Hope This is Not Hyperbole: Voter Suppression Kills Democracy

While the election of Joe Biden will change many things, it was not the most important issue emerging from the election. The most important thing to emerge (in my opinion) is the realization of an absolutely huge reservoir of voters out there who may (or may not) continue to vote in future elections.  Trump garnered a record number. But his number was swamped by Biden and democrats. The immediate problem this caused for Republicans was the likelihood it would happen repeatedly for ever more. This made imperative a strategy be cobbled together immediately.  

I looked but could not find the quote I recall from a prominent Republican Senator who said something like, "Under the demographic circumstances we have today, Republicans can never win another nationwide election. That's why we need to do something." 

To stay in the game Republicans have to adopt one of two strategies. A.) Align its views with the majority of voters or B.) prevent significant numbers of the majority from voting. We can learn about A.) from religion.

It is said by various pundits that politics is the new religion. Both have similar tribal characteristics, "We need to defend the group from those other evil groups." The political group (and/or branch of religion) has become more important than the society it lives in. I wish I could remember how many times I have read about someone saying, "I am a Christian first, an American second." In Christianity, neither of the two huge denominations, Southern Baptist and Catholic, have been able to adjust to the society's acceptance of gays and abortion. Official positions do not change while numbers of followers decline. Conventional wisdom among Republican leaders is exactly like conventional wisdom among Southern Baptist/Catholic leaders, option A.) i.e., changing its views, is not an option.

For fans of the genre called Political Theatre, the unfolding drama is the following: Republicans in several states are making voting more difficult. Their actual intent is obvious. They want to limit votes from groups who consistently vote for Democrats. Their theatrical script does not say this. Instead it reads, "We are doing this to make elections more honest. There is not evidence of dishonestly but we believe the last election was dishonest. You will just have to trust us on this."

Democrats want the large numbers because with them they win. Their theatrical script reads, "More votes is democracy as it was meant to be. There is not evidence of dishonesty or fraud. Targeted attempts to suppress votes will kill democracy."

Republicans may win with their baseless argument for two reasons. First, they have a history of success by playing emotion cards. Second, targeted redistricting has provided big majorities in state legislatures. 

As our President likes to say, "Here's the deal." The deal is that if politics can become a religion for conservative voters, it could also become the same for liberal voters. The ultimate irony would be for voter suppression to make liberal voters so angry they swamp Republicans in spite of long lines even with shorter poll hours. Further, occasional conservative voters may turn out less than occasional liberal voters. As Ronald Reagan famously said, "Politics is a thing where the unusual often happens."