Everyone needs to understand if not for a concerted effort by the Republican Party to suppress voters throughout the country, Donald Trump would likely not have won the 2024 election. Also, claiming a mandate when winning the election with less than 50% of the vote is totally bogus. Voter suppression efforts have been taking place by the Republican Party, rarely, if ever, by the Democratic Party, for decades as a campaign strategy to eliminate voters, particularly younger and minority voters, who would most likely vote for Democratic candidates.
It has been both fascinating and disappointing to watch the Republican efforts to disenfranchise voters in various states to gain a political advantage. Although I am sure it has probably occurred somewhere in the country, voter suppression efforts are not in the playbook of the Democrats. There are many ways voter suppression takes place (caging, citizenship exclusion, gerrymandering, and rigid registration rules), and all are designed to reduce the number of voters who may vote a certain way. Republicans are willing to sacrifice a few of their voters if they stop many more voters from voting for Democratic candidates.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the current president and many of his Republican followers, most notably hard-core MAGA disciples, couldn’t care less about the US Constitution and democracy. They have little interest in what the voters want and need, unless they happen to be one of the big campaign donors. Politics, from their point of view, is about gaining and retaining as much power and control as possible to be able to dictate how the country is ruled. Ruling is used on purpose because the current president is not about democratic governance but dictatorial rule. Democratic governance involves giving and taking, compromise, concession, and not always getting fully what one side wants from the exchange of ideas. Can’t dictatorially rule when free and fair elections take place, which could upend any ability to maintain control over the government.
Gerrymandering is one of the more insidious ways for politicians to pick their voters. This practice has been bipartisan, with both parties using gerrymandering, although the Republican Party has done much more egregious gerrymandering than the Democratic Party. Gerrymandering goes back decades and has been a ten-year exercise, after the census has been taken, to properly structure political districts to best represent the needs of the voters.
Over the past few decades, particularly in Republican dominated states, the notion of setting districts to best represent the needs of the voter has gone by the wayside. In several Democratic controlled states, redistricting after the ten-year census has been turned over to non-partisan committees that do their job with the best interests of the voter in mind. The Democrats have allowed the Republicans to take advantage of Democrats for wanting to do the right thing while the Republicans do the political thing. In Texas, they did gerrymander before the 2030 census to create 5 new congressional districts that would likely elect Republican candidates where Democrats would otherwise the incumbents. They are daring the Democrats, who traditionally play by the rules, to do similar gerrymandering in states they have control. Democrats will have to do so if they want to fight for the rights of all voters. This situation will create a big mess that will not bode well for what is left of our tarnished democracy.
The U.S. Constitution designates each state as being responsible for voting. Recently, the current president floated the idea that he should dictate how voting should take place in each state by attempting to dictate no mail-in voting and the use of voting tabulation machines. This is a president who does not believe in the requirements of the Constitution for most actions unless the requirement politically benefits him, like the Second Amendment. The current president has also floated the idea that his office should be responsible for counting the vote throughout the country. Talk about the fox guarding the chicken coop. Perhaps one of the most corrupt and underhanded presidents ever being the responsible party for counting the vote is just laughable.
The Republican Party will be doing things to rig the 2026 and 2028 elections that were unimaginable 10 years ago. The current president is not to be trusted with anything related to the upcoming election cycles. He craves power, and currently having unencumbered power because of a corrupt Supreme Court and Republican led Congress is not something he will give up easily.
