Summary: ShareRepublicans have put all of their chips on racism, as they have decided that racism is their only claim to victory, and if they can’t win with racism, then they have nothing left to bet on. They obviously cannot run on healthcare, as they’re fighting to kill Obamacare during the COVID-19 pandemic, or the economy, as we have the worst economic depression since ‘the Great Depression.’ So they’ve decided on racism. But the tide is turning against the race card working any longer. 74% of Americans support the peaceful protests against racism and police brutality. Even Mississippi is taking the confederate symbol off their state flag, which is the last in the nation carrying that symbol. However, racism has been at the core of the Republican party since the 1960s when they used busing and states rights as cover for straight up racism. Republicans are still playing the race card, and Trump is definitely the king of the racists. But it’s not succeeding. When Trump now retweets a video where one of his supporters twice yells, “White Power!”, it is not working like his racism did in the lead up to the 2016 election. It’s not just Donald Trump who is racist. We see no clearer example of Republican racism than in Florida right now. Less than two years ago, Florida voters overturned a law that stripped ex-felons in their state of the right to vote. That law had disenfranchised one out of every six black men in Florida, until voters overturned it by a staggeringly bi-partisan majority of 64.5%. But the Republicans, who have gerrymandered the Florida legislature, decided to put in a ‘poll tax’ to stop many of those who just won back their right to vote, from being able to exercise that right. They passed a law, with the help of Trump-loving Governor Ron DeSantis, that ex-felons cannot vote unless they pay off all fines that they owe. They did this knowing that Florida imposes huge fines on ex-felons that most will never be able to pay back, in effect completing their two-step poll tax on the ex-felons. Now the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals will decide whether this thinly veiled Jim Crow law will be allowed to stand, just in time for the 2020 presidential election. Unfortunately, there are six Trump-appointed judges and one George W. Bush appointed judge, so seven total, and then four Obama appointed judges and one Clinton appointed judge, so just five total. It will take a simple 6-6 tie to strike down this new Jim Crow law, meaning one right wing judge will have to vote against this poll tax for it to be struck down. You can watch this episode here on Twitter or here on Facebook Live.
