The SAVE Act Is Not Jim Crow and Congress Should Lose Pay During Shutdowns.

The SAVE Act Is Not Jim Crow and Congress Should Lose Pay During Shutdowns.

(ThyBlackMan.com) I know I preface a lot of what I write with “when I was growing up,” or “in my childhood.” But it is factual and rings poetic. In my early years, a movie called “Carwash“ came out. It is a 1976 comedy set over the course of a single day at a busy Los Angeles car wash called the “De Luxe Car Wash.” The workers include a mix of personalities, dreamers, hustlers, ex-cons, activists, and musicians, each dealing with their own struggles, ambitions, and identities. Among them are Abdullah, a militant Black Muslim; Duane, a flashy preacher trying to recruit followers; and Floyd, a carefree worker just trying to get through the day.

As cars come and go, the film explores themes like economic hardship, race, religion, and the pursuit of the American Dream, all with humor and satire. The episodic structure gives a snapshot of 1970s urban life, capturing both the frustrations and camaraderie of working-class people. More important to me besides fine azz Tracy Reed, it had Richard Pryor, Franklyn Ajaye, Bill Duke, Antonio Fargas, Garrett Morris, and Otis Sistrunk in the flick. But more meaningful was its iconic funk and soul soundtrack, produced by Norman Whitfield with Rose Royce. One song in particular to me that stood out was “Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is, a song by Rose Royce, released in 1976 on their Car Wash album.

When a cat says “put your money where your mouth is,” it has a simple meaning: It means back up what you’re saying with action or proof, especially by taking a risk, making a commitment, or showing you truly believe what you’re claiming. In short: Don’t just talk—prove it.

This puts into perspective what comes to my mind when Demokkkrats call the Save Act Jim Crow 2.0. It makes no sense to me for anyone to consider requiring that one is a U.S. citizen, and showing ID to vote, is anything close to Jim Crow laws or the black codes.

Jim Crow refers to a system of racial segregation and discrimination laws in the United States that enforced white supremacy, mainly in the South, from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s. The term comes from a racist 19th-century minstrel character called “Jim Crow,” which became shorthand for laws and customs that separated Black and white people.

Key features of Jim Crow laws included segregation (“separate but equal”), voting restrictions via tactics like poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation to prevent black Americans from voting, legal discrimination in the form of laws openly treating black citizens as inferior, and violence and intimidation. The U.S. Supreme Court case Plessy v. Ferguson upheld segregation under the “separate but equal” doctrine, giving Jim Crow laws legal backing.

Jim Crow began to collapse during the Civil Rights Movement, beginning with Brown v. Board of Education, which declared school segregation unconstitutional, followed by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which banned segregation in public places, and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

None of this is even problematic today, and if it was so dangerous a threat to the constitution, why don’t Democrats in Congress put their money where their mouth is, and stop taking a paycheck as long as the government is in shutdown mode?

This should be standard procedure; if the cybersecurity experts at the Department of Homeland Security, TSA agents, and Secret Service are not being paid, then why should they be? The truth is, they don’t experience any hardship; they are willing to handle the burdens faced by federal workers in these agencies. When they go to the airport, they don’t have to wait in line because security and law enforcement officers escort them to the front whenever they travel.

In my teen years, every Fourth of July, my neighborhood had a block party. One of the guests annually was Harold Ford Sr, his brother John, and their kids, one of whom was Harold Ford Jr. He would even swim in our backyard pool. The Fourth of July was a big thing back then. Junior eventually took his father’s place in Congress to represent Memphis.

While there, I recall that he once sponsored a Bill that would prevent members of Congress from receiving pay during a government shutdown. It was introduced after there had been two prior shutdowns due to a conflict between Clinton and Republicans led by Newt Gingrich over spending levels, Medicare, education, and balanced budget plans. His argument was simple: members of Congress should not receive pay during a government shutdown. In his view, which I found reasonable at the time, if Congress fails to pass a budget and the government shuts down, lawmakers should share the financial consequences. It aimed to create accountability and pressure Congress to avoid political gridlock.

However, the measure never made it to the floor for a vote. So here we are today, where politicians on one side of the aisle have a main concern for the rights of illegal aliens over the demands of U.S. citizens. This is all it is. Every time you look around, the progressive policy position is on the side of illegal immigrants. Whether it is Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland begging for the return of Salvadoran Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, and state Attorney General Keith Ellison defending rampant fraud committed by naturalized Somali’s, or state officials refusing to share and clean voter rolls, illegal immigrants are defended to the hilt.

No one who is taking the position to keep the government closed should be paid. The true reason they complain so vehemently about DHS being at voting polls and the SAVE Act is that if enacted, the SAVE Act cuts off their path to cheat so that they will lose seats and, importantly, power. They don’t want the swamp to be drained, so they make excuses.

Hell, you need ID to drive, fly domestically or internationally, buy alcohol, cigarettes, open a bank account, cash a check, get a job, enter any federal building/courthouse, rent a car, and in some cases, to get a prescription. You can’t even buy cold medicine without an ID.

If you are too stupid to get the proper identification, then you shouldn’t be voting! The only supposedly American who can’t get their birth certificate that I know of is Barack Obama.

Why die on this hill, and who are they protecting? Is it the woman recently arrested for the murder of her lesbian lover in Charlotte, NC, Lhis Brito-Costa, 23, an illegal alien who killed her partner after finding out she was cheating on her with someone else, and then shoved her body in a closet and covered the entryway with towels? Is it Abdul Jalloh, the illegal immigrant arrested over 30 times, who stabbed a woman to death at a bus stop in Virginia, where Governor Abigail Spanberger has signed an executive order, terminating agreements between state law enforcement and ICE? Or are they the millions of illegals voting in California, where ID is not required to vote?

These are the people Democrats want in our country. Then there is the fact that a lot of blue-run states are giving illegals driver’s licenses, and paying the homeless 5$ for their voter registration. In Delaware, people with green cards are registered to vote. This shit has got to stop, and people need to be held accountable, because every illegal vote cancels out an American citizen’s vote.

Again, if you can’t be a responsible adult to minimally have your documents in order, with extremely low effort, then you have no business voting in this country. I can not believe we even have a big debate about this. But at the same time, I never thought we’d be debating what a man and a woman are.

The Democrats are literally saying that black Americans and women are too dumb to go to the health department or social security office websites and submit their personal information if for some reason they threw their marriage certificate in the trash or laminated their SS Card.

If I have to register to vote again, I have my birth certificate. I misplaced my birth certificate a few years ago, and I just ordered one online from the Shelby County clerk to get a copy. If you live too far from that county, you can order it online. If you can’t figure that out, then you’re not intelligent enough to vote.

We have to connect the dots. They depend on dirty voter rolls, ballot harvesting, and universal mail-in. This means we gotta vote in the primaries and November, we can’t allow the lefty loonies to take power again. If you stay home, you’re voting for a Democrat. Until then, we have to make these folks suffer, and stopping them from getting paid when no one elses is, would be a good start.

Staff Writer; Torrance T. Stephens

Can also purchase any of his books over at; Amazon – TTS Books.