Republicans are playing for keeps. If they win in November, they’ll keep all the marbles: They’ll restrict voting, override election results they don’t like, and persecute their political opponents. Game over, democracy shut down.
Democrats are playing for keeps, too. Republicans seem to understand that better than many Democrats do.
If Democrats win in November—if we re-elect Biden, win back the House, and keep the Senate—we’ll pass the For the People Act (or something like it). We’ll expand early voting, allow same-day registration, and end partisan gerrymandering. We’ll put limits on campaign spending. We’ll update the Voting Rights Act, to Federally monitor state voting practices that discriminate against minority voters.
Republicans know Democrats are playing for keeps. The GOP can’t win nationally if voting is fair.
The GOP’s bid to end American democracy—that bid is really a reaction to our side’s success. Republicans have no choice except to make a goal-line stand against our tide of democracy and progress. If they lose in November, Democrats are going to shut them out of power.
A lot changed when Democrats stopped appealing to white “swing” voters (Reagan Democrats, or whatever). Our side stopped pulling punches about criminal justice reform, decarceration, LGBQT equality, and gun reform. We focused our appeal and our policies on our own base. We drew lines in the sand opposing racism and discrimination.
The GOP followed suit by organizing and consolidating their own, pro-bigotry voters. Their subsequent drift to extremism was inevitable. In Trump, they found a political strongman to lead that inevitable drift.
Even in 2009-2010, our progress was still hindered by “moderate” elected Democrats. That was when we passed the Affordable Care Act, but we didn’t reform voting.
Democrats were more united in 2021-2022, but we were undermined by the turncoats Manchin and Sinema.
In 2024, if we win—and after voting reform secures our power in proportion to our substantial majority—we’ll have all the marbles. We’ll accelerate the use of the Federal government to distribute wealth, protect human rights, and guarantee equal treatment.
And the GOP and their voters? They can go pound sand.