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      Ilhan Omar at odds with Stacey Abrams over Georgia All-Star Game boycott

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      The Minnesota representative Ilhan Omar has backed Major League Baseball’s decision to move its All-Star Game from Georgia over a restrictive new voting law. But in doing so she placed herself at odds with another leading progressive, the voting rights campaigner Stacey Abrams.Abrams, who suffered a narrow defeat in the Georgia gubernatorial race in 2018, commended the MLB’s decision on Friday but said she was disappointed the game was being relocated.“I respect boycotts,” she said, “although I don’t want to see Georgia families hurt by lost events and jobs. Georgians targeted by voter suppression will be hurt as opportunities go to other states. We should not abandon the victims of [Republican] malice and lies – we must stand together.”On Saturday the PGA Tour and the PGA of America made similar arguments when they said they would not move events scheduled for Georgia this summer. The Masters, perhaps the biggest event in golf, begins in Augusta, Georgia this week.Many observers question the accepted wisdom that big sporting events bring economic benefits but on Sunday, on CNN’s State of the Union, Omar was asked if she agreed with Abrams.“We know that boycotts have allowed for justice to be delivered in many spaces,” Omar said. “The civil rights movement was rooted in boycotts. We know that apartheid ended in South Africa because of boycotts.“And so our hope is that this boycott will result in changes in the law because we understand that when you restrict people’s ability to vote, you create a democracy that isn’t fully functioning for all of us, and if we are to continue to be beacon of hope for all democracies around the world we must stand our ground.”Conservatives have protested the MLB decision to take the All-Star Game away from Georgia. On Friday, Trump told supporters they should “boycott baseball” in return.Among other measures, the Georgia law applies restrictions to early and mail-in voting, measures likely to affect minority participation.Republicans have countered Democratic protests by saying the law merely seeks to avoid electoral fraud, which Donald Trump claimed was rampant in his defeat by Joe Biden in Georgia and elsewhere – a lie repeatedly laughed out of court.Omar was asked if other states which do not even allow early or mail-in voting should examine their own laws.“They certainly should,” she said. “I mean, Minnesota is not No1 in voter turnout and participation because we are special, even though we are. It’s because we have made voting accessible for people. And it is really important that every single state, we examine their voting laws and make sure that voting is accessible to everyone.”Omar also referred to pending federal legislation which seeks to counter moves by Republican-led states. The For the People Act, technically known as HR1, has passed the House but seems unlikely to pass the 50-50 Senate unless Democrats reform or abolish the filibuster, under which bills must attract 60 votes to pass.“It’s also going to be really important for us to continue to push HR1,” Omar said, “which makes [voting] accessible nationwide and strengthens our democracy.” More

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      Lawmaker Park Cannon on Georgia voting law: ‘A regression of our rights is happening’

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      When the governor of Georgia recently signed sweeping new voting restrictions into law, Park Cannon, a 29-year-old state representative from Atlanta, was knocking on his door.Cannon wanted to witness Brian Kemp signing the bill, but was denied entry. She wound up handcuffed, dragged out of the state capitol and charged with two felonies, obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the general assembly.Images of her arrest spread across the world, juxtaposed with an image of Kemp signing the bill surrounded by white men and under a picture of a slave plantation. It was a remarkably powerful echo of the Jim Crow era – and the fight over voting rights in America.The Guardian spoke with Cannon about her arrest and Georgia’s new voting law.Guardian: I wanted to ask how you’re doing and what the last week has been like.Park Cannon: Well, thank you for asking first of all. As a Black woman, self-care is a buzzword many of us are trying to internalize and to act on. So I’m very blessed in this moment to be spending time with family. We do not have a full medical report on my injuries yet. However, I remain hopeful that I will be healed soon and back with the people.Take me back to last Thursday night and walk me through what happened. What was going through your mind?I am internally elected as the [state Democratic] caucus secretary, like Rosa Parks was with the [local] NAACP. In that role, my job has been to witness, and take minutes, on legislative occurrences such as bill signings. I have bill-signing pens from Governor Kemp as well as Governor [Nathan] Deal to prove this. And these bills, as they are enacted into law, they matter to Georgians. They matter to the issues that we represent.When I was notified, irregularly, that Senate bill 202 was being signed, I was knocking at the door as I regularly do. I was looking to law enforcement to say the protocol and for us to be able to enter the room and sign the bills … all that I wanted to do was get information back to members.I wanted to without a doubt be a witness to Senate bill 202 being signed because I had been a part of the process.Let me ask about that picture of Governor Kemp surrounded by six white men, underneath a picture of a plantation. What was it like for you to see that picture?When I see the photo of Kemp, in his office, perched at his desk, strategically positioned under a disgraceful painting of a south Georgia plantation, I immediately think about the Georgians who have reached out to me to say, ‘Oh my gosh, my family had been working at that location for years.’ And on top of that, he was flanked by a group of six white legislators, all males. In one stroke of the pen, there was an erasure of decades of sacrifices, marches … as well as the tears that Georgians have shed as they vote during perilous times.So when I juxtapose that with the photo of [my] unlawful arrest, it’s painful. Both physically and emotionally. I truly feel as if time is moving in slow motion.What do you mean by that?It feels as though a regression of our rights is happening. And there are so many necessitated steps to revive our democracy. But we want to move forward, and we want to be united, so we need for Americans to keep knocking.Why was it important for you to be in that room?This would not be my first time being the only person of color or Black woman in the room.As the secretary for 78 members, it is my job to be present for meetings, bill signings, press conferences and general assembly sessions so the professionalism of our state is protected. So to see the continued lack of professionalism, and lack of regard for people’s voting rights, it reflects the lack of concern other elected officials have for the civil rights and the human rights of Black and brown citizens.The provisions in the bill that a Georgian is not able to bring water or food to their friends or family when they’re waiting in line – that’s a human rights violation. Being in the room to witness these violations is more critical now than ever.I’m curious if you’ve heard from the governor’s office about this, or from the speaker or anyone who was in the room.Gerald Griggs, Cannon’s attorney: We haven’t heard from the governor, the speaker or anyone in relation to this. We’re in the process of reaching out to the district attorney, we’ve heard from her. But as far as the members that were in the room, we haven’t anything from them, save for the public comments the governor has made.What have you made of what has unfolded this week with businesses taking a hard line against these bills and Republicans saying concerns are misinformed and exaggerated?Park Cannon: Make no mistake, Georgians understand corporate accountability. The reason we are called the No1 state to do business by the governor himself is because we are positioned as an international state with a capital city too busy to hate. What that means for Georgians is that corporate accountability is a historical engagement. This is nothing new.I’m glad people are watching. I’m glad the companies are hearing the people. I trust others will keep knocking.This video of what happened to you has been seen around the world. What do you want people to know?This is America. This is not about Republican or Democrat. This is about all of our rights. We must not lose sight of this issue. We must protect our right to vote. I encourage you to keep knocking.This interview has been condensed and edited More

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      Trump and Carlson lead backlash as MLB pulls All-Star Game from Georgia

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      Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson led rightwing backlash after Major League Baseball said it would not play its All-Star game in Georgia because of a new law that restricts voting rights in the state.The former president and the Fox News host some say is his Republican political heir thereby ranged themselves against current president Joe Biden and the Democrat he served as vice-president, Barack Obama.“Baseball is already losing tremendous numbers of fans,” Trump said in a statement, “and now they leave Atlanta with their All-Star Game because they are afraid of the radical left Democrats.“… Boycott baseball and all of the woke companies that are interfering with free and fair elections. Are you listening Coke, Delta and all?”Coke and Delta are among companies which have expressed concern over the Georgia law, which restricts early and mail-in voting, measures seen to target minority voters likely to back Democrats.Laws under consideration in other Republican-run states have attracted criticism from corporate America. The Georgia law was passed by Republicans after Biden won the state against Trump and Democrats won both Senate runoff elections in January.Referring to the segregation of the post-civil war south, Biden called the law: “Jim Crow in the 21st century.”In his own statement on Saturday, Obama congratulated MLB “for taking a stand on behalf of voting rights for all citizens”.He also said: “There’s no better way for America’s pastime to honor the great Hank Aaron, who always led by example.”Aaron, known as the Hammer, was a long-time MLB home-run record holder who played for the Atlanta Braves and endured racist abuse throughout his life in the sport. He died in January, aged 86.MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said he had “decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB draft” from the home of the Atlanta Braves.“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box.”The move was not without precedent. In 2016 North Carolina lost the right to host high-profile NCAA college events over a bill which restricted rights for transgender people.On Friday night Carlson, who some say could be a contender for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 if Trump does not run again, claimed MLB “believes it has veto power over the democratic process”.Before MLB acted, Biden said he would support moving events from Atlanta. Carlson said that showed the president was “willing to destroy even something as wholesome as the country’s traditional game purely to increase the power of his political party”.The chief of the MLB players union has indicated support for the move. In a statement on Friday, the New York Yankees great and Miami Marlins chief executive Derek Jeter said: “We should promote increasing voter turnout as opposed to any measures that adversely impact the ability to cast a ballot … We support the commissioner’s decision to stand up for the values of our game.”Georgia governor Brian Kemp – a bête noire for Trump over his refusal to overturn Biden’s win – said MLB had “caved to fear, political opportunism and liberal lies”. He also decried “cancel culture”, a key Republican talking point.Stacey Abrams, who Kemp beat in a 2018 election he ran as Georgia secretary of state, said she was “disappointed” the All-Star game would not be played in the state.But Abrams, who campaigns for voting rights and has become an influential figure in the national Democratic party, also said she was “proud of [MLB’s] stance on voting rights” and “urged events and productions to come and speak out or stay and fight”.Also on Friday, nearly 200 companies signed a statement expressing concern at moves to restrict voting rights in Republican-run states.Many observers pointed out that the political ramifications of MLB’s decision to move the All-Star Game will be stronger than the economic fallout, given that coronavirus-related restrictions would have placed limits on capacity at the event this year.A leading professor of sports economics warned that MLB could risk losing the support of conservatives in a fanbase which skews right.“After the country’s top professional basketball and football leagues embraced the Black Lives Matter movement last year,” Andrew Zimbalist of Smith College told the New York Times, “they faced organised boycotts from conservatives, though the effort ultimately had little effect. And baseball’s fanbase is older and whiter than basketball’s or football’s.” More

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      The battle for DC statehood: Politics Weekly Extra

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      The Guardian’s Washington bureau chief, David Smith, speaks to the campaign director for 51 for 51, Stasha Rhodes, who is advocating for the US capital to become a state, giving more than 700,000 residents equal representation in Congress

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      Washington DC’s residents pay more in federal taxes than those of 22 other states. The District of Columbia’s 700,000-plus residents are essentially disenfranchised, however, with no voting representation in either chamber of Congress. Both sides of the DC statehood debate put forward their arguments at a hearing before the House committee on oversight and reform last week. David Smith talks to Stasha Rhodes about why Republicans are trying to block a statehood bill up for a vote on the House floor before the summer. Send us your questions and feedback to podcasts@theguardian.com Help support the Guardian by going to gu.com/supportpodcasts More

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      Warnock urges Biden to prioritize fight against voter suppression

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      Sign up for the Guardian’s Fight to Vote newsletterThe Georgia Democratic senator the Rev Raphael Warnock delivered a challenge to Joe Biden on Sunday to prioritize the fight against voter suppression, telling the US president: “We have to pass voting rights no matter what.”Controversial legislation introducing sweeping new restrictions on voting was signed into law by Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, last week, the spearhead of an apparent effort by Republicans in dozens of states to dramatically curtail access to the electoral process for Black and other minority voters, who lean Democrat.The president has slammed Georgia’s move as “un-American” and “Jim Crow in the 21st century,” a reference to laws enforcing racial segregation following the civil war.But some supporters are worried that his fledgling administration appears more concerned about passing a $3tn economic package focused on infrastructure than tackling what Warnock calls “an assault on democracy”.“We’ve got to work on the infrastructure of our country, our roads and our bridges, and we’ve got to work on the infrastructure of our democracy,” Warnock told CNN’s State of the Union.Two pieces of proposed legislation currently before Congress would counter the Republicans’ voter suppression strategy.The John Lewis Voting Rights Act that Warnock addressed in his first speech on the Senate floor in January would allow courts to block new election legislation by states perceived to violate federal law and impose greater federal oversight on the electoral process.The second, the For the People Act that has already passed the House, would require states to provide at least 15 days of early voting, allow universal access to mail-in voting, permit election day voter registration and create a national holiday for voting.Both bills face an uncertain fate in the US Senate, which has created a furious debate over whether Democrats should remove the filibuster and eliminate the 60-vote requirement for passage.Biden on Sunday urged Congress to pass the two bills, tweeting: “We need to make it easier for all eligible Americans to access the ballot box and prevent attacks on the sacred right to vote.”I urge Congress to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. We need to make it easier for all eligible Americans to access the ballot box and prevent attacks on the sacred right to vote.— President Biden (@POTUS) March 28, 2021
      The backlash in Georgia was immediate to Kemp’s Thursday afternoon signing of the legislation that imposes stricter ID voter requirements, limits the availability of ballot drop boxes and shortens the time for voters to request and return mail-in ballots.A Black Democratic state assembly member, Park Cannon, was arrested by Georgia state troopers for knocking on Kemp’s locked door while the signing took place in private. Demonstrators took to the streets of Atlanta on Saturday to support Park.Meanwhile, the editorial board of the Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper accused state leaders of “marching backward into history”.“People … will see these voting access restrictions for what they really are: a house built hurriedly on shifting sands of lies. Verifiable facts or statistics are not part of the foundation for the unwarranted package of changes rapidly signed into law Thursday behind closed doors,” the editorial stated, referring to Donald Trump’s false allegations of fraud in the presidential election in Georgia.Nikema Williams, a Black newly elected US congresswoman for Georgia, told CNN on Sunday she believed that the victories of the state’s new Democratic US senators, Warnock and Jon Ossoff, following Biden’s November defeat of Trump in a traditionally red state, had fueled a desire for revenge.“Republicans are pushing back and they’re upset that we were able to win,” she said. “And so they’re going to do everything in their power right now to restrict access to people who mainly look like me from voting.”Kemp incurred the former president’s wrath in December for failing to support his lies about a stolen election, but has since stated he would back Trump for another White House run in 2024.Kemp sparked outrage last week by signing the new state legislation in front of a painting of a slavery-era plantation building, and surrounded only by white men.“I gasped,” Kimberley Wallace, whose family members labored at the plantation for generations, dating back to sharecropping and slavery, told CNN. She said the moment was “very rude and very disrespectful to me, to my family, to Black people of Georgia”. More

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      Republicans have taken up the politics of bigotry, putting US democracy at risk | Robert Reich

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      Republicans are outraged – outraged! – at the surge of migrants at the southern border. The House minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, declares it a “crisis … created by the presidential policies of this new administration”. The Arizona congressman Andy Biggs claims, “we go through some periods where we have these surges, but right now is probably the most dramatic that I’ve seen at the border in my lifetime.”Donald Trump demands the Biden administration “immediately complete the wall, which can be done in a matter of weeks – they should never have stopped it. They are causing death and human tragedy.”“Our country is being destroyed!” he adds.In fact, there’s no surge of migrants at the border.US Customs and Border Protection apprehended 28% more migrants from January to February this year than in previous months. But this was largely seasonal. Two years ago, apprehensions increased 31% during the same period. Three years ago, it was about 25% from February to March. Migrants start coming when winter ends and the weather gets a bit warmer, then stop coming in the hotter summer months when the desert is deadly.To be sure, there is a humanitarian crisis of children detained in overcrowded border facilities. And an even worse humanitarian tragedy in the violence and political oppression in Central America, worsened by US policies over the years, that drives migration in the first place.But the “surge” has been fabricated by Republicans in order to stoke fear – and, not incidentally, to justify changes in laws they say are necessary to prevent non-citizens from voting.The core message of the Republican party now consists of liesRepublicans continue to allege – without proof – that the 2020 election was rife with fraudulent ballots, many from undocumented migrants. Over the past six weeks they’ve introduced 250 bills in 43 states designed to make it harder for people to vote – especially the young, the poor, Black people and Hispanic Americans, all of whom are likely to vote for Democrats – by eliminating mail-in ballots, reducing times for voting, decreasing the number of drop-off boxes, demanding proof of citizenship, even making it a crime to give water to people waiting in line to vote.To stop this, Democrats are trying to enact a sweeping voting rights bill, the For the People Act, which protects voting, ends partisan gerrymandering and keeps dark money out of elections. It passed the House but Republicans in the Senate are fighting it with more lies.On Wednesday, the Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz falsely claimed the new bill would register millions of undocumented migrants to vote and accused Democrats of wanting the most violent criminals to cast ballots too.The core message of the Republican party now consists of lies about a “crisis” of violent migrants crossing the border, lies that they’re voting illegally, and blatantly anti-democratic demands voting be restricted to counter it.The party that once championed lower taxes, smaller government, states’ rights and a strong national defense now has more in common with anti-democratic regimes and racist-nationalist political movements around the world than with America’s avowed ideals of democracy, rule of law and human rights.Donald Trump isn’t single-handedly responsible for this, but he demonstrated to the GOP the political potency of bigotry and the GOP has taken him up on it.This transformation in one of America’s two eminent political parties has shocking implications, not just for the future of American democracy but for the future of democracy everywhere.“I predict to you, your children or grandchildren are going to be doing their doctoral thesis on the issue of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy?” Joe Biden opined at his news conference on Thursday.In his maiden speech at the state department on 4 March, Antony Blinken conceded that the erosion of democracy around the world is “also happening here in the United States”.The secretary of state didn’t explicitly talk about the Republican party, but there was no mistaking his subject.“When democracies are weak … they become more vulnerable to extremist movements from the inside and to interference from the outside,” he warned.People around the world witnessing the fragility of American democracy “want to see whether our democracy is resilient, whether we can rise to the challenge here at home. That will be the foundation for our legitimacy in defending democracy around the world for years to come.”That resilience and legitimacy will depend in large part on whether Republicans or Democrats prevail on voting rights.Not since the years leading up to the civil war has the clash between the nation’s two major parties so clearly defined the core challenge facing American democracy. More

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      Georgia's governor signed 'Jim Crow' voting bill under painting of a slave plantation

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      Sign up for the Guardian’s First Thing newsletterAs a photo of the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, circulated around the internet, showing the politician signing the sweeping voting restrictions bill while surrounded by other white, male politicians, some Twitter users homed in on a previously undetected detail.The Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Will Bunch created a Twitter thread about a painting of a Georgia plantation that is hanging behind Kemp in the photograph. Writing about the history of the Callaway plantation in Wilkes county, Georgia, Bunch said the place depicted “thrived because of the back-breaking labor of more than 100 slaves who were held in cruel human bondage”.The columnist, who later published an op-ed about the discovery, said the symbolism of Kemp signing a bill that Joe Biden has referred to as “Jim Crow in the 21st century” is no coincidence.The 98-page Election Integrity Act of 2021 has garnered criticism for the additional ID requirements it has added to absentee voting, and making it a crime for many volunteers to hand out water or food within 150 feet of polling precincts.The practice of handing out food and water became popular as a method of keeping exhausted voters in line at precincts where wait times can span hours. The law also places drop boxes inside voting sites. These drop boxes, which have been in place since last year, will only be accessible during early voting hours instead of 24/7.1. You’ve probably seen this picture of Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and his gaggle of white men signing the state’s voter suppression law — the new, new Jim Crow. But there’s a shocking angle to this story that you haven’t heard. Sit down for this one… pic.twitter.com/edHPmyeoiu— Will Bunch Sign Up For My Newsletter (@Will_Bunch) March 26, 2021
      “Brian Kemp and his white henchmen have created an image for our times, in working to continue a tradition of inhumanity and white supremacy that now spans centuries, from the human bondage that took place behind the placid scenery of Brickhouse Road in Wilkes county, to the suppression now hidden behind a phony facade of ‘voter integrity’. This legacy is a crime against humanity, and it cannot stand,” Bunch tweeted.The imagery garnered outrage from other people on Twitter, too.The signing of the Georgia Voter Suppression law yesterday was done under the backdrop of Callaway Plantation in Georgia. Having a bunch of white men under a plantation signing a massive voter suppression bill lets everyone know EXACTLY what they want to have happen. https://t.co/QeXMoPqXQj— ProfB (@AntheaButler) March 26, 2021
      Mounted behind white enslavers’ descendants signing a law to make it hard for Black people to vote is Callaway Plantation, a concentration camp where Callaways forced 319 Black Georgians to work free and build southern wealth that gave these men power they’re trying to maintain. pic.twitter.com/kSvFmOF1gM— Uju Anya (@UjuAnya) March 26, 2021
      Thursday’s signing of the law also garnered criticism after a Democratic representative, Park Cannon, was arrested for knocking on the office door as Kemp signed the bill in a closed-door ceremony. More

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      Threats to US voting rights have grown – what's different about this moment?

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      Sign up for the Guardian’s Fight to Vote newsletterHappy Thursday,Since I joined the Guardian in 2019 to focus on voting rights, the topic has exploded and moved to the center of the American politics. After focusing on these threats in connection to the 2020 race, this week we launched the next phase of how we’re going to cover these threats, which only have grown since November.Yesterday, we published a story that explains why American democracy is facing a uniquely perilous moment. This story lays out what I think are the most urgent threats: aggressive measures to curtail the right to vote in state legislatures, a supreme court uninterested in defending voting rights, and extreme partisan gerrymandering, expected to take place later this year. These are going to be the pillars of Guardian US’s coverage over the next year.For this piece, I asked many people the same question: what specifically is different about this moment from what we’ve seen in the past? There’s been growing awareness of voter suppression in recent years, but over the last few months, something has changed.I posed this question to Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia gubernatorial candidate who has helped make voter suppression a national conversation. She said that the last 15 years had seen a “slow boil” of voter suppression that was difficult to see if you weren’t closely tracking it. What’s happening now, she said, was something different.“What is so notable about this moment, and so disconcerting, is that they are not hiding. There is no attempt to pretend that the intention is not to restrict votes,” she said. (You can read our full conversation here.)I also spoke with LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, who has spent decades organizing voters in the south, about what it’s like to see such aggressive restrictions after an election that saw record turnout. She pointed out that the US has a long history of suppressing Black voters when they increase their political participation.“We’re in this hamster wheel of doing the work to register to vote. People exercise their vote, particularly Black voters, and then they’re punished for exercising that vote,” she told me.As alarming as things are now, they could be about to get a lot worse. Later this year, lawmakers across the country will begin the process of redrawing electoral districts, something the constitution mandates must happen once every 10 years. While both parties have manipulated this process for political gain, it has gotten out of control in recent years. Advances in technology and sophisticated data allow lawmakers to carefully carve up districts in such a way that they can virtually guarantee re-election.A decade ago, Republicans deployed this process to their extreme advantage, and they are well positioned to control the process again this year. They’ll have even fewer guardrails holding them back from maximizing their partisan advantage when drawing districts – the supreme court said in 2019 that federal courts could do nothing to stop the process. Lawmakers in places with a history of voting discrimination also no longer have to get their maps reviewed for racial discrimination before they go into effect.“Last decade Republicans tried to pack Black voters into districts in the south and claim that they were trying to do it because of the [Voting Rights Act]. Now there’s an open route for [Republicans] to say, ‘Well, we’re putting Black voters into districts because they’re Democrats.’ And the supreme court has said that’s OK,” Michael Li, a redistricting expert at the Brennan Center, told me.Democrats have placed a lot of effort into fixing these problems in a sweeping voting rights bill under consideration in Washington. The measure would require independent commissions to draw districts and require early voting as well as automatic and same-day registration, among other things. The Senate held its first hearing on the bill on Wednesday and Republicans are digging in their heels, hard. Passing the bill will probably depend on whether Democrats can get rid of the filibuster, a procedural rule that requires 60 votes to advance legislation.Also worth watching
      The US slipped, again, in a global ranking of political freedoms, putting it on par with Panama, Romania and Croatia, and Mongolia. Over the last decade, the US has fallen 11 points, from 94 to 83, on the 100-point scale Freedom House, a democracy watchdog, uses to rank political freedoms. “Dropping 11 points is unusual, especially for an established democracy, because they tend to be more stable in our scores,” Sarah Repucci, Freedom House’s vice-president for research and analysis, told me. “Americans should see it as a wake-up call.” More