GOP leadership revives Jim Crow, gaslights voter suppression

Horsefeathers, Sue Lani Madsen. You are disingenuously reverse engineering and proposing an irrational solution for a problem which does not exist. And gaslighting once again. The problem is not “election Integrity,” and never has been to any material degree whatsoever. The legal definition of “voter suppression” articulated by the nonpartisan American Bar Association, is “an effort to reduce a person or community’s opportunity to vote in local, state or federal election.”

Most efforts to suppress a vote are made by conservative groups aimed at reducing voter fraud — which bipartisan organizations like the Brennan Center and even investigations by Trump’s own FBI have concluded is extremely rare in almost all cases.”

Let’s start and end with the facts, Sue. Not with “alternative facts” as pioneered by Kellyanne Conway in defense of Donald Trump, and radically spun in your recent Spokesman-Review column, “When words fail us” (April 8). Your words are indeed failing you, Sue. And if they fail you, they do in fact “fail us”, as you lament. Especially for your most well-intended readers.

To be clear, “voter suppression” is, in fact, “racism” by any party. As you confess, it is only the Republican Party which utilizes this weapon for outcomes initiated by Jim Crow. Reluctantly, the GOP has now realized the cold, hard truth. That the only way the GOP can win an election in modern society is to suppress the American Vote. In short, say good-bye to Democracy to that end. Get better, Sue, so we can all get better.

Mike Cronin

Spokane