Republicans Eroding Our Democracy

Last week efforts to strengthen our democracy by making voting rights consistent across the nation were stymied by our United States Senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, when voted against the Freedom to Vote Act. The bill would have overridden parts of Texas’ new election laws by establishing automatic voter registration and lifting various state-level measures that hinder access to the ballot box. In addition, the bill would have strengthened the regulatory powers of the Federal Election Commission, tightened restrictions on foreign interference in elections and modified campaign finance regulations. To put it bluntly Senators Cruz and Cornyn voted to keep it hard for people to vote and to continue allowing foreigners to donate money to political campaigns and groups advertising in support of candidates.

Gov. Greg Abbott and his fellow schemers in the state legislature put on a big show about preventing non-citizens from voting, yet they have nothing to say about preventing foreign money being used to sway voters via political advertising and social media activities. Money provided by rich donors contributing to many Super PACs (Political Action Committees) is often anonymous and known as Dark Money. Since the funds are anonymous no one outside the Super PAC can be sure that the money they’re spending to elect a candidate isn’t from Iran, Russia, or China, or any other foreign nation or company. Our senators had an opportunity to shed light in the dark and willfully chose not to.

Republican lawmakers continue to push to solutions looking for a problem as they use fears of non-existent voter fraud as an excuse to limit voter access to the polls. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick still hasn’t paid the supposed million dollar bounty he offered for proof of voter fraud. Even Donald Trump’s own attorney general, Bill Barr, agreed there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud nationwide. Here in Texas, an official with the secretary of state’s office said the 2020 election was “smooth and secure.”

Sen. Cruz claims that improving access to the polls is somehow a "massive power grab by Democrats" even though measures such as same day registration, which allows a voter to register and vote on the same day, have nothing to do with the voter’s choice of candidate.

Every step that Republicans take to make it harder for citizens to register and vote weakens our democracy. Every time Republicans gerrymander districts to minimize the voting power of people of color in favor white voters erodes the foundations of our democratic institutions. Every measure Republicans take to retain power while only representing a minority of the electorate sends this country further down the road to becoming a failed democracy.

As author and lecturer James Waterman Wise Jr. once told an audience in 1936 - fascism would not come with a “shirt” or “insignia” but “wrapped up in the American flag and heralded as a plea for liberty and preservation of the constitution.” This sounds much like the rhetoric used by Gov. Greg Abbott, former president Donald Trump, and so many more Republicans I’ve lost count. That rhetoric works as we’ve all seen our formerly moderate Republican neighbors fall under the spell of Trump and his ilk; it hasn’t mattered to those neighbors one bit that Trump and his Texas boot lickers have proven themselves incompetent, power hungry, and greedy.

Published in the Seguin Gazette - October 27, 2021