Obama Praises – Trump Calls For Boycott – VG

– Congratulations to MLB (Marjor League Baseball journaln.anm.) For taking a stand on behalf of the voting rights of all citizens, Barack Obama wrote in a Twitter message on Easter night.

It was a strikingly different tone than the one that his successor in the White House, Donald Trump, had a statement on Good Friday:

– Baseball is already losing a large number of fans, and now they are leaving Atlanta with their All Star party because they fear the Democrats of the radical left (…) Boycott baseball, Trump writes, among other things

According to information CNN has received from local tourism authorities, Georgia will lose more than $ 100 million, or about NOK 850 million, in the All Star match change.

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In his statement, Trump also asks if companies like Coca Cola and Delta Airline are listening.

And it’s no coincidence that he mentions both of them, both based in Georgia. Both have voiced strong criticism of the new electoral laws.

True, it was only after they were adopted and after the companies came under fire from Democrats for their silence. Many on the left are disappointed that they did not say anything BEFORE the laws were passed.

And now more and more large companies are entering the scene. NBC News describes it as a wildfire spreading over dry grass, because Georgia is far from the only state where new election laws can emerge. In total, according to The Brennan Center, mostly Republican politicians have introduced more than 360 bills in 47 states, all of which have in common that it will be more difficult to vote in various ways.

It’s about democracy

VG recently interviewed two US suffrage experts about the Republicans’ violent offensive. They both knew that many of the laws were specifically directed at black Americans, who vote much more often for Democrats than Republicans.

“There is no question that this is racism,” David Schultz, a professor at Hamline University in Minnesota and one of America’s most respected electoral law experts, told VG.

In many places, bills have come a long way on the grounds that confidence in the electoral system needs to be restored after last year’s elections. In other words, proponents use Donald Trump’s undocumented election fraud allegations as an argument in favor of stricter election laws. Georgia, which Trump, to the surprise of many, lost, is one of the states where it has happened.

David Daley, a senior adviser to the independent party organization Fair Vote, which works for a fairer electoral system in the country, believes that ultimately it is about whether the United States wants to be a democratic country or not.

– Yes, you can actually say that it is a “now or never” for American democracy, he told VG.

Good and bad signs

The Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan organization that encourages businesses to get involved in civil rights issues, sent a letter on Friday condemning the tightening of electoral laws. It is signed by almost 200 companies.

Another letter, signed by more than 70 black business leaders, ran this week as an advertisement in the leading New York Time newspaper.

Dale Ho, who is the director of the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, thinks it is a good and a bad sign that the business community is getting involved.

– It is good that voting rights now receive the attention they deserve. The bad sign is that it has to happen, because it means voting rights are now an essential part of the culture war, says Ho.