The presidential election, which featured "The Corrupt Woman" v. "The Orange Racist," dominated our TV airways. Because of social media and the 24-hour news cycle, a person would've had to reside in a "Silence of Lambs" basement while applying an endless supply of lotion to their skin to ignore the 2016 presidential race, a race mired by name calling, baseless accusations and hyper partisanship. By the time Election Day rolled around, everyone was Fannie Lou sick and tired, ready to see what four years under a madame president would be like.
Then America, in unity for the first time during the election cycle, uttered "I'll be damned" after Donald Trump became the president elect. The next day, every "expert," both liberal and conservative, who predicted a Clinton blowout proceeded to Monday morning quarterback, citing multiple factors as to why Trump emerged victorious over Clinton.
A new theory as to why she lost has now emerged: Russian cyber attacks were meant to alter the results of the election. This theory will serve as a shiny new penny for our 24-hour news cycle up until the day of Trump's inauguration.
The notion that Russia, which a man who chooses to ride horseback while shirtless leads, suppressed the American vote is both embarrassing and frightening.
Set aside the trendy Russian hacker theory for a moment and quickly contemplate other less trendy or sexy factors as to why Clinton lost the election. Take the numbers 28,574 vs. 224. The large number represents the number of laws state legislatures passed in 2014 versus the number of laws federal lawmakers passed in 2014. In 2009, Republicans controlled both chambers in just 14 state legislatures. Six years later, they had total control in more than double that number. Compare that to the Democrats, who in 2009, had full control in 27 state legislatures; by 2015 that number was down to just 11.
Who is to blame for this GOP revolution? President Obama, of course. His emergence created both fear and complacency. Complacency spawned extremely low voter turnout among Democrats, especially when Obama wasn't on the ballot. Seemingly, Democratic turnout relies on conjuring up an ebullient mindset every time the voting booth is open. This mindset is asinine and only works when a once-a-generation politician runs for president.
The fear factor, on the other hand, seemingly originated from actual fear mongering. For some, opposing Obama was motivated not by politics, but by prejudice. Those who sought limelight and upward political mobility based on their opposition of him seemingly embraced certain prejudices surrounding our first black president. President Obama has been painted as a tyrannical terrorist sympathizer who wants to take away our guns, freedom, heterosexuality and Christmas. Unfortunately, enough Americans believed in this fact-less, unsubstantial propaganda machine that those in the "Obama opposition" business created. This fear, along with Democratic complacency, led to Republicans kicking ass Chuck Norris-style, which, in turn, led to laws that would make the prejudiced ghost of Ronald Reagan proud. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, Yoda once stated, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." In the case of the GOP revolution, "Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to victory."
Ever since President Obama's rise to power, a tsunami of state voter laws have passed, implementing voter-identification laws, and shortening or even wiping away early voting and same-day registration. The timing of these draconian laws, which became suspiciously "imperative" right after Obama's election, suggest sinister efforts to deny access to voting booths by pushing a so-called war against voter fraud.
But data overwhelmingly show that voter disenfranchisement severely outweighs any potential voter fraud. Unfortunately, facts, along with Prince, Muhammad Ali and Arnold Palmer, passed away in 2016. Fake news and Internet comment sections have now replaced them.
To take a page from my 45th President, Frank Underwood: Russian hackers are the McMansion in Sarasota that starts falling apart after 10 years. State-sanctioned voter suppression is the old stone building that stands for centuries.
Scary as this may sound, foreign Russian influence doesn't hold a candle to home-cooked voter suppression.
Leslie McLemore II, a Jackson native, is now in Washington, D.C. He is a graduate of Jackson State University, North Carolina Central University School of Law and American University Washington College of Law.
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