The Defender Network’s Community Channel recently conducted a Zoom call discussion on voting, the November 2024 election, and politics in general. The goal: to find out what issues are most important to Blacks, what solutions Blacks want to see, thoughts on voting, insights on the current state of political/civil education and more.
Here are excerpts from the conversation about why Blacks must vote.
Stop the end of democracy and resurrection of American apartheid
On July 26, Donald Trump told a campaign rally audience words that should chill your spine if you believe in fairness, equality, democracy and the rule of law. He said, “Get out and vote, just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore … In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.”
Trump said those words to attendees at a conservative Christian event, “The Believers Summit,” in West Palm Beach, Florida, sponsored by the ultra-white nationalist group Turning Point Action. But that was not the only time he’s shared that message of his voters never having to vote again. In Philadelphia, he told his MAGA people, “Just this time. In four years you don’t have to vote. In four years, don’t vote. I don’t care.”
“He sounds like Loki in that first Avengers movie where Loki said freedom is a burden people don’t really want. What they really want and need is someone to lord over them and tell them what to do and take that burden away,” said Zoom call participant Felipe Stoneman. “That’s what I hear when Trump says you won’t have to vote again. He’s saying, he’s Loki, he’s their savior, he’ll tell them what to do and take their vote and their freedom because they don’t really need it anyway.”
“Truth,” replied Sharon Daye, to Stoneman’s comments. “And no vote means Black people in America will be treated like the Palestinians in Gaza or Nelson Mandela and the Xhosa and Zulus were in apartheid South Africa — no vote, no power. The Palestinians and the native South Africans were forced to live on basically reservations in their own land. They’re jailed, beaten and killed if they go somewhere without a passbook or without their oppressors’ permission.”
“To me, voting is a no-brainer; the least we can do to fight for our people and our communities.”
Fix the rigged system
On July 25, Trump didn’t tell an audience that they won’t ever have to vote for him again, but rather they won’t have to vote for him this November — a strange thing to tell potential voters if you plan on winning the election.
Here’s what Trump told Fox News anchors via phone: “My instruction, we don’t need the votes. I have so many votes.”
But upon further review, Trump has been telling MAGA rally attendees this message consistently.
“We don’t need votes.” (Trump in Chesapeake, Virginia, June 28.)
“I tell my people, I don’t need any votes. We got all the votes we need. I don’t need votes.” (Trump in Washington, D.C., June 22.)
“We don’t need votes. We got more votes than anybody’s ever had.’ (Trump in Detroit, Michigan, June 15.)
“You don’t have to vote. Don’t worry about voting. The voting, we got plenty of votes.” (Trump in Derry, New Hampshire.)
Those on the Zoom call watched and listened to Trump’s words via an MSNBC segment. The segment, led by MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, suggested Trump would only say that if he doesn’t think he needs votes to win the November 2024 election. Rather, some other factor will determine whether or not he retakes the White House.
As national reporting by Rolling Stone and others reveals, that “something else” could very well be the fact that their investigative reporting shows that in the swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, they have “identified at least 70 pro-Trump election conspiracists currently working as county election officials.
This means, staunch and committed election denialists (folk who believe and support the lie that the 2020 Presidential Election was stolen) have been positioned in those key swing states (states with huge importance regarding who wins the 2024 presidential election) to ensure that election results do not get certified in those states, especially if the election results show that Kamala Harris won.
The July 29 Rolling Stone article also said, “At least 22 of these county election officials have refused or delayed certifications in recent years.” This sets up the potential for the nation to see a massive number of election officials refusing to certify the November 2024 election as a way to thwart the will of the masses of American voters.
One politico stated that Republicans “are counting on not just that they can disrupt the election in big counties, they are counting on the fact that if they don’t certify in several small counties, you cannot certify these statewide results.”
Here’s how participants in the Defender Zoom call responded to that information.
“This makes me pissed at a whole ’nother level and it shows me why voting is so damn important,” stated Ebony Shaw. “When we don’t vote, white people who literally hate Black people win elected offices and then appoint their friends who hate us to these critical positions. Now, you got this army of white people and skinfolk who ain’t kinfolk in these positions to literally steal our votes without having to have another Jan. 6 insurrection.”
“I feel you,” replied John Williams, to Shaw’s comment. “Every time I talk to my younger cousins and siblings about voting and they say they ain’t doing it, I wanna shake some sense into their heads. These people who hate us Black people are more serious than a MF.”
One Zoom call attendee, Ashley Anderson, asked, “When did we stop teaching our kids how important politics is?”
This post was originally published on Defender Network.
