We have a real existential threat to democracy and it keeps getting worse.

The Republican Trump Party has relentlessly tightened its suppression laws by making it very easy to overturn future Democrats’ election victories. In other words, if Republicans don’t like the results of an election, they can, on the sole basis of fraud charges, go to court and ask a judge to overrule the will of the people.

This represents a two-pronged attack on American democracy. If a Democrat still wins, despite all the harsh voter suppression tactics, then Republicans can invoke voter fraud and have the election overturned in court or ask their partisan voters to recount the votes to further a Republican victory. It’s a terrifying scenario if that’s allowed to happen.

If this happens, then let the truth be told, the last real Democratic election was on November 3, 2020. I would start hiding in your homes because fascism is around the corner.

On April 9, this newspaper published an opinion piece by conservative columnist Michael Reagan titled “Jim Crow on steroids?” … Come on man ”who provided a typically bogus and misleading defense of Republican election laws.

President Biden can read and knows history. He’s not a functional illiterate like Trump who has the vocabulary and conceptualization of a fifth-grader. According to senior government officials, Biden applies history, focus, and critical thinking to his daily memoirs, while his predecessor refused to read or listen to the memoirs.

It is highly likely that President Biden was using the word “steroids” in relation to jet speed that the governor of Georgia and his legislature passed their repressive and racist election laws. It could be that Republican lawmakers in Georgia want to speed up the bill before anyone with minimal historical knowledge can rightly condemn the blatant laws.

In addition, these white Republican men had the nerve and shamelessness to sign this bill in front of a painting depicting a large plantation. Oh, yeah, white supremacy and racism are alive and well in the good ol ‘USA

Jim Crow’s new election laws are repressive, anti-democratic and racist. One of the laws is not to be able to give food or drink to voters who stand in line for five to six hours. This does not happen in white and rich areas. Without a doubt, this law is racist and cruel.

There is evidence today that white legislative Republicans across the country are intentionally targeting voter suppression among blacks and people of color.

The Texas legislature is preparing the most draconian voter suppression bill to date. One provision of the bill is to eliminate the early Sunday morning vote. Traditionally, the black community has voted after its first religious services and its ban which will have deleterious effects on its ability to vote. Texas Legislative Bill 7 as well as Georgia law represent a big attack on our democracy, unlike anything that has been seen in recent times.

Today’s dysfunctional Republican Party does not campaign on a conservative ideological platform. These white Republicans are stupid Trump sycophants. Therefore, they have no real conservative policies to offer to American citizens. To win, they must cheat, lie, manipulate and repress. Even Trump once admitted that the only way to win the election was not to compete with the Democrats but to restrict the vote. Come on man: Admit it. That is true.

Michael Reagan wrote that these new laws were “voting integrity laws”. Leave me alone. These laws represent the cancellation of the rights of voters.

Georgia’s Legislative Assembly and others across the country staged the largest contraction in voting access in generations. In Georgia, they introduced rigid voter identification and more requirements for postal voting. They made mobile voting illegal, removed drop boxes, and extended Republican legislative power over elections. In other words, Republicans and court judges would have the right to overturn an election based on fraud charges alone. This republican power would spell the end of legitimate electoral results.

These laws disproportionately target and severely restrict the right to vote and be counted by Blacks, Browns and Native Americans. The boldness of Georgia Governor Kemp’s claim that the new laws extend the vote is pure darling. This is a huge Republican lie.

Today, a true expansion of the vote is a democratic necessity. I say nationalize the voting process; make things easier by giving all citizens more time and days to vote.

Come on, man… This may be the new American way.

Bill Hodge is a former city councilor and mayor of Calexico.