The Greatest Threat to American Democracy

The coronavirus will eventually ebb.  There will be vaccines and life will return to normal.  But, long after the pandemic finally ends, there will be laws on the books in Republcian controlled states that restrict voting.  They are designed to make it hard for the people who most need to vote to make their voices heard.  The Republicans have even dispensed with their false arguments of voter fraud, and as much as said that they want to change the rules because they feel that they have something to gain from people not voting.  Two things stand out to me.  One, we are dealing with people who just don’t want to play by the rules. Two, Trump’s supporters  in congress care nothing about the people they allegedly represent.  The reality is that everybody loses when people don’t vote. 

  The only thing that will come of these laws is people who would have otherwise participated in their government will become disillusioned.  There is nothing more important to a democracy than the participation of its citizens.  Without that, there is simply no way any democracy can remain healthy.   

Over the long term Republicans will pay a high price for voter suppression; it will eat away at their ability to turn out their own voters.  Eventually, many Republicans will distance themselves from this legislation.  But in the meantime ten of thousands of voters of all persuasions will be negatively affected.   The Republcan party must decide if it is a political party, or the political instrument of one man determined to undermine democratic governance.  A complete fracture of the Republican party may be the only way forward for conservatives in America.  True conservatives will have to find a way to distance themselves from people who at heart want to incite violence.  Will the Republican party be a democratic movement, or succumb to people with racist and anti-democratic agendas? 

 What America needs now is leaders committed to the democratic process.  Without that, elected officials represent only their own interests.  America will recover from the coronavirus.  The question is whether American democracy can withstand its own voting laws.