Americans Need to Know and Understand and Fight What the Republicans Are Doing

From Heather Cox Richardson, once more. No one evaluates what's going on politically in America currently any better and informs, instructs us all.

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo articulated today what many have been reluctant to say: What is at stake in the Big Lie and all the Republican efforts to keep it in play—the shenanigans in the secret Maricopa County, Arizona, recount; the censuring of Republicans who voted to impeach the former president; the expected removal of Wyoming Representative Liz Cheney from a leadership role in the party; and so on—is not the past election of 2020, but the upcoming election of 2024.

The Republican Party has demonstrated that it intends to control the government in the future, no matter what most Americans want. Iowa, Georgia, Montana, and Florida have already passed voter suppression laws, while other states are considering them. (Governor Ron DeSantis signed Florida’s bill yesterday live on the Fox News Channel.)

As Marshall points out, though, making sure that states return only Republicans to Congress is also about controlling the White House. Republican lawmakers are purging from state election machinery members of their own party who refused to change the outcome of the 2020 election and give a victory to Trump. The former president has fed speculation that he still hopes to overturn the 2020 election, but Marshall looks forward: Is it really possible to think that in 2024, members of the new Trump party will protect the sanctity of any election that gives a victory to a Democratic candidate? If Republicans capture the House in 2022, will they agree to certify electoral votes for a Democrat? In 2020, even before the current remaking of the party in Trump’s image, 139 House Republicans contested them.

Trump is systematically going after leading members of the Republican Party, determined to remake it into his own organization. Several former senior White House officials told Ashley Parker and Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post that “[t]he defeated ex-president is propelled primarily by a thirst for retribution, an insatiable quest for the spotlight and a desire to establish and maintain total dominance and control over the Republican base.” Republican strategist Brendan Buck noted that Trump seems to relish fighting, rather than victory to achieve an end. “Usually,” Buck said, “a fight is the means to an end, but in this case fighting is the end.”

The Republicans are consolidating their control over the machinery of government in a way that indicates they intend to control the country regardless of what Americans actually want, putting Trump and his organization back in charge. Democrats have proposed the For the People Act (H.R. 1 and S. 1), which would start to restore a level playing field between the parties. The For the People Act would sideline the new voter suppression bills and make it easier to vote. It would end partisan gerrymandering and stop the flow of big money into elections permitted after the 2010 Citizens United decision.

But Republicans are determined to stop this measure. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is especially engaged in its obstruction. He has called it a “partisan takeover” that would “give Washington Democrats unprecedented control over 50 states’ election laws.” He recognizes that restoring a level electoral playing field would hamstring the Republicans’ ability to win elections. Defeating the act is McConnell’s top priority.

The story of how Republican leaders embraced voter suppression and gerrymandering starts back in the 1980s, though the mechanics of overturning a presidential election are new to 2020. Still, their undermining of our democratic system begs the question: Why are leading Republicans surrendering their party, and our nation, to a budding autocrat?

Two days ago, when asked if he is concerned about the direction of his party, McConnell told reporters that he is not paying attention to it because the Democrats are trying “to turn American into a socialist country,” and that “[o]ne-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration.”

America, Your Vote and Voting Rights Are Being Devoured

Yes, Mr. and Mrs. America, the Republicans and their Republican Party know they're so deeply umpopular with Americans across the nation, they have to make it tougher to the point of impossible for us, fellow taxpaying American citizens to vote.

This cannot stand. We cannot allow this. It's un-American and un-democratic. We must stop it, all of it, state to state across the nation. Vote them all out. Push to have Congress end the filibuster and pass the For the People Act so NO POLITICAL PARtY can gerrymander voting districts any longer. Please contact your Senators.Let's do this.

Republicans Were Already Suppressing American Votes Back in 2012

Check out this memory I found today from back in 2012.

None other than a former GOP Party Chair Jim Greer revealed the details of conversations his fellow GOP colleagues had about changing election laws to suppress youth and minority voters that would "never vote Republican." And now, as we know, it's gotten much, much worse, their vote suppression work and efforts.We must vote them out. We must vote them all out. And to do it, we have to, have to stop vote suppression, on the state and federal level, both.

The Outrage of Republican Party Vote Suppression

I can't get over the fact that not only are members of the Republican Party actively, publicly working to disenfranchise fellow American citizens presently, but it's reported they're doing it IN 47 STATES. (Click on picture for larger, easier viewing and reading).

We must realize this, America, and then actively work to end even any ATTEMPTS at vote suppression, to stop it. Discenfranchising fellow Americans is as un-American and anti-Democratic as anyone can get. Stop vote suppression. End racism.

Be Aware, Missourians---Republicans In Jeff City Are Also Working on Vote Suppression Here

From NPR today: The same day last month that Georgia's legislature passed a controversial new voting bill, Missouri's Republican-led House approved one of its own. It would impose strict photo ID and other requirements on voting. Both bills are part of a wave of measures proposed across the country after the 2020 elections, and reflect a deep partisan divide over who has access to the polls and how. The divide is not new, but the sides have become increasingly entrenched.

Understand, folks. The Republicans and their ideas and work is so very unpopular with the rest of us out here in America that they have found the only way they can get or stay in government offie is to HAVE FEWER AMERICANS VOTE. They are actively working, now in 47 states, to disenfranchise fellow working, tax paying American citizens, voters. This cannot stand. We mustn't allow this. Call your government representatives. Tell them to support HR1 in the House and S1 in the Senate. We must stop all attempts at vote suppression.

Republicans Threatening Our Democracy, State by State

Americans the nation over need to understand just what Republicans are doing or are trying to do, state by state, statehouse to statehouse, including Missouri and Kansas. Stop vote suppression, folks. We're under attack here and it's coming from fellow citizens, from Republicans and their Republican Party. They're attacking our votes, our elections, the election process and Democracy itself, all for their own political party. Their ideas and goals and candidates are so patently, reliably bad they have to do this, disenfranchise fellow Ameericans in order to get and stay in office. It is an assault on Democracy and certainly un-American. Contact your representatives and tell them this will not, this cannot stand. Stop vote suppression. Also, pass the For the People Act. It truly is for the people.

On Republican Party Vote Suppression

--"The Republicans' new voter suppression bills are truly un-American. There's no real voter fraud. It's their naked effort to try and suppress Black, brown and Indigenous votes, to suppress any kind of votes from people who they think will not go for their far-right, 'promote the interests of the wealthy' program." --Al Gore

Republicans, Crushing American Votes

From The New Yorker today. Their cartoon.

If only it were funny. If only it were only funny.

Republicans and Their Very Official, Un-American Work of Disenfranchising Fellow Americans

If you aren't familiar with the Republican Party's efforts and work, over many years, to disenfranchise anyone and everyone who doesn't think, and so, vote, as they wish, you need to pay attention.

The fact is, Republicans have been gerrymandering the nation and for at least decades.

The power that gerrymandering has brought to Republicans

What is gerrymandering someone might ask? Defined, it is 

"...In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice that attempts to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries to create partisan-advantaged districts.

The fact is, what they, Republicans, have been doing and trying to do is to get anyone and everyone who might not be aligned with their voting patterns, from being able to vote. This would include the following groups, proven, historically:

--Young
--Elderly--at least, elderly who aren't already-wealthy
--Poor and/or impoverished
--The physically-challenged
--Minorities including:

• --Blacks and African-Americans
• --Hispanics and Latinos

This took place 2016:

North Carolina's Deliberate Disenfranchisement of Black Voters

Not to be done there, this happened 3 days ago.

Black seniors kicked off bus taking them to vote in Georgia

This story broke only yesterday and it's happening right next door, no less, in neighboring Kansas.

Iconic Dodge City Moves Its Only Polling Place Outside Town

The entire city has 27000 residents. 60% of those residents are Hispanic. So if you're white and Right Wing and Republican, what to do??  Why, move the one polling place, as it says, outside the city limits.

It is stunning.

This, too, is going on now, in Georgia.

Georgia’s ‘exact match’ law could disenfranchise 909,540

And it's how they got a man with a horrible reputation even in his own political party and with zero government experience elected to the White House, the highest office in the land even though he got at least 3 million less popular votes than his political opponent. Sure, you get out-voted but hey, load the voting districts your way and voila! The Electoral College makes you President anyway!

And sure, Democrats are legally capable of gerrymandering also but the fact is, Republicans have used it and been using it to load their--our--voting districts for years now, as I've said and shown here.

Partisan gerrymandering has benefited Republicans more

Not done there, not done with just gerrymandering, this political party took it further, much further, too. Not only do they use these voter ID laws to help them in elections, disenfranchising fellow citizens in the process, but they've publicly admitted it, as well.

Some Republicans Acknowledge Leveraging Voter ID Laws for Political Gain

Republicans keep admitting that voter ID helps them win

Republicans Admit Voter ID Laws Are Aimed at Democratic Voters

This, to me, is the worst aspect of these voter ID laws and their requirements, this next point.

How Voter ID Laws Discriminate Against Racial Minorities

It's been also proved there is nearly zero true voter fraud, on anyone's part, too.

Myth of Voter Fraud | Brennan Center for Justice

There is a great "meme" out there on social networks I've seen recently. It asks, how bad is your political party if your way of "success" is to keep Americans from voting?

And the answer is, bad. Really, really bad. And not in a Michael Jackson way, by any stretch.

So what all this means, what we need to do, as a nation, as a people is, first, get the Republicans out of power, out of office, and then, once and for all, make gerrymandering and voter ID laws, both, illegal. We need to truly, truly take back the vote. 

We can do this. 

We must.

Vote November 6!

And VOTE BLUE!!  Vote Democratic!  Then let's work and fight for change.

Links:

Gerrymandering - Wikipedia

This is the best explanation of gerrymandering