The closing argument in political campaigns used to go something like, “Elect me and I will work every day to deserve your vote.”
Of course, that’s still the political argument of candidates who are committed to a democracy of the people, by the people, and for the people — core principles of the old Republican Party when it was founded in the 1850s.
But, this year, a candidate in Wisconsin told supporters that "Republicans will never lose another election in Wisconsin after I'm elected governor." Is there a way to keep that promise without overriding democratic processes for voter registration, casting votes, accurately counting votes, and legally certifying the outcome to the vote? Or was he just bullshitting?
He’s not the only one. Following in the footsteps of a former President of the United States who, before the votes were cast and counted, contested the results in the election, six Republican candidates for governor or the US Senate in battleground states would not commit to abiding by next week’s election results … five more ignored or declined to answer the question.
When people show you who they are, believe them, Maya Angelou advised.
I can think of fewer than five Republicans in, or running for the next US Senate — and no Republicans in or running for the next US House of Representatives — who haven’t already shown us that they are unwilling or unable to mount a robust defense of democracy against the prevailing power of the new Republican Party — the MAGA Republicans who look an awful lot like the old Democratic Party when it tried to unravel the Declaration of independence and the Constitution in the 19th century.
Since then, the parties have traded places and they have shown us who they are. The values that drove the old Democratic Party are the values that drive the new Republican Party: government of the few, by the few, and for the few.
Today, Democrats mean to deepen and broaden conscientious liberty and equal protection of the law for every citizen. That’s governance in the service of equality.
Republicans, based on legislative action the last two years mean to decrease liberty and impose or reimpose restrictions on the protection of citizens whom they do not regard as equal. That’s governance in the service of hierarchy.
The US Constitution and Declaration of Independence leave no doubt about the American preference for a genuinely representative democracy over any sort of autocratic monarchy or oligarchy.
In this political moment, Republicans have shown us that they cannot be trusted to serve the ends of American democracy and I am persuaded that a red vote in 2022 is a vote against America’s core values.
https://electionlawblog.org/?p=131983
https://www.oprah.com/oprahs-lifeclass/when-people-show-you-who-they-are-believe-them-video
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