Republicans Are Afraid Of Democracy, So They're Dismantling It
The Republican Party knows it can’t win unless it suppresses the votes of racial and ethnic minorities.
History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. Today, in the midst of another election fight, the unearthly fear of democracy is once again terrorizing conservative politicians. And the state, led by President Donald Trump, is once again embracing white nationalism.
With no real policy accomplishments on which to run, Trump and Republican leaders have concocted an immigration crisis to “rile up their base,” warning of an “invasion” from Central America, replete with “unknown Middle Easterners” (or, to translate the dog whistle, terrorists).
Right-wing conspiracy theorists blamed billionaire George Soros for financing the immigrants’ caravan north. That lie was affirmed by Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, who claimed a video he posted on social media, which received more than 1 million views, proved Soros was paying to have Hondurans join the trek to the United States. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the third-ranking Republican in the House, added that a trio of wealthy Jews, including Soros, were funding a range of nefarious activities in an attempt “to BUY this election” for Democrats.
It sounds a lot like Mississippi in 1964. The Republicans have taken great pains to define this group of hungry and impoverished men, women, children and babies, as “left-wing agitators” who are conspiring with powerful and nefarious outside sources to destabilize a supposedly pristine electoral process.
In Georgia, in Kansas and in Missouri, Republicans are whipping up fears of this “invasion” to convince their base that the election will be “stolen.” Kemp has worked to persuade constituents that “radical Stacey Abrams has declared that illegal immigrants are part of the ‘Blue Wave’ and will help deliver victory for her on November 6th in Georgia.” An AP fact check found Kemp’s claims to be “wrong and inaccurate,” but instead of correcting the record, he made television ads that amplified the lies. In Kansas, Kris Kobach ― who has been in court multiple times for voter suppression ― has found that stoking this fear “motivated his GOP base” as he runs for governor. Missouri Senate candidate Josh Hawley used the caravan of immigrants to formulate a series of slurs about Sen. Claire McCaskill’s purported willingness to leave the United States open to an invasion from the south.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-trump-gop-voter-suppression-georgia_us_5bd88ba6e4b017e5bfd694a1
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