The specter of Trump continues to haunt us, and it was more than an apparition the other day in Texas where Gov. Abbott signed a Republican-backed voting bill into law.
“Election integrity is now the law in the state of Texas,” the governor declared on Tuesday. And while he may have missed the irony of using the word integrity in a bill that was completely devoid of it, it is clear to us and it summons once more the indignity of Trump and his damage to our sense of justice and well-being.
Gov. Abbott’s action is not only a blow to democracy in Texas but it has broader implications and it appears to be a certainty in other states. What the bill in Texas embodies is a total act of retrenchment, another shot across the bow to ensure Republican revenge, and a continuation of the attack on the Capitol back in January.
We wholeheartedly agree with the Democrats in the Texas legislature who argue that the bill resulted from Trump inspiration, his declaration of the “big lie” and voter fraud that “robbed” him of a second term in office.
Trump promulgated the “big lie” and it is still readily embraced by conservatives and the legions of reactionaries, an aggregate of naysayers determined to flip the current political status and upend the Democratic hold on Congress and other important gubernatorial and senatorial races. We believe the next step, led by the Supreme Court, will seriously enforce gerrymandering and redistricting.
It’s quite enough that Americans have to endure Trump’s ignominious legacy, the accusations of incompetence hurled at President Biden, and a recent surge in COVID-19 for our younger people. Abbott’s law in Texas is the icing on the cake of injustice.
Let us hope that the League of United Latin American Citizens that filed a federal lawsuit to block the law from taking effect in December gains traction.
It may not mean much in the total equation of things, but the League should know that we are with them and with the citizens of Texas who are in jeopardy of their democratic rights being eviscerated yet again.