This ought to be pretty obvious, but I feel like maybe I should point it out in plain language. It's common to claim that today's Republican Party is "anti-democracy," but if you've been conned into believing that Democrats stole the 2020 election—that is, if you really, truly believe it—then it's Democrats who are anti-democracy and Republicans who are fighting to restore democracy.
Needless to say, I don't believe this and there's no evidence that it's true. But a small number of conservative leaders from Donald Trump down have convinced millions of rank-and-file Republicans that it's true. These leaders may themselves be anti-democracy, but the rank-and-file almost certainly isn't.
This is not a trivial point. As with so many other things, we should continue fighting the conservative elites who push this stuff but we shouldn't assume that Republican voters in general are beyond redemption. They aren't. They're just in the grip of a media-political complex that uses them for its own cynical ends. With the right message and a little bit of empathy many of them can be persuaded to abandon the right-wing grifters who are using them.
Senator Mike Lee (R-UT):
"We are not a democracy."
https://twitter.com/SenMikeLee/status/1314016169993670656?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
"Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prosperity are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that."
https://twitter.com/SenMikeLee/status/1314089207875371008?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
That's pretty contemptuous of democracy.
Without democracy, who gets do decide how best to achieve liberty, peace and prosperity? That's the part that people Mike Lee are careful not to say out loud.
Pairs well with the Georgia House voting restrictions omnibus bill.
(Also, noticed that once again, local control -- elections administered at the county level -- now being subverted by Republicans in the Statehouse. Because for Republicans, it's about control, not localism. & anyway, back when, in the days of Lester Maddox & Newt Gingrich, counties running elections could reliably be judged to obtain the desired results. Now, not so much.)
Kevin, you're waxing poetic with inspiring levels of empathy for our brethren on the other side of the aisle.
Trump didn't create their animosity, he merely pulled off the scab. But what came out has been festering there for a long time. I do however, salute your optimism.
But they are. https://www.vox.com/platform/amp/policy-and-politics/22274429/republicans-anti-democracy-13-charts
This would probably get a lot of push-back, but lately I'm starting to think that the Democrats should take up the mantle of providing free, easily-obtained, national voter ID. If we had this, it'd take that whole issue off the table, and presumably would toss most or all of the GOP's voter-suppression efforts in the scrap heap.
I don't object to a national id but it's a fool's errand to take action thinking it will placate the GOP, they will simply dig out other excuses and find more ways to suppress non-GOP voting.
If you vote for a party that is anti-democratic and pursues and enacts policies and laws that are anti-democratic, what does that make you?