U.S. midterms: the return of Jim Crow America

Nov 03, 2026 Features / Columnists, The GHK Lall Column

(Kaieteur News) – Looking on at the U.S. midterms, and there are all these moves that have thwarting at best, or cheating at worst, in the DNA. First point: if this is the U.S. the straight arrow, and there are these shenanigans-Supreme Court accommodations, State subterfuges, Federal deviousness-then how much should the U.S. be regarded as the standard where honest and trustworthy elections are the challenge? Second, and more importantly, how can Guyanese, even those as dirty as the PPP, look to the U.S. to help this country arrive at a credible election machinery, with results to match?

U.S. midterms, long before a vote was cast, reminds me of Third World countries, where electoral skullduggeries reign supreme. Redrawing, repositioning, reasoning, and rehearsing are of what pertained in Africa, Latin America, and Guyana. Happened before here; still do today. But this is the U.S. and what is prevalent is bankruptcy at the leadership level, inside judicial heights, and around State government calculations. Every advantage is sought. Nothing wrong, other than the rationales and the means. Nothing on the extreme ends, other than Alaska, Mississippi, and Tennessee, to name some. It is 21st Century America, and it’s back to Jim Crow country. For Guyanese who aren’t familiar, Jim Crow is best presented this way: voters that are kept outside the ballot box; voters that are reeled into the voting programs. Compliments of an army of rabid racists and arch segregationists in control of many State voting machines. Even Putin and Modi are filled with envy.