My father was the fifth out of a family of eight children,and my mother was the fifth of a family of six. My parents were from large Italian families and both were born just prior to 1920.
My grandparents emigrated to America at the turn of the 20thcentury, and it was a common cultural occurrence for immigrants to have large families. The Irish, in particular, had even larger families than the Italians, but other ethnic immigrant groups produced more children than the Americans who were already established here.
Things changed in a slow, subtle way. My father’s four older siblings married and produced 21 children among them. The four youngest, who married during WWII,had two children each, a total of eight.
My parents had two kids, my brother and me. We each had one son, who are now 40 and 38 years old. Our sons are in live-in relationships with young women, but neither is interested in marriage or children. My chances of being a granddad vary from slim to none.
White men and women have been getting married and having children progressively later in life, and many choose to be childless. Economic insecurities, student loan debt, and a culture that approves of non-parenthood contributes to the low white birthrate.
“The birthrate fell for nearly every group of women of reproductive age in the U.S. in 2017… the fewest newborns since 1987, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The results put the U.S. further away from a viable replacement rate – the standard for a generation being able to replicate its numbers.”—-National Public Radio, May 2018
This is referred to as “sub-replacement fertility,” i.e., any rate below 2.1 children born per woman. There has been a steady decline in our birth rate since the Great Recession of 2008.
What does this have to do with voter suppression? Look at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here’s a quote from Marc Lamont Hill, the Temple University professor who was fired as a contributor by CNN because of a remark he made about Palestinian freedom.
“For many, justice will come from a two-state solution. For some, like me, justice will come through a single bi-national democratic state that encompasses Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.”
This was not the remark that caused his firing. However, it shows that Mr. Hill, as intelligent as he is, doesn’t realize the Israelis could NEVER agree to a bi-national state.
Why? Well, the first Muslim woman elected to the United States House of Representatives is the eldest of FOURTEEN children. I have a Muslim friend whose sister lives in Gaza and has TEN children.
Israeli families have an average of two or three children; Palestinians have ten to fifteen.
If Palestinians could vote on an equal basis with Israelis,they’d soon run the country. That’s never going to happen.
Here in America the handwriting is on the wall. We are going to be a majority-minority country by 2040, and recent indications are that will happen sooner rather than later.
People of color tend to vote for Democrats, and Republicans are extremely nervous. Their hold on power is tenuous at best, and as the minority population increases their chances to remain in control dwindle.
This is what the hysterical reaction to the caravan, the Dreamers, and to immigration, legal and illegal, is about. It’s not the phony excuse of criminals or Middle Easterners slipping across the border. In the backs of Republican minds the focus is on Democratic votes.
Immigrants of color today, like their white immigrant predecessors, tend to have larger families. Donald Trump has already referred to Mexican women as “breeders.”
Republicans have two options. Encourage white women to be more fertile, or take the easier road—-suppress the vote of blacks, Latinos, and Asians. White supremacy cannot flourish if people of color can vote.
Today voter suppression by the Republican Party is not hidden behind closed doors in smoke-filled rooms. It is blatant and openly discussed by the GOP as a political strategy. They’re not ashamed of what they’re doing. They’re proud.
Voter ID’s, cutting the weeks for early voting, closing polling places, requiring voters of color to wait in line for four hours to vote or travel 20 miles to a polling place are some of their ploys. Throwing out voter registration forms due to flimsy excuses and refusing to count absentee ballots are other examples of their nefarious plots.
Republicans delude themselves to thinking they’re Jesus-loving Christians, but they’re the world’s worst hypocrites. They find “legal” loopholes for their deeds,but they fail to realize what they do is both unethical and immoral.
How this problem can be solved is beyond my pay grade, but Democrats might be advised to focus on a solution to this, if there is one, before they tie themselves into knots fighting about nominating a progressive rather than a moderate candidate.
Be aware of what you’re up against. Republicans don’t become bad people. Bad people become Republicans.
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