In 2000, Democratic candidate Al Gore received a plurality of the vote in the state of Florida. Instead of President Al Gore, however, we got eight years of the worst President in our nation’s modern history (and I say that in full cognizance of the White House’s current occupant). That happened because, at the end of the day, the GOP wanted it more and they were willing to do what it took to get it. Paid Republican operatives stormed the building, Republican lawyers (three of whom now sit on the Supreme Court) fought the due exercise of democracy tooth and nail, and so began the now-familiar era of minority rule in the United States of America.
That ain’t democracy.
The Declaration of Independence says that “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” — and we need to remember that.
If the Democrats don’t send Senators to DC from the great states of Georgia and North Carolina — and that’s just for starters — it’s not by the will of the American people. It’s because the GOP has done its best to break democracy at every turn. Voices have been silenced, Democratic ballots have been excluded from the tally by every means possible. They all know it, they all support it, and they will not stop until they are made to stop.
No Republican’s hands are clean in this matter. Even in the reddest state, no Republican can claim the legitimacy of a free and fair election. And if we don’t have a Senate majority next year, it’s because they cheated — again — and robbed America of the leadership it asked for.
Let’s never pretend otherwise, and let’s not let them pretend either.