“Bipartisan efforts are the key to successful voting rights reform,” Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said on Sunday, March 28, 2021. He appeared to be recounting past history, when Republicans were less overtly racist, and weren’t systematically engaging in voter suppression, as they are now (see tweet below).
Nevertheless, he’s obviously concerned about the Democrats’ push for tough federal legislation to protect voting rights, and wants his party to have a say in it. “I think it’s really important to have this discussion on voting rights, on voting integrity, on access to the ballot,” he said. And he may well be sincere. Rather than heaving a Hail Mary against voting protections, he may indeed be fishing for a compromise both parties can live with.
But no. Just, no. It’s too late for compromise. And compromise isn’t possible. What compromise could possibly be reached with a party that just made it a crime to give water to voters waiting in long lines at polling places deliberately created to discourage them from voting? Besides, Republicans don’t want compromise; they want to obstruct. Even if Democrats made concessions, they wouldn’t vote for the bill anyway.
Nor does a party that for decades has engaged in overt racial discrimination, extreme gerrymandering, massive voter suppression, lied about election fraud, slandered and threatened honest election officials, and tried to violently overthrow an election they lost, deserve a seat at the table.
Voter suppression and gerrymandering, not feeding voters waiting in line, should be illegal. Republicans should have no say in how that’s done, because they won’t say anything helpful or constructive; they’ll try to undo it.
Of course it is about one major party getting a leg up on the other, and the other reacting totally appropriately. Doesn’t mean any of it is for the good of Americans, our institutions or our nation. [This comment has been edited.]
How is expanding voter access and combating voter suppression not good for our citizens, institutions, and nation?