These are the closing words of a 100 scholars. Specifically, they find recent actions to make voting more difficult, by Republican controlled state legislature, alarming.
Statutory changes in large key electoral battleground states are dangerously politicizing the process of electoral administration, with Republican-controlled legislatures giving themselves the power to override electoral outcomes on unproven allegations should Democrats win more votes. They are seeking to restrict access to the ballot, the most basic principle underlying the right of all adult American citizens to participate in our democracy. They are also putting in place criminal sentences and fines meant to intimidate and scare away poll workers and nonpartisan administrators. State legislatures have advanced initiatives that curtail voting methods now preferred by Democratic-leaning constituencies, such as early voting and mail voting. Republican lawmakers have openly talked about ensuring the “purity” and “quality” of the vote, echoing arguments widely used across the Jim Crow South as reasons for restricting the Black vote.
These scholars urge Congress to act, passing laws to counter these efforts, even if it means suspending the filibuster. I’m wary of language like this, but I can’t dismiss these claims. I’m concerned; I don’t think we’re out of the woods, even though Trump is not in office. Here is Max Boot, former Republican Senator and Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, and former Republican Congresswoman, Barbara Comstock.
General McCaffery on General Flynn’s comments about coup in the U.S.:
Trump believes he will be reinstated as President sometime this year, according to CNN:
I’m thinking of Rep. Scalise’s words: “Trump is still very much an active part of our party….This idea that you just disregard President Trump is not where we are.”
If he and other Republicans still believe this, then they are embracing not only a former president with a crazy idea, but also a very dangerous one. If they care about the country–if they care about Americans trusting our electoral process–they must forcefully and repeatedly repudiate such ideas. It must be done. I believe this to be true even if the Republicans won’t do it.
I believe one consequence for their silence or tepid rebuke will be violence.
Maggie Haberman reporting the same thing (She says Trump is getting the idea from Sidney Powell–the lawyer who claimed Chavez rigged the Dominion voting machines.)
Pence: We (Trump and himself) Tmay not see eye-to-eye on January 6.
That’s not the type of response I had in mind.
Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense, CIA Director, and long time Congressman from California, echoes the sentiments of the scholars above:
Election officials testify in Congress, partly about the threats they face:
More,
Opinion: Our constitutional crisis is already here by Robert Kagan in WaPo
Kagan gazes into the future laying out the threats to the Republic he sees in 2024. I read this with interest, because I remember Kagan predicting the way Trump and the GOP would behave in Trump was elected in 2016. Keep in mind he wrote this op-ed in May 2016.
Also, some people suggested that Trump’s crude ways were merely an act, part of his reality TV schtick. This would pass away once he got into office, as the office of president would change him. And if it didn’t, some argued, he would be surrounded by people and a system that would provide sufficient guardrails.
With that in mind, read Kagan’s May 2016 piece and decide who was right.
His latest piece is unnerving. I have put aside my anxiety over the state of our republic. Stressing out over this is not a healthy way to live. At the same time, I really do think the country is in serious danger. All is not lost, but by the 2024 election–or the 2022 election, if Republicans control the House and/or Senate.
(I still feel like the mainstream press is not really doing a good job of reaching the non-news junkies with this warning.)
In these last few weeks I’ve been feeling like Grover in the book, There’s a Monster at the End of This Book, except I’m not really being facetious. I have been avoiding reading the news, as it feels a bit stressful. The reports about the number of support for Republicans was one of the catalysts.
It really does feel like Americans have the fate of democracy in their hands. I really hope we can look back and laugh at how this was a hyperbolic statement.
I hope this is true:
It would be a big relief.
This SCOTUS ruling–rejecting the independent state legislature theory–is a really good news.
Supreme Court Rejects Theory That Would Have Transformed American Elections from the NYT
This is a big relief.