Anti Democratic Rot In The Voting System Cultivated By GOP, Deeper Problem Than One Man

[appalachiablue]

Last edited Tue Jan 5, 2021, 04:44 PM - Edit history (1)

'Trump is trying to thwart democracy itself. But the problem is deeper than one man.' The Guardian, Jan. 5, 2021.

Republicans have carefully cultivated rot in the voting system. It didn’t start with Trump and it won’t end after he leaves.

Democracy rots slowly. Sometimes its decay is perfectly legal, helped along by legislatures and embraced by the courts. It happens when elected officials deliberately tilt the game to their own advantage. On Sunday, the Washington Post published smoking-gun audio of Donald Trump pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to “find” enough votes to reverse the election outcome and declare Trump the winner, or face potential legal consequences.

Even some Republicans have recognized that the bright line between democracy and authoritarianism had been breached.

That line, however, has been melting for quite some time. It did not begin with Trump’s presidency. And it will not end when he leaves the White House. The rot runs deep inside a Republican party that has not only lost faith in democracy but bet its future on rule-rigging and minority rule. The party has subverted free and fair elections for years, in ways so ordinary that they’ve been accepted as politics as usual for far too long.

Republican gerrymandering – the manipulation of electoral constituencies in favor of one party – in Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin has locked in Republican control of state legislatures even when their candidates win hundreds of thousands fewer votes statewide.

When Democratic governors won in Wisconsin and North Carolina, Republican-led legislatures stripped power from them in extraordinary lame-duck sessions.

Republicans drew themselves similarly friendly maps for Congress and state legislatures in Texas, Ohio and Florida. Then these gerrymandered legislatures – with the blessing of a US supreme court that has gutted the 1965 Voting Rights Act – have tried to make it harder for Democrats and minorities to cast their ballots, by using surgically targeted voter ID bills, shuttering voting precincts, or eliminating days of early voting.

Then, when large majorities of citizens, from both parties, come together to make voting fairer for everyone, these legislatures often run right over them...

More, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/05/trump-is-trying-to-thwart-democracy-itself-but-the-problem-is-deeper-than-one-man



- Gerrymandering, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering

- Voting Rights Act of 1965, Key Provision Gutted By Supreme Court In 2012, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voting_Rights_Act_of_1965

[Irish_Dem]

1. The GOP has been a criminal enterprise for some time now.

Like Russia, our governing structure is becoming a collection of mob bosses.

[appalachiablue]

2. Years of effort that will lead to total breakdown if not stopped.

We're in very dangerous waters

[Irish_Dem]

3. Yes. The breakdown is happening in front of our eyes.

A total breakdown of the GOP and our governance.

Biden has one hell of a job ahead of him in so many ways.
Can he or the new DOJ stop the GOP criminal enterprise?

No, only the American people can do that.
And many seem in lockstep with the GOP.

[appalachiablue]

4. The growth of cultists now is yet another serious problem

in this enormous battle during a raging epidemic.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Yes we are facing two raging epidemics now. nt