This commentary is by Bob Stannard of Manchester, an author, musician and former state legislator and lobbyist.
Ten years ago, I was driving home from attending the North River Blues Festival outside of Boston. When I left that morning around 10:30, the trees were bending over from the wind.
Watching the weather on TV with my friends and producers of the festival, John Hall and Ellie Johnson, it was clear that the ride home was going to be challenging. It was.
It took me two hours to get to Jamaica, Vermont, and then two and a half hours to get from Jamaica to Manchester. Power lines were down. Trees were down. Sections of the road were under 4 feet of water. Rivers were not just spilling over their banks; they were gouging out the banks that once contained them. It was clear that we were in for a rough ride.
As fate would have it, Tropical Storm Irene may very well have been one of the best things that has happened to us in a long time.
No, I’m not talking about the devastation and huge personal loss. I’m referring to what happened after the rain stopped. Immediately after the storm subsided, we could see that our family, friends and neighbors were going to be in trouble.
What was our response? Vermonters did exactly what you expect they would do; they came to the aid of those in need. The volunteer effort that exploded once the sun came back out may not have been unprecedented, but it was something that many of us had not seen in a very long time.
We proved to the country that, when things go awry in Vermont, those who live here inherently know what to do. We knew right from the start what had to be done and we did it. Locals joined hands with newcomers to rescue those who were impacted by the storm. When the storm hit, Vermont came together.
America right now is in the throes of a much bigger storm — a storm that could reconfigure our democracy much like Irene reconfigured our landscape. Last week over 20,000 people came to Washington, D.C., in support of the U.S. Senate passing the John Lewis Voting Rights bill and the For the People Act.
Both pieces of legislation have passed the House. Their fate in the Senate doesn’t look good. The House passed these voting rights bills with not one Republican vote. To pass the Senate, we will have to either end the filibuster or carve out this legislation, because as of right now no Republicans in the Senate will support either of them.
The lack of Republican support is not based on ideology so much as it is survival. For decades, it has been obvious that the more Americans who vote, the less likely are the chances of Republicans winning.
Voting restrictions began crawling into state legislatures back in the 1980s. After the defeat of Donald Trump, the effort has moved into warp speed, with 18 predominantly Republican-controlled states working feverishly to enact the most restrictive voting legislation in American history.
Many have asked: Why now are we seeing this enhanced effort to keep Americans from voting? Prior to the previous presidential election, the incumbent, Donald Trump, said that the only way he could lose was if the elections were rigged. Of course, while he was saying this, he was actively trying to rig the elections — an action that got him impeached for a second time.
On Nov. 6, he lost his re-election bid to Joe Biden, who didn’t just beat him, but beat him by seven million votes. In all, 81 million Americans voted for Biden versus 74 million for Trump.
The count wasn’t even close, the count was certified to be accurate, but that has not stopped Trump and radical Republicans from promoting Trump’s “Big Lie” that the elections were illegitimate. This Big Lie resulted in an insurrection on Jan. 6 carried out by radical Trump and Republican supporters.
The elections were legitimate and that’s what has Republicans scared. They see the writing on the wall. This party of Lincoln has been hijacked by radical right-wing extremists. They have known for a long time that the only way they can win is to keep minorities from voting, because minorities tend to vote Democratic.
Why? Because they, along with a large majority of Americans, see that the GOP now stands for little more than tax cuts for those who don’t need them and banning masks for people who do need them.
America might need a really bad storm — a storm that would force us to come together to do right by its citizens. Perhaps the difference is that when Tropical Storm Irene was over, Vermonters were eager to help out their neighbors.
It’s not certain what will happen when this manmade storm designed to destroy our democracy is over. Will we see the outpouring of love and support like we saw here in Vermont? Or when this storm over voting rights ends, if it ever will end, will we continue to see the ugly underbelly of a radical America?
Maybe a bad storm is what it’s going to take for America to get back on track and back to work.
