Republican-controlled legislatures are passing bills to cement their control of elections even when they lose the popular vote. They have gerrymandered voting districts for their own benefit, and more ominously, they have passed bills to allow the state legislatures to nullify the popular vote in the future. Our democracy is being picked apart, bit by bit.
Luke Savage, a staff writer at Jacobin, tells the ugly story:
Earlier this week, Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson appeared on local radio to declare his “loss of confidence” in the state’s elections commission and assert the need for its legislature to take control of future elections. The context for Johnson’s remarks is important, coming as they do in the wake of a nonpartisan report that found no significant evidence of fraud during the 2020 election — the upshot being that if actual evidence of foul play cannot be found, Republican lawmakers will simply continue to assert that it has occurred as a pretext for continuing to meddle with election rules. Johnson’s intervention also follows a Republican-led push for a partisan redistricting of the state that passed its senate earlier this month.
Taken together, both represent different thrusts in a wider GOP strategy to consolidate power by rewriting election laws and empowering state legislatures to toss out results in future contests. The two efforts are, of course, mutually reinforcing. With greater control of state legislatures, Republicans wield more power to rewrite rules and redraw district boundaries, thus ensuring false majorities that will, in turn, be empowered to act in the GOP’s favor in the event of future disputes in presidential elections — particularly if the results are close.
Republicans are preparing for 2022 and 2024. In Georgia, Republicans drafted a new congressional map “that would give their party 64 percent of House seats even thought Biden
Diane Ravitch's blog 
An outstanding and important piece. Thank you, Diane, for sharing it!
“permanent instantiation of conservative minority rule”
Yup. That’s the plan. But “conservative” is the wrong word, given that this is now the party of vandalism–of rights, of democracy itself.
Begins with f, and no, it’s not the Fox TV Bloviator and Puffer Fish Imitator Carlson’s actual first name, though that works, too.
Well said, Bob: I’ve held for some time that the Republican party as currently assembled is a party of radicals, not conservatives. I think I am probably more conservative than, say, a moral cretin like Senator Ron Johnson.
Should that not be immoral cretin? One can be a cretin and moral, or so people keep telling me.
🙂
And the courts. This is about creating a monopoly that owns all three branches of government at the federal level. The article below was sent to me by a friend this morning. I let him know that those of us here are prepped. But it is nice to read this well-written conclusion in a close-to-mass-media source (although it’s a little late):
“Public education is a bedrock of American democracy. A bad decision in Espinoza would shake the foundation of the nation’s education system, spurning the notion that state-funded schools should teach students how to engage in diverse and pluralistic self-governance. The Christian schools that would receive a windfall from Maine operate as prejudice academies, instructing students to hate people who are different from them. They reject equality in favor of intolerance, preaching a fundamentalist ideology that’s incompatible with multicultural democracy.”
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2021/12/carson-makin-supreme-court-religious-liberty-public-education.html
A lot late!!
Yeah, I know. But I posted this because of the argument that I make in it about why there is this sudden laser focus by the ultraright on schools. The oligarchs know that they are in trouble. The demographic changes in the country are against them. The young people, when polled, oppose them on every issue, and they will be the next generation of voters. They have to fix elections and create national curricula and siphon kids off into religious schools and etc. if the Repugnican Party is going to hang onto power and not, in a couple decades, go the way of the Know Nothings.
“Don’t worry about the Nazis. I’m just Biden my time.” –Neville Chamberlain
Love your comments. I have been studying this for more than 20 years: The Fall of the American Empire. What happened to Rome? Hmmm…but, the devil will never appear to you with horns and pitchfork, but disguise its evil as your best friend. I was in public education for nearly 30 years (coming from advertising industry) and I remember actually teaching something at one point, but even then they through out phonemic awareness for whole language (my family are all excellent readers, so I continued to teach reading the right way the best I could) and it made a difference. I remember being blown away by what was taught in schools and constantly thinking, “Lies My Teacher Told Me.” And to this day, still wondering, “Why wasn’t I taught that in school?” And, teaching government and wondering why Roe V. Wade was not in the textbook under Landmark Supreme Court cases. Of course, trying teach how to write, interpret literature, how to do much of anything correctly or that required students to understand there is a process to problem-solving even when you don’t know, wasn’t part of “the school plan.” In sum, the frog is swimming and the water is warming up. People will wonder, “How did this happen?” What? All the signs were there, but you just wanted someone else to think for you. But, the Bible states, “…it will be through our youth evil will infiltrate…” It reminds me of the Kevin Costner film, “No Way Out.” Okay, enough of my rambling, but Idiocracy was once a comedy and now it is a documentary. Thanks for your excellence insight. Happy Holidays.
Thank you, rcharvet, and Happy Holidays to you and yours!
The Republican strategy to install an institutional minority rule has been called a ‘slow moving coup.’ Several states are passing laws to allow the conservative legislatures to overturn democratic election along with lots of creative gerrymandering. This should spur the Democrats to take defensive measures. So far the Jacobin describes their response as complacent.
It is not only Minnesota that is becoming more conservative. It is the entire northwest minus parts of Oregon near Portland and Washington near Seattle. Wealthy conservatives are buying up real estate in Idaho and Montana in order to establish a greater right wing presence in the northwest.
Democrats should be sounding the alarm bells. Their best option is to try to eliminate the filibuster. It is far more important for Democrats to pass a voting rights bills than preserve the antiquated filibuster.
So few people understand that the stakes are bigger than the de facto end of the United States in a few years. It will be the beginning of the rollback of democratic governing around the world. The U.S. was the beacon of freedom, relatively speaking, of the 20th Century. By the end of the 21st Century, historians of it will shift that title to the European Union, warts and all.
This was posted this morning on social media by Robert Reich who is losing patience with Biden’s fidelity to filibuster.
“Thus far, Biden has been AWOL on the filibuster. He hasn’t used his bully pulpit to inform Americans of the clear and present dangers to democracy now underway. He hasn’t used his administration, including his Justice Department, to push back against the anti-democratic forces. He hasn’t acted forcefully in support of voting rights legislation and against the filibuster. His absence from the fight is fast becoming one of the most glaring omissions of his administration — a moral vacuum that is growing by the day.
I believe Biden must use the full strength of his presidency – his bully pulpit, the power of the executive branch, his influence inside the halls of the Senate (and over his old putative friend, the senior senator from West Virginia), and the credibility that comes with being President of the United States – to end the filibuster, and thereby open the way for voting rights.
It is necessary. It is time.”
It is time. I think of Cry, The Beloved Country whenever I read those three words. Thanks for the memories.
So true. Mr. Biden had promised his donors that “nothing would fundamentally change.” Ms. Harris is not much stronger, given her ties to Big Tech. Wall Street also made it clear she was their preferred pick for vice-president. Her brother-in-law was Uber’s top legal advisor in drafting California’s Proposition 22, which rolled back protections for gig workers.
We need an FDR or LBJ-type president (with an acknowledgement of their flaws) who is not afraid to actually fight for what’s needed.
As things stand now, the Electoral College does a pretty good job of favoring Republicans over Democrats in national elections. The will of the people be damned, the E.C. trumps* the national popular vote. Yes, I believe that Gore and Hillary would have been much better than Bush and Trump. I said it and I will be pilloried by the purists who say that both parties are equally bad, Hillary is an evil war monger and Gore is a pathological liar, blah, blah, blah.
What the hell is the matter with Wisconsin? The Wisconsinites could have had Russ Feingold instead of this foul toad, Ron Johnson, a far right libertarian/Ayn Randian regressive ideologue.
The Electoral College (in presidential elections) plus GOP gerrymandering and manipulating of the vote in state elections dooms us to more troglodytes like Ron Johnson, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Louie Gohmert, Ted Cruz, Lauren Boebert, Ron DeSantis, Paul Gosar, etc.
Albert Camus:
What better way to enslave a man than to
“give” him a vote and tell him he is free.
Fix his gaze on the VOTE that has yet
to undermine the ceded powers of UNelected
dictators calling the shots or dropping the
bombs.
Keep him barking up the vote tree, as if
voting in another representative of the
donor caste is a way to settle our differences.
Damn the “other” side even though:
” The two major parties use ballot access
laws and debate participation schemes to
rig EVERY presidential election, and most
other elections, to preclude the possibility
of a competitive independent or third party
candidacy.”
Who wins when we keep pretending who we put in
charge, or how we put them in charge, stops the
bleeding, or eases the hate?
Isn’t it obvious yet?
It’s the SYSTEM, not the THRONES…
So you are saying that the US is no better than Russia as regards freedom? Trump = Biden = Putin? Freedom is not just measured by the ability to vote, there is also the freedom to criticize the government and the freedom of movement, etc.
We have 3rd parties and the major minor parties are: Libertarian Party, Green Party, Constitution Party. The Libertarian and Constitution parties are far right wing nut bag parties, about the same as the GOP which is already a far right wing libertarian death cult. The Green party is very progressive and polls in the single digits like the other two 3rd parties; the Greens poll lower than the Libertarian party and have about as much chance of winning an election as a dead hamster.
Let us understand. Gerrymandering is very old. It was sort of tolerated during the era after the Great Depression when Democrats controlled many states. Republicans tolerated Democratic drawings of districts because the Republicans themselves knew it was a part of the game. Neither side tried to dominate. It was majority rule with minority consent.
What changed was the Republican push to the Right. Under Bush II, the Republican Party began a series of moves that tried to isolate the Democratic Party and lock its ideas completely out of government. Justices became extreme, districts became so warped that they looked like the reproductive organs of a cow. Republicans tilled new ground in the partisan war by refusing to enact legislation that they favored if it would paint the moderate Obama in a good light. Their ascendancy was more important than their policy. With every year, radical elements in the old Republican Party began to fall victim to the method. Bush II himself rails at the hijacking of the party by Trump. He must know that he was the doctor that knitted together this monster of his own party.
To my way of thinking, the Rubicon was crossed when the Republicans refused to install Merrick Garland. Seeing the possibility of a packed court, they departed completely from a tradition that had been in place for all of the existence of the Republic: That of giving OK to the qualified nominee for court vacancies. Other than those judges that had committed significant errors in their judgements, any nominated judge could expect to be installed by a Senate that considered this their job. During the Obama years, the Republicans departed from this practice for lower court judges, and then extended the practice into the Supreme Court. Given a chance to make up for their error, they doubled down during the Trump administration by appointing a raft of hyper-conservative justices and the radical, Barrett.
So now the Democrats are looking down a gun barrel that is fired by 40% of the electorate at the other 60%. This has not radicalized the Republican opposition. Yet.
The official opposition–the Democratic Party leadership–is clueless. Totally freaking clueless. And itself too beholden to the monied class in America. The Repugnicans are dancing rings around them.
The New Feudal Order, and no party with leadership that actually represents the peasants.
A fascinating take, Roy. I’m going to have to stew on this one a bit. The loss of the judiciary is a mighty blow.
Leonard Leo received an award from a religious organization for his work which ushered in 200 conservative judges including 6 SCOTUS jurists.
Don’t be the messenger for that truth. You’ll pay.
What is old is new again. The currently approved Ohio map is astounding. It basically creates 10 safe to safe-ish republican districts and 2 majority Democratic districts. In a state that went 53-45 in last fed election. My majority Democratic community will once again be carved into three districts, but this time all are majority republican.
In Texas, they will gain 2 seats mostly because of new immigrants and the new map gives them no representation and two more majority white/safe Republican districts. The end of democracy is well into the second half, sanity is way behind, and most of the country doesn’t realize the game has even started.
Margaret Atwood who wrote Handmaid’s Tale was asked recently in a CNN interview, how the nation will recognize right wing totalitarianism. The first words out of Atwood’s mouth were, “There will be talk of God.”
American democracy’s epitaph will read, “All were warned, most chose denial.”
I’ve been thinking about this for decades in the context of what explains how Germans acted in the 1930s and the aftermath it caused. I bought into the question, “How are they different from us?” It confused me for ages because in my experience, there is no culture more accepting and appropriating of Americans than Germans. I’ve come to realize that the answer to that question is, “Hardly at all.”
In that spirit, I would not accept the word “denial.” In this seemingly inevitable situation we see there is no subterfuge, it’s all happening right in front of us for everybody to see, lie about what they’re seeing, or using the lies to buttress a much more ominous agenda. I would use the word “acquiesce.” These are the people who voted for Biden and give him negative approval ratings, buy into both-siderism, and are generally ignorant of what it means to be a citizen. That’s what happened in Germany. Denial implies a knowledge of the other side’s point of view or perspective or perceived threat to you. Acquiescence is when it doesn’t really matter, it’s all about keeping one’s head down and out of the line of rhetorical and actual fire. We are not at all different from Germans in the early 1930s. But rather than putting resolve and spine into the idea of freedom and democracy, it is eroding as quickly as the Louisiana coastline.
Greg-
You’re the brightest person at this blog. You probably find yourself similarly situated in most places.
The difference that you identify between denial and acquiescence is nuanced and critical.
What has shocked me here, is the origin of the “line of fire.”
Webster’s dictionary defines strafing as, “Gott strafe England may God punish England, a German propaganda slogan during World War I.
“Different, hardly at all. “