{"id":6477,"date":"2021-11-02T11:52:28","date_gmt":"2021-11-02T11:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6477"},"modified":"2021-11-02T11:52:28","modified_gmt":"2021-11-02T11:52:28","slug":"how-the-christian-right-embraced-voter-suppression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/?p=6477","title":{"rendered":"How the Christian right embraced voter suppression"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\n\n“White evangelical Protestants now make up 14 percent of Americans, down from 23 percent in 2006, \u201cthe most precipitous drop in affiliation\u201d for any religious group, according<\/a> to a 2020 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. Even though white evangelicals made up 34 percent of Trump\u2019s voters, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of election data, their support wasn\u2019t sufficient to propel him to reelection. \u201cWithout such broad support for Trump among White evangelicals, [Joe] Biden would have beaten him by more than 20 points,\u201d the Pew analysts wrote<\/a> earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s defeat proves that even massive conservative Christian turnout is no longer enough to win. The strategy white evangelical supporters have coalesced around to supplement it: election laws built on the lie that the other side\u2019s ability to turn outvoters must be \u201cfraudulent.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“As Trump tried to strong-arm state election officials<\/a> to throw out the ballots of 11,780 Georgians and declare him the winner of the state\u2019s 16 Electoral College votes, the Family Policy Alliance of Georgia sent<\/a> a fundraising email to its supporters in December: \u201cElection reform is coming to Georgia, and we are all in!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cole Muzio, the group\u2019s executive director, acknowledged that this was new territory for his organization. \u201cAs you know, this is not one of our \u2018core issues\u2019,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHowever, issues like life, religious freedom, and school choice will never win if the vote is being diluted by radical leftists exploiting the system to cheat.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When Democrats stunned even themselves by winning both seats in the January 5 runoff, Georgia Republicans<\/a> sprang into action, introducing a slate of bills that would, among other things, eliminate drop-box sites, impose more restrictive rules for absentee ballots, and prohibit judges from extending voting hours at precincts experiencing long waits, all under the guise of stopping fraud. Another objective was to defeat Warnock, who is up for reelection in 2022<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The flurry of legislation overtly became about religion and race, pitting white evangelical Republicans against Black church leaders, whose flocks are predominantly Democratic. One provision would have eliminated Sunday voting, a potentially dire blow to get-out-the-vote efforts of Black churches and their \u201csouls to the polls\u201d events that have been at the core of Black voter mobilization for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A national outcryled legislators to nix that provision. But Republican lawmakers ignored the objections of the state\u2019s Black pastors to the bill\u2019s many other restrictive provisions<\/a>. Black leaders couldn\u2019t even get a meeting with GOP leaders, said Rev. Timothy McDonald III, senior pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta. \u201cThey didn\u2019t pay any of us any mind.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Less than two months after the bill was introduced, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a 98-page law<\/a> that criminalizes providing water or food to voters standing in line and empowers state officials to replace local election officials \u2014 for example, the Democratic registrar of voters in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta \u2014 with appointees from their own party. The impact would be greatest on Black voters. \u201cIt is How to Steal an Election 101,\u201d McDonald said.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“National organizations aligned with the Christian right embraced \u201celection integrity\u201d with fervor. In March, Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of the right-wing policy hub the Heritage Foundation, announced it would pour<\/a> at least $10 million into lobbying and TV and online ads about the urgent need to \u201cprotect the rights of every American to a fair election.\u201d In a video obtained by Mother Jones, a Heritage Action official admitted<\/a> that the organization drafted the legislation in many states, including Georgia, and helped organize support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, evangelical leaders opposed measures that would make it easier to vote. Advocates particularly targeted the For the People Act<\/a>, which would create nationwide automatic voter registration, restore voting rights of the formerly incarcerated, and expand voting by mail and early voting, while shoring up the security of election infrastructure. The Phyllis Schlafly Eagles \u2014 an offshoot of the group once headed by the late conservative figure best known for helping kill the Equal Rights Amendment \u2014 claimed (falsely) that the bill \u201cwould enshrine Democrat ballot stuffing into federal law forever.\u201d The Family Research Council called it \u201ca federal power grab that cripples states\u2019 ability to run elections and increases the likelihood of voter fraud\u201d (another lie). Other conservative activists contended that the act\u2019s financial disclosure requirements violated First Amendment protections for religious speech.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There were plenty of true believers. A June Washington Post\/ABC News poll<\/a> found that while only 30 percent of all respondents favored passing \u201cnew laws making it harder for people to vote fraudulently,\u201d 51 percent of white evangelicals supported<\/a> such legislation. While 62 percent of all Americans expressed support for \u201cnew laws making it easier for people to vote,\u201d only 43 percent of white evangelicals did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By that time, according to the Brennan Center for Justice<\/a>, 17 states already had enacted 28 new laws suppressing voting rights.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.vox.com\/22696286\/evangelicals-texas-georgia-voting-law-trump<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“White evangelical Protestants now make up 14 percent of Americans, down from 23 percent in 2006, \u201cthe most precipitous drop in affiliation\u201d for any religious group, according to a 2020 survey from the Public Religion Research Institute. Even though white evangelicals made up 34 percent of Trump\u2019s voters, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of election data, their support wasn\u2019t sufficient to propel him to reelection. \u201cWithout such broad support for Trump among White evangelicals, [Joe] Biden would have beaten him by more than 20 points,\u201d the Pew analysts wrote earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s defeat proves that even massive conservative Christian turnout is no longer enough to win. The strategy white evangelical supporters have coalesced around to supplement it: election laws built on the lie that the other side\u2019s ability to turn out voters must be \u201cfraudulent.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“As Trump tried to strong-arm state election officials to throw out the ballots of 11,780 Georgians and declare him the winner of the state\u2019s 16 Electoral College votes, the Family Policy Alliance of Georgia sent a fundraising email to its supporters in December: \u201cElection reform is coming to Georgia, and we are all in!\u201d<\/p>\n

Cole Muzio, the group\u2019s executive director, acknowledged that this was new territory for his organization. \u201cAs you know, this is not one of our \u2018core issues\u2019,\u201d he wrote. \u201cHowever, issues like life, religious freedom, and school choice will never win if the vote is being diluted by radical leftists exploiting the system to cheat.\u201d”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“When Democrats stunned even themselves by winning both seats in the January 5 runoff, Georgia Republicans sprang into action, introducing a slate of bills that would, among other things, eliminate drop-box sites, impose more restrictive rules for absentee ballots, and prohibit judges from extending voting hours at precincts experiencing long waits, all under the guise of stopping fraud. Another objective was to defeat Warnock, who is up for reelection in 2022.<\/p>\n

The flurry of legislation overtly became about religion and race, pitting white evangelical Republicans against Black church leaders, whose flocks are predominantly Democratic. One provision would have eliminated Sunday voting, a potentially dire blow to get-out-the-vote efforts of Black churches and their \u201csouls to the polls\u201d events that have been at the core of Black voter mobilization for decades.<\/p>\n

A national outcry led legislators to nix that provision. But Republican lawmakers ignored the objections of the state\u2019s Black pastors to the bill\u2019s many other restrictive provisions. Black leaders couldn\u2019t even get a meeting with GOP leaders, said Rev. Timothy McDonald III, senior pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta. \u201cThey didn\u2019t pay any of us any mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than two months after the bill was introduced, Gov. Brian Kemp signed a 98-page law that criminalizes providing water or food to voters standing in line and empowers state officials to replace local election officials \u2014 for example, the Democratic registrar of voters in Fulton County, which includes Atlanta \u2014 with appointees from their own party. The impact would be greatest on Black voters. \u201cIt is How to Steal an Election 101,\u201d McDonald said.”<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“National organizations aligned with the Christian right embraced \u201celection integrity\u201d with fervor. In March, Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of the right-wing policy hub the Heritage Foundation, announced it would pour at least $10 million into lobbying and TV and online ads about the urgent need to \u201cprotect the rights of every American to a fair election.\u201d In a video obtained by Mother Jones, a Heritage Action official admitted that the organization drafted the legislation in many states, including Georgia, and helped organize support.<\/p>\n

At the same time, evangelical leaders opposed measures that would make it easier to vote. Advocates particularly targeted the For the People Act, which would create nationwide automatic voter registration, restore voting rights of the formerly incarcerated, and expand voting by mail and early voting, while shoring up the security of election infrastructure. The Phyllis Schlafly Eagles \u2014 an offshoot of the group once headed by the late conservative figure best known for helping kill the Equal Rights Amendment \u2014 claimed (falsely) that the bill \u201cwould enshrine Democrat ballot stuffing into federal law forever.\u201d The Family Research Council called it \u201ca federal power grab that cripples states\u2019 ability to run elections and increases the likelihood of voter fraud\u201d (another lie). Other conservative activists contended that the act\u2019s financial disclosure requirements violated First Amendment protections for religious speech.” <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

“There were plenty of true believers. A June Washington Post\/ABC News poll found that while only 30 percent of all respondents favored passing \u201cnew laws making it harder for people to vote fraudulently,\u201d 51 percent of white evangelicals supported such legislation. While 62 percent of all Americans expressed support for \u201cnew laws making it easier for people to vote,\u201d only 43 percent of white evangelicals did.<\/p>\n

By that time, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, 17 states already had enacted 28 new laws suppressing voting rights.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[60,626,198,1325,386,479],"class_list":["post-6477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article-share","tag-christianity","tag-demographics","tag-elections","tag-voter-suppression","tag-voters","tag-voting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6478,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6477\/revisions\/6478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lonecandle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}