No Accident
Florida. Arizona. Georgia.
Three swing states. Three states that Republicans want to keep in the red column by any means necessary.
On the surface, we may laugh at the absurdity of what they're trying to do. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has gone full authoritarian and has signed into law the requirement that college students and faculty take a "political beliefs survey" to ensure that public universities aren't being overrun by the dangerous indoctrination of liberal professors. In Arizona, besides the bamboo-seeking ballot "audit" now taking place in Montana, unidentified canvassers are going around, asking citizens how they voted in the 2020 election. And in Georgia, due to the state's "use it or lose it" voting law, an estimated 100,000 voters are set to be purged from the active voter rolls. All this combined with Senate Republicans unanimously voting against advancing debate on the For The People Act and it's clear that the GOP does not want to expand the voting pool anytime soon.
We know why this is.
The United States in 2021 is a center-left country. Republicans are on the wrong side of every single major issue that Americans care about: immigration, women's rights, LGBT rights, infrastructure, abortion, international diplomacy, tax reform. Millennials and xennials are becoming more and more liberal having seen Republican presidents launch us into endless wars, provide tax cuts for the richest 1%, and crash the world economy twice all while we were coming of age. Republicans have lost the culture wars. The biggest actors, musicians, and athletes are overwhelmingly behind the Democratic Party and its policies. Today's Republican Party is the culmination of Nixon's southern strategy: it has successfully brought together the religious and racist right and found its champion in Donald Trump. That may have provided a fleeting victory in 2016 but it is a recipe for disaster for a party that has lost 7 out of the last 8 national elections. With its aging base and inability to connect with new voters, the GOP has no choice but to tweak the current system to maintain any sort of relevance.
But when the current system is trending against you, what do you do? For today's GOP, the answer is simple: you lie, cheat, and steal. The three examples given form part of a larger strategy for legally purging Democratic voters. First, you identify them. Hence Governor DeSantis' authoritarian survey aimed at IDing college students and professors, both likely Democratic voters. Next, you trick them. Hence the work in Arizona by rogue conservative groups attempting to ID 2020 voters. Last, you purge them under the guise of "maintaining voter integrity" like Republicans are doing in Georgia. You can bet that the majority of the 100,000 Georgia voters about to be purged will not be inactive voters from the more wealthy, affluent Georgian communities.
We know the playbook. It's Undermining Democracy 101. It's using dark money and complicit state government officials to make it more difficult for young voters and people of color to vote. It's also strategic. Do we really think Greg Abbott and Texas aren't a step behind Ron DeSantis and Florida in surveying teachers and students? The party of small government is more than happy to interject itself into its state public universities when it thinks it can use that information to advance its cause. The party that was once pro-privacy is now more than willing to share voter information with shady third-party dark money groups if they think those groups can successfully ID voters. And the party of personal responsibility has no qualms whatsoever with removing inactive voters, making it impossible for those who suddenly realize the importance of voting after having taken a brief hiatus away from the democratic process.
As we move forward, we need to stay vigilant. We may not all be Marc Eliasesque attorneys who can sue the GOP to stop their ongoing purge, but we have the ability to track these types of proposed laws in our own backyards. And track we must. Because what's happening in Florida, Arizona, and Georgia is happening everywhere. Currently, Republicans have introduced bills in at least 45 states to enact voting restrictions. Those of us living in states where voting restriction bills are being considered need to be vocal in their opposition. We need to let those in power know that we do not support Jim Crow 2.0. We need to stand up for the right to vote, the same right that so many people fought for and died for on American soil. Republicans have no shame. They will continue their own naked power grab to hold onto the last vestige of relevance. It's up to call of us to call them out for their actions.
And it's up to all of us to join in the first great civil rights of the 21st century: voting rights.