgender lawmaker, was censured and barred from the House floor for the remainder of the session on the grounds that her words violated the “decorum” of the body.

“[W]hen the speaker asks me to apologize on behalf of decorum, what he is really asking me to do is be silent,” Zephyr said before the House vote.

This follows action earlier this month when a majority of Tennessee Republican state legislators expelled two Black legislators, also on grounds of violating “decorum.”  (Following unanimous reappointment by their respective City Councils, both returned to the legislature.)

In removing these three legislators, the will of the voters who chose these representatives was overridden by the desires of their legislative colleagues to shut them up.

It appears that race and sexual identity prejudices were a factor in these decisions.

It is unheard of to impose this kind of draconian punishment for so-called “violations” of legislative decorum. This is an ominous sign.

Voters

Efforts to suppress voting which exploded in red states in 2021, continues as we enter another presidential election cycle.

Republican-controlled state legislatures continue to press for restrictive voting laws, pushing Trump’s Big Lie of voter fraud despite zero evidence to back it up.

Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, and other Republican-controlled legislatures are pursuing restrictive voting measures such as requiring proof of identification when voting by mail, prohibiting the use of private funds by election administrators, and beefing up investigations of alleged election-related wrongdoing.

Cleta Mitchell, a leader of the election deniers’ movement who worked closely with President Trump in the effort to try to overturn the 2020 presidential election, recently addressed top GOP donors at an RNC retreat.

Mitchell called for conservatives to work together to restrict voting on college campuses, same-day voter registration, and automatic mailing of ballots to registered voters. The apparent purpose of Mitchell and her so-called “Election Integrity Network” is to suppress voters likely to support Democrats.

Three prominent conservative groups also are working to persuade Republican-controlled legislatures to restrict access to voting and are pushing the false claim that our elections are filled with fraud. Like Mitchell’s, their efforts are apparently focused on suppressing votes for Democrats.

Meanwhile, election workers are being targeted by the election deniers’ MAGA movement. A new Brennan Center survey found that “nearly one in three election officials have been harassed, abused, or threatened because of their job. Alarmingly, more than one in five are concerned about being physically assaulted on the job in future elections.”

Books

Book banning has been around for thousands of years. Shakespeare, Mark Twain, John Steinbeck, and Harriet Beecher Stowe are among the many famous authors who have had their works banned.

According to the American Library Association (ALA), attempts to ban books and impose restrictions at school and public libraries reached record highs last year – nearly double the then-record numbers for 2021.

Book banning today is a highly politicized effort led, not by concerned parents, but by conservative Republican legislators and school boards who are promoting their own personal prejudices and political agendas rather than community concerns.

Books involving race or LGBTQ+ themes were among the 10 most banned books in 2021-2022, according to PEN America.

Overall, more than 2,500 titles were targeted in 2022, the highest number of attempted book bans since the ALA began keeping track more than 20 years ago.

This rapidly growing book ban movement is antithetical to the First Amendment right to free speech. This effort to stop the free flow of ideas and information is reminiscent of the book burnings of Nazi Germany.

You can see the dangerous pattern here by those who want to suppress voices, voters, and books. They are ready to ride roughshod over our democracy, constitutional values, and freedoms.

Like Zooey Zephyr in Montana, and Justin Jones and Justin Pearson in Tennessee, caring citizens must not be silent.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.