Save Us from the SAVE Act
A skit cuts through the doublespeak of a GOP-led attack on voting rights
I admit, up until last week I’d had only a vague idea of existence of the Republicans’ latest attempt to attack voting rights, the doublespeak-y Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, or SAVE Act. That changed when I went to an Indivisible get-together to make signs and props for a skit its members were planning for its weekly Saturday protest in Berkeley. Nothing like blatant injustice to get those creative juices flowing—and to make new friends.
The SAVE Act passed the House in April and awaits a vote in the Senate. It would require all American citizens to present documentation of citizenship—primarily, a passport or birth certificate—to register to vote or update their voting registration. Most government-issued IDs, such as most driver’s licenses and military IDs, won’t be enough to satisfy the law’s requirements. The millions of people who don’t have a passport, whose names have changed from the name on their birth certificate, will lose their right to vote. The bill’s provisions are so flagrantly ludicrous that the Indivisible skit’s title—“Save Us from the SAVE Act”—all but wrote itself. Ditto these signs encouraging audience participation:
My own hand-lettering skills couldn’t match the elegance of the sign painters who made those signs, but I did draw the dollar-sign-encrusted crown to adorn the prop “Project 2025” manual wielded by “John Wilkes Booth,” the skit’s mustachioed villain:
While the sign-painters painted, Indivisible’s volunteer screenwriter and actors worked on the skit’s blocking. Cruella de Vil seemed an apt touch:
The skit dramatizes the gross injustice that would likely ensue if the regime passes the SAVE Act. I was out of town on the day of the performance itself, but Indivisible kindly provided me with this video:
Indivisible also sent me this wonderful photo of “John Wilkes Booth” and “Suffragette” in her Votes For Women hat and sash:
Fun, right? I see people who are fighting for democracy and enjoying themselves doing it. Joy like theirs is how we’ll overcome these scary times. That, and calling your senators TODAY to urge a “hell no” vote on the SAVE Act.