I know we don’t want to have to talk about voting again. We’d rather talk about why the brother’s speech got cut short on the Golden Globes and why the mayors of Seattle and New Orleans are in a cat fight over Russell Wilson.  

Trust me–all those things need to be discussed, but while we’re arguing about whether Jordan is better than Lebron, and betting on how broke Kanye will be once Kim’s finished with him, Donald Trump and his minions are figuring out how to carve up our community for themselves.  

Yep. I said Donald Trump. I know we thought we got rid of him when he lost the election by 7 million votes, when Twitter and Facebook kicked him off their platforms, when the Manhattan D.A. finally got ahold of his tax returns. But we didn’t get rid of him. He’s still hanging around.

Trump spoke at a gathering called CPAC this weekend, and told his followers the game plan for next year’s Congressional elections. The plan, quite simply, is this.  Suppress the Black vote by any means necessary. 

Trump told his people to dust off voter ID, to stop early voting, to get rid of mail in ballots, to stop letting people use drop boxes, and to stand against any legislation that makes voting easier for Americans. 

Here’s what I need us to understand. Trump is not the one who’s going to try to implement that stuff. Republican state legislators are going to do it. So, even if Trump goes to jail on tax fraud or any of the other charges he might be facing, the plan will go forward, and we can’t let that happen. 

Your vote is what’s going to have that $1400 check in the mail. Your vote is what’s going to get people $15 an hour. Your vote is your voice in American democracy. Don’t let them take your voice away.

Photo: Donald Trump speaking at CPAC 2011 in Washington, D.C. By. Gage Skidmore

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