From CNN (read article here):
“The jig is up.
“At least according to Ben Ginsberg, the single most prominent Republican election lawyer in the country, who, in a scathing piece published Sunday by The Washington Post, called out President Donald Trump (and his legal team) for engaging in a widespread attempt to suppress votes in the 2020 election under the guise of sniffing out voter fraud.
“Trump has enlisted a compliant Republican Party in this shameful effort. The Trump campaign and Republican entities engaged in more than 40 voting and ballot court cases around the country this year. In exactly none — zero — are they trying to make it easier for citizens to vote. In many, they are seeking to erect barriers. “All of the suits include the mythical fraud claim. Many are efforts to disqualify absentee ballots, which have surged in the pandemic. The grounds range from supposedly inadequate signature matches to burdensome witness requirements.
“Others concern excluding absentee ballots postmarked on Election Day but received later, as permitted under state deadlines. Voter-convenience devices such as drop boxes and curbside voting have been attacked….
“…This attempted disenfranchisement of voters cannot be justified by the unproven Republican dogma about widespread fraud. Challenging voters at the polls or disputing the legitimacy of mail-in ballots isn’t about fraud. Rather than producing conservative policies that appeal to suburban women, young voters or racial minorities, Republicans are trying to exclude their votes.”
“Which, well, yeah.”
Comment: This is news? Hardly. It’s stating the obvious, while filling in a few details.
But in 2020, the GOP’s anti-democratic impulses go far beyond vote suppression. Today, the GOP looks very much like a totalitarian party, or at least a party that aspires to become one. This is the public image presented by the GOP today:
- Keep citizens from voting.
- If they vote, keep their votes from being counted.
- Overrule their votes in gerrymandered legislatures and partisan courts.
In short, the GOP is trying to position itself so it can’t be voted out of power by the people. There’s a word for that: Dictatorship.
The huge turnout expected in the 2020 election is no accident or coincidence. Millions of Americans view this election as a referendum on whether America will remain a democracy or become a dictatorship. That may be overstating things, but millions of voters aren’t willing to gamble on that. Trump and the GOP scare the hell out of them.
Photo: Ben Ginsberg