Before her DNC speech, Stacey Abrams gives Kerry Washington voter suppression survival tips
Since Kerry Washington was talking to Stacey Abrams before Abrams keynote speech at night two of the Democratic National Convention, the former Scandal star greeted the rising political star by preemptively congratulating Abrams. “I’m just gonna go ahead and say you were brilliant,” said Washington, as it turns out accurately predicting that Abrams would knock it out of the park by knocking Republican cowardice, racism, and un-democratic chicanery into the trash bin of history. And while pointing out desperate, transparent, and taint-sweaty GOP efforts to cling to power by sucking up to a dictatorial reality show clown while blatantly attempting to steal an election through voter suppression, sabotage, and even more racist than usual rhetoric is like shooting fish in a particularly swampy barrel these days, Abrams still loaded up and blasted away with characteristic bluntness.
Asked by Washington (guest-hosting for the vacationing Jimmy Kimmel for her second night) what practical steps American voters can take to counter one party’s daylight robbery of their constitutional voting rights through intimidation, destroying the United States Post Office, undercutting the Census, and gleefully accepting help from the Russian government (among other things), Abrams pointed viewers to the aptly named Fair Fight. That’s the organization Abrams founded after blown-dry Republican airhead and coronavirus accomplice Brian Kemp straight-up stole the Georgia governorship from Abrams through those very same, baldly self-dealing tricks. Pulling not one punch, Abrams told Washington that the GOP will themselves pull “every nefarious thing you can imagine,” citing plans to deploy thuggish, unelected “poll watchers” to try to intimidate voters in battleground states, and the current plan by Trump crony and shamelessly partisan Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to literally destroy the never-more-vital USPS from within. (DeJoy, apart from being Trump’s button-man for the Post Office, is also heavily invested in the private delivery companies that would directly benefit from the USPS’ demise, because Republicans aren’t even trying to hide it any more.)
Noting that Americans less interested in living out their banana republic bootlicker fantasies should go to both FairFight.com and Vote.org for useful, necessary, and actual, practical plans to fight this racist power-grab from a dying party whose ideas have become so unpalatable as to ensure its extinction without subverting American democracy, Abrams laid out a survival kit. Find out your state’s specific voting laws on voting by mail, in-person early voting, and Election Day voting. Even though DeJoy (perhaps noting that even buddy Trump can’t pardon him when he’s sued by multiple states for election tampering) has promised not stop his USPS vandalism, Abrams noted, “They’re going to try again,” and urged voters to vote early. Check your voter registration, as Republicans love nothing so much as Election Day confusion sowed by suspect and racially-biased voter purges. And fill out the damned Census—even as Republicans cut short the response window by a week.
“We get the democracy we deserve,” stated Abrams to Washington (who came loaded with viewer questions about what the hell they can do as citizens to fight voter suppression), adding the advice, “Show up in force, and don’t show up alone.” As Abrams put it, “We have to overwhelm them with our presence.”
Check out your rights and make your Election Day battle plan at FairFight.com and Vote.org.