Donald Trump is an idiot
Donald Trump is finally right about something. According to Business Insider (“BI”), he told attendees at his Arizona rally that “no Republican will ever get elected if Senate Democrats pass their voting rights bill.” He is correct, but not for the reason he claims. He continues to push the big lie, claiming that the voting rights bill will “erase American votes with illegal votes.” The reality is that when people vote, Republicans lose, and this bill will expand upon and ensure that everyone has the right to vote. That is the reason that this bill is so important.
As BI reported, the bill passed by Democrats last week, the “Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act,” combines both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. If passed—which is unlikely—the Act will standardize voting law across the nation and would effectively wipe out the voter suppression bills enacted by Republican legislatures. It would also restore portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which the Supreme Court has been steadily chipping away. This is all great news, but Republicans in Congress are not going to support voting rights; Democrats would have to eliminate the filibuster. Krysten Sinema and Joe Manchin have remained vocal in their opposition to eliminating the filibuster, and that is not likely to change anytime soon. Even though the bill sounds like a good thing, it will likely remain a pipe dream for the foreseeable future.
As evidenced by the main points of this bill, the lies peddled by Donald Trump are just that: lies. But that is what Trump does best. He likes to stir people up to get them to vote the way he wants, even if he must lie to do it. We have seen over and again that these people eat up his lies and view them as truth. He is helped in his lies by Steve Bannon, who Newsweek reported as claiming that the rally would begin the “decertification process.” Apparently, being a crazy liar is a prerequisite to being in the Trump camp, though no one can lie better than Trump himself, especially if he thinks it helps his “cause.”
Continuing his lies, Trump told attendees that if they are white, they will not get Covid vaccines or treatment. This is patently false. According to Yahoo News writer Linda Qiu, Trump has taken an opinions piece in the Wall Street Journal out of context and is using it to further divide his followers from normal Americans. Trump said: “The left is now rationing lifesaving therapeutics based on race, discriminating against and denigrating, just denigrating, white people to determine who lives and who dies. If you’re white, you don’t get the vaccine, or if you’re white, you don’t get therapeutics.” This lie involves New York state’s guideline of prioritizing therapies of immunocompromised patients and those with risk factors, to address Hispanic/Latino vulnerability, but it says nothing about NOT treating anyone else. As statistics show, whites are more likely to be vaccinated than minorities, which is true across the country. This is merely another ploy from Trump to continue to divide.
Shirley is a former entertainment writer and has worked in the legal field for over 25 years