Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America

by Stacey Abrams

Before I lay out the path to ending voter suppression, I must dispel one persistent myth. When perpetrators are caught in the act with the intent and effect of restricting voting, calling out their undemocratic behavior has led to cries of innocence from Republicans and feigned outrage in conservative media. When absurdly long lines kept Black voters away from jobs for hours, President Obama convened a commission to study the problem. In response, GOP secretaries of state and other Republican politicians and pundits argued that the lines were simply a result of excitement rather than suppression. Because the Democratic candidate won, most Americans of both political stripes quickly moved on to other concerns. However, when a number of us raised the issue in 2018, the concerns resonated and ricocheted around the country. In response, Republicans have tried to argue that because high numbers of voters of color participated in the 2018 election, this is proof that no voter suppression occurred. Employing this level of purposeful intellectual laziness and gaslighting voters of color who were deprived of their constitutional rights is shocking but not surprising, given that it comes from a crop of politicos whose primary strategy for victory is to make voting more difficult. Their spurious logic is belied by a simple thought experiment: on an obstacle course, more people can sign up and decide to compete, but an increase in participation does not negate the fact that the coach ...