What scares the crap out of Republicans? Voting Rights.
Voting rights is at the very heart of our Democracy. Without it, we have nihilism, racism, sexism, fascism, and trumpism. And that’s exactly what Republicans want. And while I’m glad to see the infrastructure bill making its way to becoming a law, it bothers me that Republicans will not support Voting Rights. In Georgia it is now illegal to give someone a bottle of water while they wait in a long line for 5 hours to vote. That’s ridiculous! I can’t even go 5 hours without drinking a bottle of beer. And now that I’ve dispensed with my gratuitous “joke,” it’s time to get serious. It’s time to talk about voting rights and how it’s probably more important than any other legislation that we can pass while we still can.
Let’s start off with a quote from Steven Levitsky, who is perhaps the leading scholar on how Democracies die…
“Democracies may die at the hands not of generals but of
elected leaders—presidents or prime ministers who subvert the very
process that brought them to power. Some of these leaders dismantle
democracy quickly, as Hitler did in the wake of the 1933 Reichstag fire
in Germany. More often, though, democracies erode slowly, in barely
visible steps.”
― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die
I like this quote from Levitsky, but I like this one even more…
“This is how elected autocrats subvert democracy—packing and
“weaponizing” the courts and other neutral agencies, buying off the
media and the private sector (or bullying them into silence), and
rewriting the rules of politics to tilt the playing field against
opponents. The tragic paradox of the electoral route to authoritarianism
is that democracy’s assassins use the very institutions of
democracy—gradually, subtly, and even legally—to kill it.”
― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die
And the future is scary…
“The fundamental problem facing American democracy remains
extreme partisan division—one fueled not just by policy differences but
by deeper sources of resentment, including racial and religious
differences. America’s great polarization preceded the Trump presidency,
and it is very likely to endure beyond it.”
― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die
And this is what I want to highlight…
“Opposition to Trump’s authoritarian behavior should be muscular, but
it should seek to preserve, rather than violate, democratic rules and
norms. Where possible, opposition should center on Congress, the courts, and, of course, elections. If Trumpism is defeated via democratic institutions, it will strengthen those institutions.”
― Steven Levitsky, How Democracies Die: What History Reveals About Our Future
Elections. Voting rights. To me, that’s the most important thing. Without it, we can’t change the composition of the Supine Court to make it a Supreme Court where we have Democracy instead of the current Theocracy. It’s amazing to think that a majority of the Supine Court was appointed by two presidents who failed to get a majority of the popular vote. Yes, fuck the Electoral College, the biggest vestige from slavery.
In sum, voting rights is the most important thing that we can do to preserve our Democracy. And we need it now! And let me close with this…
“The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by human beings for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison people because they are different from others.”
Martin Luther King
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