GUEST COLUMN: We won’t back down in the face of racism and voter suppression
After leaked text messages revealed Republicans worked to disrupt Souls to the Polls’ work on election day in 2020, it’s more important than ever to stand up for democracy in Milwaukee.
The Recombobulation Area is a thirteen-time Milwaukee Press Club award-winning weekly opinion column and online publication written, edited and published by longtime Milwaukee journalist Dan Shafer. Learn more about it here.
This is a guest column written by Rev. Greg Lewis, executive director of Souls to the Polls, Angela Lang, executive director of Black Leaders Organizing for Communities (BLOC), and Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC).
The history of racism and voter suppression in the service of certain people in power is a long and winding road. Once again, it continues to move through Milwaukee.
We all feel it. We all believe it. And then, from time to time, we see it. In black and white, in all its ugliness, and in leaked text messages—they show us who they are.
On Thursday, April 25, we found out that GOP operatives engaged in what they called “Operation Rat F*ck”—their words, not ours—during the 2020 presidential election.
They made plans, led by Andrew Iverson, who just recently became the executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, to disrupt and inundate Souls to the Polls’ non-partisan, volunteer-powered, and free “Rides to the Polls” program.
Iverson, leading the effort, did this by instructing staffers to clog-up Souls to the Polls’ free “Rides to the Polls” hotline number, and have Trump/MAGA supporters request rides “whether they voted or not.” Those who were involved in this scheme were instructed to “wreak havoc.” The reality is that GOP operatives attempted to drain valuable get-out-the-vote resources and suppress voters in Milwaukee.
Souls to the Polls does not discriminate based on party affiliation, race, gender, (dis)ability status, or income level. The slogan is: We don’t take sides, we just give rides.
Often, these rides program benefits some of Milwaukee’s most underserved and historically disenfranchised communities. Black and brown voters, low-income voters, voters with disabilities, and elderly voters are the overwhelming demographic of voters who are calling their hotline number to request a free ride. Souls to the Polls’ volunteers help them get there. Annette Ahlmann-Styche, an amazing “Rides to the Polls” volunteer driver, donates her wheelchair-accessible van every year to help folks who would not otherwise be able to get to the polls, make their voices heard. She sees it as her duty to do so.
Attempts to overwhelm Souls to the Polls’ program is a direct attack on our voting rights and on our democratic freedoms. GOP operatives like Iverson see the work that Souls to the Polls and other voting rights organizations do, and their intentions could not be more clear.
Their dirty tricks stem from decades of voter suppression and a disturbing history of trying to keep our communities down through methods like poll taxes, literacy tests, lynchings, imprisonment, voter roll purges, strict voter ID laws, banning ballot drop boxes, slowing down the mail, gerrymandering, and now, blocking the phone lines of a non-partisan organization that is trying to help people vote.
In ways big and small, there are specific people in power who continue to employ tactics to stay in power. Look no further than the “Big Lie.” The recount in only Black and brown neighborhoods. The overt racist smears and misinformation around crime and violence in our city.
We are surrounded by surgical, undemocratic methods to suppress our votes and our voices every day in Milwaukee and throughout the state. These dirty tricks nip at our democracy with the precision of a knife delivering a death by a thousand cuts.
Milwaukeeans deserve the right to vote free from intimidation and harassment. As Maya Angelou said, “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
We believed them the first time and the second time and the third time. We still believe them. That’s why the public should know: We won’t back down. Any attempt to suppress voters will not be tolerated, and we stand together, arm in arm, in the fight for all of our voting rights.
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Republicans hate democracy. What else is new?