When Republicans Can’t Win, They Cheat

“When Republicans can’t win, they cheat” is a truism that’s been around a long time now. The cartoon featured here was published in The Salt Lake Tribune back in 2013 but the truism has been around even longer than that.

Yet republicans don’t push back. In fact they seem hellbent on confirming the truth of the saying by finding ever more blatant methods of cheating. Among the more obvious and conspicuous of tactics, their two favourites appear to be gerrymandering and voter suppression laws.

The purpose of gerrymandering is to establish an unfair political advantage by manipulating electoral boundaries. Countries such as the UK, Australia, Canada and most of the European Union have stamped out gerrymandering because the practice is undemocratic and profoundly unfair.

In the US the Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Johnson (1995) that racial gerrymandering is a violation of constitutional rights and upheld decisions against redistricting that are purposely based on race. However, the Supreme Court struggled when it came to partisan gerrymandering. In a landmark decision, Rucho v. Common Cause (2019), the 5-4 decision, predictably along partisan lines, ruled that questions of partisan gerrymandering represent a nonjusticiable political question which cannot be dealt with by the federal court system.

Basically the republicans on the bench didn’t want the responsibility of making the obvious decision so they’ve left it up to Congress to legislate remedies to prevent partisan gerrymandering. (The House Bill is probably still sitting on McConnell’s desk from last year.)

In an ABC TV discussion of voter suppression strategies held in November 2014, Australian politician Verity Firth listed practices in the United States as among the worst found in the western world.

Take the example of Texas, where voter ID laws stipulate that a gun licence is sufficient while a student card is not for proof of identity at a voting booth. Some states removed same-day voter registration, while others put restrictions on locations where you could vote. In some states, Republican authorities reduced the number of voting machines to make queues longer, while in others, the opportunities for early voting were reduced. The [2014] mid-terms had historically low turnouts, with just over 1 in 3 eligible Americans casting a vote.

It’s a blight on the world’s leading democracy that such blatant disenfranchisement is allowed to occur.

Those Texas voting laws were made by republicans. The states that removed same-day voter registration, reduced the number of polling places and voting machines in Democratic districts, and restricted early voting – all were republican states. Why? Because they cheat – and they cheated in plain sight while the world looked on in drop-jawed amazement.

Since 2014, it’s gotten much worse. No-one knows the extent of republican cheating in 2016. The winning republicans rejected all calls for scrutiny and no investigation, including the one led by Robert Mueller, was ever completed.

But Mueller’s investigation certainly had an effect on the 2018 midterms. The Russians stayed away, along with their money, and a record 75 republican reps announced their intention to retire or resign their House seats at the end of 2018. So come November, a severely under-funded and under-strength GOP was overwhelmed by well-organised and very determined Democrats. Consequently, Dems flipped 40 seats in the US House and claimed majority status.

In 2020, republicans set out to retain power in the White House and Senate, and regain it in the House. But the plots they hatched came undone when a pandemic swept over the nation. Not that Covid-19 was the cause of their undoing; that was self-inflicted. Posturing and posing as community leaders is a poor substitute for genuine leadership skills. The brittle crust of their superficiality crumbled in the face of a real emergency and revealed a total ineptitude to manage a cold, let alone a raging pandemic.

Nor were they prepared for the effect the pandemic would have on voting. It just didn’t occur to them that fewer people wanting to vote in person would result in a sudden and massive increase in the demand for mail-in ballots. Worse still were the republican ‘swing’ states that yielded to their constituents’ demands by relaxing absentee and early voting rules.

Panic spread among those who (a) realised mail-in would make it far too easy for everyone to vote when they’d expended considerable energy on disenfranchising particular demographics, or (b) knew voter machines and tabulators in targeted districts were rigged. That panic was on full display when Trump and others in-the-know went public with hastily contrived arguments against mail-in voting.

“It’s illegal!” No, it isn’t, as 64 failed court cases later attested.

“If you can go to a shop you can vote in-person!” Now that was an interesting argument because it was saying: we’re okay with you voting but only if you vote in-person. That argument only made sense if the voter machines or tabulators were rigged. Republicans not only cheat, they trip themselves up as well, especially when they’re panicking.

It should be noted here that Dominion equipment is among the most, if not the most, secure in the business of voting systems. That’s why Trump and co focussed on them. They couldn’t risk mentioning, for example, the ES&S equipment which is among the easiest to hack, because they’re the most likely ones rigged by republican cheaters.

When the election was over and Trump lost, the outcry was sheer projection. “Democrats cheated!” No, Democrats didn’t. It was republicans. They cheat. We all know they cheat. They’ve been cheating for years.

But in spite of their cheating efforts, they lost the White House, then the Senate, and failed to regain the House. Power slipped through their fingers like sand. Lies didn’t work. Over 60 court cases didn’t work. Coercing officials to “find votes” didn’t work. Persuading Pence didn’t work. Storming the Capitol didn’t work.

There’s now an air of desperation among republicans, in both federal and state governments. So it’s not surprising to learn their knee-jerk reaction is to double-down on the cheating.

Fox10 in Phoenix reported:

Several bills introduced by Republican state lawmakers in Arizona are aimed at changing the way Arizonans vote by mail, and getting rid of the permanent early voter list altogether.

More than 3.4 million ballots were cast in Arizona in the 2020 election, and the majority of voters are on a Permanent Early Voter List, and voted by mail. Democrats and voting rights activists are raising [the] alarm, saying these proposed measures amount to voter suppression.

Well of course they do. They cheat, remember. That’s their go-to strategy when the going gets tough for them.

One of the Bills requires purging certain voters on the Permanent Early Voting List. They like purging; that’s an old favourite. Another Bill requires voters to get their signatures notarized before mailing in their ballots. That’s a new one, and it’s all too obviously designed to make mail-in voting burdensome.

But the prize for the worst suppression tactics so far has to go to… <drumroll> Georgia! Yep, the state where Trump derided the governor, Brian Kemp, and the secretary of state, Brad Rappensberger.

After record turnout in Georgia, state Senate Republicans introduce bills to end automatic voter registration, no-excuse absentee voting & ballot drop boxes. This would impact millions of voters & be one of worst voter suppression laws ever passed https://t.co/MDZI2fZs8X

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) February 2, 2021

Congratulations, Georgia. If there was a “They cheat” award, you’d be in the lead.

But republican state senators in Georgia will not be winners, not with acclaimed attorney Marc E. Elias and Democracy Docket on the case.

This is true and why we need to be prepared to fight in court again. https://t.co/41pJj07njd

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) February 1, 2021

If they pass this, we will sue and we will win. https://t.co/q9JQaWX9Kq

— Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) February 2, 2021

There’s work for Congress to do too and Harvard Law School will be helping them.

?NEW! Harvard Law School’s @ProfNickStephan shares exclusive analysis on how Congress can help end voter suppression and gerrymandering by exercising its power to judge its members' elections.https://t.co/ae8u7cgKff

— Democracy Docket (@DemocracyDocket) February 1, 2021

They cheat – but now they’ve gotten too cocky and far too conspicuous. Democrats don’t like cheaters – and at last they have the power in both the Legislative and Executive branches to fight back.