Note: This piece reflects the views of the author, independent of those of the Department of Psychology.
If Donald Trump gets his way, millions of women, seniors and service members will lose the right to vote.
Trump is pushing hard for the SAVE Act (short for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act). During a primetime address last week, he demanded that Congress send it to his desk. This bill, he claimed, is crucial to fix America’s “crisis of election security.”
U.S. Senator Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan, sees it differently: “the SAVE Act does not safeguard our elections – it does the opposite.” If passed, it would block a great many American citizens from voting.
This voter suppression bill has not become law, but the threat is real. All of the Republicans representing Michigan in Congress are on record supporting it. What is in SAVE, and why is it dangerous?
Saving no one
Don’t let the name fool you: The so-called SAVE Act saves no person, no party, no country. Instead, it threatens the rights of ordinary Americans.
Trump’s preoccupation with this bill is blowing up his own party’s priorities. Last month, he sabotaged the reauthorization of a surveillance tool deemed critical to fight terrorism. Why? The SAVE Act was not attached.
After that, Trump scuttled the signing of a new bill to lower the cost of home-ownership. His own press secretary had called it “one of the most significant pieces of housing affordability legislation in American history.” But Trump refused to sign the measure until SAVE had passed. (The housing bill became law, anyway, without his signature.)
Trump was having a temper tantrum, explained U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride, D-Delaware: He was “holding hostage the first meaningful housing bill to pass in decades because he is obsessed with his big lie.”
Trump’s big lie is that massive voter fraud cost him the 2020 election. But he knows better: “can you believe I lost to this effing guy?” he told White House staff, referring to his 2020 loss to Joe Biden. Trump is pushing the SAVE Act to prevent something he admits never happened.
He is holding real policy hostage for a fake problem.
