I’ve been among those who have compared Donald Trump and his cohorts as a modern-day incarnation of Hitler’s Third Reich without the Holocaust.
I was listening to a commentator the other day who said that wasn’t quite fair, that what the MAGA mob is doing now is more like the last days of the Weimer Republic when Hitler was coming to power.
I was thinking about this as I read about the House passing the Save Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act) along partisan lines. Well, not quite. Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas joined in. Cuellar represents a heavily Hispanic District in south Texas and apparently doesn’t realize or care that this bill would disenfranchise a lot of his constituents.
More on that in a minute. First, Hitler.
Back in the 1930s Hitler’s party never had close to a majority. But, what Hitler was able to do was wheel and deal, form alliances and work outside the government to foment fear and discord. It culminated in the Reichstag Fire, most likely set by Hitler operatives. That led to a weakened President Paul von Hindenburg resorting to executive orders to put through measures Hitler wanted that destroyed civil rights and led to what we now know Hitler was all about – white nationalism, ethnic cleaning and dictatorship.
If you want the details, you can read about it here.
This all jumped into my head when the House passed the SAVE Act, which does anything but safeguard the right to vote.
If you go back over Trump’s first year in office to the dismantling of government, the suspension of due process and the Fourth Amendment by ICE, the gunning down and beatings of Americans in the streets of our cities, the denial of science, the suspension of all efforts to combat climate change, the removal of the US as a positive world force….hell, the list is endless…..you can see history repeating itself looking back on 1930s Germany.
Like Hitler, Trump’s ultimate goal is to make elections irrelevant, showcases where only one party can win. Look at the list that accompanies this post and you can see the mess. Millions disenfranchised, married women who can’t match their married name to their birth certificates, state and local election officials who don’t know what to do.
You can see the impacts in a list NPR created that I’ve put in below this post.
It all adds up to a minority party being able to subvert democracies and establish what by any name would be a dictatorship.
What to do? I called around to my fellow Mumblers to see what they thought and I was sorely disappointed.
“What do you think of the SAVE Act?” I asked them. I got a range of answers.
“Is that the one about creating IRAs for folks?”
“Save what?”
“Something about elections. I didn’t read it all.”
“What? I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“It’s the act those MFers are using to keep folks who aren’t white from voting.”
OK. One got it.
Who knows where this is going? It most likely will pass the Senate and Trump will sign it with big magic marker. No doubt it will be challenged and go to the Supreme Court, where one of two things will happen. The court won’t get around to it in time to stop it from being in play in the November mid-terms, which will create total chaos. If it doesn’t keep Democrats from retaking Congress it could make the capture by the slimmest of margins; not enough to over-ride a Trump veto if the Dems vote to remove the act.
Or, the court can take it up immediately and rule it unconstitutional, averting a crisis; or it can support it and we are back to the previous paragraph.
Of all the things Trump has done, as bad as they are, this one may well be the worst since it strikes at the heart of what a democratic republic is.
The bastards have put it all out in the open now. They want to destroy the United States as we have known it for 250 years. Anyone who still stands with them is either anti-US or just dumber than dirt. Or both.
- 1. The bill was first introduced last year as Republicans focused on noncitizen voting
- Ahead of the 2024 election, Trump and his allies repeated the groundless claim that Democrats planned to cheat by encouraging noncitizens to illegally vote. It reflected back on Trump’s claim the 2020 election had been stolen from in large part by fraudulent votes.
- 2. Millions of Americans don’t have easy access to proof-of-citizenship documents
- The requirement to show proof of citizenship would apply to new voters as well as existing voters who update their registrations, such as after a move or name change.
- But one in 10 voting-age American citizens, or an estimated 21.3 million people, either don’t have a proof-of-citizenship document like a birth certificate, passport or naturalization certificate, or don’t have easy access to one, according to a 2023 survey commissioned by voting rights groups.
- 3. Married women who changed their names would likely face additional requirements
- Up to 69 million American women changed their names after they got married and therefore don’t have birth certificates that match their current names, according to an analysis by the progressive Center for American Progress. These women would likely need additional documentation, such as a name change document or marriage certificate, to register to vote.
- Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., a SAVE Act co-sponsor, defended the bill in a congressional hearing, saying, “The SAVE Act does have robust protections for married women whose names have changed.” The legislation does not mention married women but says states should come up with processes to accept additional documentation when voters have a discrepancy on their proof-of-citizenship document. Miller’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
- 4. Voter registration would likely require a visit to a government office
- The bill specifies that if someone registers by mail they must present their documents “in person to the office of the appropriate election official” before the voter registration deadline passes (or if they are in a state where voters can register at a polling place, they could show their documents there). That requirement would also “completely upend” third-party voter registration drives that rely on mail forms
- 5. Election officials have concerns about implementation and new criminal penalties
- Raising the stakes further, the SAVE Act says election officials can face five years in prison or be sued if they register a noncitizen or a citizen who did not show proof. Siegrist worries he and his colleagues could be prosecuted for human errors or targeted by frivolous lawsuits.
- 6. Key details are still up in the air
- The bill leaves the thorniest implementation questions up to states to decide with guidance from the EAC. If an applicant does not possess one of the proof-of-citizenship documents described in the bill, it says states should have a process for those applicants to submit additional evidence and for officials to decide if it is sufficient. The bill also says states should come up with accommodations for voters with disabilities.
- 7. States would get more access to federal immigration data
- The SAVE Act would require states to check voter rolls on an ongoing basis to ensure only U.S. citizens are registered. The bill would make it easier for states to use federal immigration data to do that, which has long been a point of contention between state election officials and the federal government.
- 8. States are considering their own proof-of-citizenship laws
- The Republican goals behind the SAVE Act have spread to states as well.Lawmakers in at least 20 states, including Texas, Florida and South Carolina, have introduced bills this year that would require documentary proof of citizenship to register to vote in state elections, according to an analysis by the Voting Rights Lab.