The voter suppression bill is already backfiring
After years of frenetically fast paced news cycles, it’s easy to forget that one of the keys to successful political and social activism is persistence – especially after facing a setback. Despite our best efforts, we were unable to get corporate America to side with us against Georgia’s voter suppression bill; it ended up becoming law. But because we’ve continued to ramp up the pressure in the days since, we’re now getting the response we need.
The CEOs of Coca-Cola and Delta, two major corporations based in Georgia, both finally took firm public stands on Wednesday against the voter suppression legislation. This is coming later than it should. But it’s proof that with enough pressure, we can push corporations to do the right thing, if only because they start worrying about financial losses from a boycott.
Now that both corporations have formally taken positions against the legislation, the key is to continue placing pressure on them in the coming days. Georgia Republicans can’t realistically afford to alienate the biggest corporations in Georgia like this. So if Coke and Delta ultimately tell the Georgia GOP that it has to repeal or reform this ridiculous voter suppression law, it’ll happen.
So not only is there a good chance we’ll get rid of this Georgia legislation, the whole thing has served to raise awareness and light a fire under Georgia voters. Congressman Ted Lieu tweeted this: “Efforts by GOP legislators to cancel voters are backfiring. The 2022 midterms in Georgia will be lit. I predict you will have Delta employees standing alongside Members of Congress providing Dasani water to voters standing in line. There’s going to be massive turnout in GA.”
This comes even as President Biden and the Democrats continue the long and complex process of passing HR1/S1 into law, which will cancel out much of the voter suppression antics that red states are passing into law. As always, persistence is the key to activism. If you give up and say “all hope is lost,” then you will lose. But if you keep fighting with the intention of winning, the odds are good of winning.
