Voting Rights Threats Call For Expanded Democracy
If the theory exists that an inevitable advance toward fuller democracy is often offset by periodic reversals that threaten to plunge the body politic into veritable civic chaos, then we are witnessing that kind of upheaval in our country currently.
When President Trump lost the presidency late last year, he left office on unequivocally belligerent terms. Trump swore he had been victimized by a conspiratorial voter cabal whose malfeasance proved his contention that corruption was endemic to our election process. Trump was certain that the vote was tainted and that the electoral outcomes last November were an act of coordinated calculated connivance.
Trump’s blustering about his election loss resulted in germinating seeds of irrationality which dispersed across the states, spouting up as anti-democracy policy. What we are reaping from Trump’s wild-eyed election allegations is a whirlwind of mean-spirited voter suppression tactics — an aggressive response by republicans who’ve embraced the former president’s big lie.
According to the Washington Post, since Trump issued his false voter claims, legislators in 43 states have proposed voting policy that will effectively suppress voter turnout. These proposals range from eliminating early voting to preventing mail-in ballots. They represent a full-scale assault on…
