Republican supremacy: Inside the GOP's plot to hijack American democracy

[marmar]

Republican supremacy: Inside the GOP's plot to hijack American democracy
Democrats are fighting the last battle in the GOP's continued war on voting

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
APRIL 7, 2021 1:35PM


(Salon) Let's be honest, America has a long history of vote suppression going back to the founding of the republic. It tends to come in waves, usually following one of our regular paroxysms of racist hysteria. In the bad old days of Jim Crow, vote suppression was enforced by physical violence. Thankfully that hasn't happened in recent years. But our current surge of suppressive activity includes various forms of intimidation, from unscrupulous "poll watchers" to armed guards patrolling voting places as well as lots of propaganda and disinformation to confuse voters and try to frighten them out of voting. The most aggressive forms of vote suppression we face today, however, remain the same as they ever were: The law is still used to make it difficult for people of color to vote.

In the wake of Donald Trump's Big Lie about the 2020 election, Republicans have gone into overdrive, using his pathetic inability to admit he lost as an excuse to enact voting restrictions in the name of "restoring trust" in the electoral system. The Brennan Center reports that as of March 24, Republican legislators have introduced 361 bills with restrictive provisions in 47 states:

Most restrictive bills take aim at absentee voting, while nearly a quarter seek stricter voter ID requirements. State lawmakers also aim to make voter registration harder, expand voter roll purges or adopt flawed practices that would risk improper purges, and cut back on early voting. The states that have seen the largest number of restrictive bills introduced are Texas (49 bills), Georgia (25 bills), and Arizona (23 bills). Bills are actively moving in the Texas and Arizona statehouses, and Georgia enacted an omnibus voter suppression bill last week.

....(snip)....

The resulting decision by major Georgia corporations Delta and Coca-Cola to publicly protest these moves and Major League Baseball moving the All-Star game to Denver shows the highly controversial nature of the state's actions. It's 2021 not 1921, and a majority of the public does not approve of these actions. If corporations care about their brand and their bottom line they can't afford to not weigh in. These undemocratic, racist policies are being enacted after 60 years of public awareness of voting rights as a moral issue in the wake of the Civil Rights Movement and a majority of the country is appalled.

This seems to have confused the Republican party. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the man who believes so strongly that corporations have a right to spend as much money as they choose to influence politics he took a case all the way to the Supreme Court, said on Monday, "my warning to corporate America is to stay out of politics!" He quickly added, "I'm not talking about political contributions," which is absurd. Basically, he is saying that corporations may support Republicans but not oppose them. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/04/07/republican-supremacy-inside-the-gops-plot-to-hijack-american-democracy/

[ShazamIam]

1. It is McConnell's way reminding them, if we don't get elected, we can't do your agenda. nt

[elias7]

2. McConnell's mistake is that this is not politics

For him, everything is politics, except that it results in him subverting the constitution and the spirit of both the law and America time and time again.

[liberalla]

3. Iwonder if he thinks like that,

I'm posting a reminder to read later. Thank you!

[bucolic_frolic]

4. The right wing agenda is exposed for all to see in plain sight

If we don't finish them off in the next 2 elections, we are lost. There is no going back. It's them or America, take your pick.

[not fooled]

5. I guess Manchin and Sinema are OK with

this possibility.

[stuffmatters]

6. "What Digby sez"

I've been worrying(out loud) about exactly this. Repugs nullifying their state's popular vote by throwing it to their gerrymandered state legislature. It happened in Florida with the majority vote to restore voting rights to felons
and now with Mo legislature nullifying the popular vote to expand Medicaid.

If the Repugs cannot cheat to get the vote they want, the new plan is to have a Repug legislature override it. That was essentially the contours of Trumps plan to override
Biden's election through majority Repug legislatures and the House by Repug majorities (one state, one vote)