01-17-2021, 09:08 AM
SPF, the group seems legit. Clearly, they want to make an bipartisan appeal on voting rights. Naturally, they had to go down the “both sides” path to do so but the truth is that voter suppression and gerrymandering are vital tools the GOP won’t easily surrender. They are motivated by White fright and concerns over demographic drift towards a non-White majority.
The problem for the GOP is that gerrymandering has created safe seats for them as if the Democratic Party didn’t exist. But the real electoral contests have become the GOP primaries. Fewer voters generally turn out for primaries, so the extremists can overpower the moderates. First, the Tea Party ran amok. Then Trump was able to intimidate moderate Republicans into pledging fealty to him or get primaried. Moderates like Jeff Flake, former Senator for Arizona, didn’t even bother trying to hold their seats as a result. Republicans in safe seats felt the need to become ever more extreme to avoid right-wing nut jobs outflanking them. But even so, 2 QAnon conspiracists were able to make it to Congress.
Cruz, Hawley, and Rubio have all swung hard right. Cruz and Hawley are both highly credentialled lawyers (top students from Ivy League Law Schools who clerked for Supreme Court Justices) who have little in common with Trump’s base but know they have to play to them to get where they want to go. Rubio was one of the “Gang of 8”, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who almost pushed through Immigration Reform under President Obama but he’s now a Trumper on this topic.
If voting reform killed off gerrymandering and ensured that the real contests were in duels between Republicans and Democrats, GOP primaries would be much more likely to advance candidates who could appeal to moderates. And when extremists did manage to push through extreme candidates, the Democrat challenger could put them to the sword in the Congressional elections.
The problem for the GOP is that gerrymandering has created safe seats for them as if the Democratic Party didn’t exist. But the real electoral contests have become the GOP primaries. Fewer voters generally turn out for primaries, so the extremists can overpower the moderates. First, the Tea Party ran amok. Then Trump was able to intimidate moderate Republicans into pledging fealty to him or get primaried. Moderates like Jeff Flake, former Senator for Arizona, didn’t even bother trying to hold their seats as a result. Republicans in safe seats felt the need to become ever more extreme to avoid right-wing nut jobs outflanking them. But even so, 2 QAnon conspiracists were able to make it to Congress.
Cruz, Hawley, and Rubio have all swung hard right. Cruz and Hawley are both highly credentialled lawyers (top students from Ivy League Law Schools who clerked for Supreme Court Justices) who have little in common with Trump’s base but know they have to play to them to get where they want to go. Rubio was one of the “Gang of 8”, a bipartisan group of lawmakers who almost pushed through Immigration Reform under President Obama but he’s now a Trumper on this topic.
If voting reform killed off gerrymandering and ensured that the real contests were in duels between Republicans and Democrats, GOP primaries would be much more likely to advance candidates who could appeal to moderates. And when extremists did manage to push through extreme candidates, the Democrat challenger could put them to the sword in the Congressional elections.