Just let the people vote by Barry Rosenbaum

The bedrock principle of a democratic society is that all citizens have the right to vote and that each vote should be accorded equal weight. It is a remarkably simple concept. 

Yet, our nation has struggled mightily since its founding to make that principle a reality, and except for brief periods, it has largely failed.  In a piece in The Contrarian, Diamond Brown and Melody Dodoo write:  “In America, expansions of democracy have routinely triggered efforts to narrow it.  Black political power has never grown without institutions and actors mobilizing to contain it.”   Indeed, White American men (and now White women) have gone to great lengths, extreme lengths, to throttle any effort to extend the vote so that true democracy could take hold.

Today, we are witnessing the most recent manifestation.  The entire Republican Party apparatus is engaged in the grossest form of voter suppression. It cannot abide by the one person – one vote principle because it knows that to do so would mean forfeiting its hold on power. Even after gerrymandering the states in every way that they can, they still fear their grasp on power is slipping. This fear is entirely justified since a solid majority of American voters do not support their policies. The party has demonstrated that it will do whatever it takes to retain its grip – even destroying our institutions, our democracy, and our country.  We witnessed this abject hatred sixty-one years ago this weekend in Selma, Alabama, on the Edmund Pettus Bridge.  Sadly, in many ways, little has changed.

Joyce Vance has spotlighted the Republicans’ most recent deceit and dirty tricks.

“On Tuesday [March 3, 2026], in Texas, Democratic voters in Dallas and Williamson Counties, Texas, had their work cut out for them if they wanted to vote. They had to figure out, on the day of, where their polling places were. That’s because the local Republican parties backed out of the years-long tradition of holding joint primaries, and that information wasn’t communicated widely. One voter reported showing up at his polling place and being sent somewhere else, a 15-minute drive away, only to be told to return to the original location. This is just flat-out voter suppression— designed to deny people their right to vote.

“All of this puts us on notice of what to expect this year: more of the same old voter suppression. Expect some of it to land close to election day, changing the rules and moving the goal posts late in hopes that many people won’t learn of it. So, we need to raise awareness about this now and remind people that they wouldn’t be trying so hard to keep us from voting if our votes didn’t matter.”

Many leading Democratic strategists agree and have warned that what the Republicans did in Texas is just a preview of the actions they will undertake before and during the November general election. Right now, they are attempting to impose major voting roadblocks through the nefarious Save America Act. This Act would be the most restrictive voting bill ever passed by Congress. It would prevent millions of American citizens from voting. Even if it fails to pass the Senate only due to the filibuster (having already passed the House), the Republican Party will pursue every conceivable tactic to thwart the Democratic vote. It has forsaken legal constraints. Trump knows no bounds in his quest for absolute power, and his party is following his lead in lockstep.

We need to plan for the Republicans’ “no holds barred” effort to sabotage the vote. In addition to donating or contributing time to one or more of the hundreds of groups that are working now to protect our vote, let’s reach out to our friends, family, and colleagues to:

• Make sure they are registered to vote and stay registered.
• When voting commences, make sure they actually do vote and check to make sure that their vote is counted.
• Vote as early as possible, not waiting until the official Election Day.
• If they are able and choose to vote by mail, they must mail their ballot back early enough so that it is received well before November 3rd. (Vote.org provides a guide to every step of the process.)

I remain confident that we will reassert our power this November by voting in numbers that cannot be discounted. At the same time, we have to remain vigilant and push back against Republican shenanigans.

Our votes will ensure a Democratic return to the House and Senate in such numbers that the Trump era will effectively be over. We will pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, which will firmly enshrine in law the bedrock right to vote in memory of the man who was brutally beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge but later became an esteemed member of the House. We will never again allow a political party to operate with complete disdain for our most fundamental democratic norms.

On the next No Kings Day on March 28, we must show the growing magnitude and enduring strength of this movement. If you’ve gone to past events, go again, and if you haven’t been, now is the time. Take your friends and family with you too.  We are making history. Nothing is pre-ordained. 

Now is the time for us to collectively make a stand and change the trajectory of our country.  As Heather Cox Richardson reminded us shortly before Trump was sworn into office for the second time: “One of the curses of history is that we cannot go back and change the course leading to disasters, no matter how much we might wish to. The past has its own terrible inevitability. But it is never too late to change the future.”

We all can play a role in making that change happen.  Indeed, we must.