The GOP Doesn’t Need Trump—It’s Already Rigged the System
The Daily Beast featured an excerpt from a new book by Dan Pfeiffer, detailing how the GOP has put their thumb on the scales of democracy.
Over time the GOP has very deliberately overhauled the tenets of our democracy, removing power from the growing progressive majority and delivering it to a shrinking minority scared of losing power.
Democrats will need to understand the gravity of the situation before a progressive agenda can be enacted, even while winning a few elections.
Pfeiffer outlines the GOP’s successful strageties.
STEP ONE: STOP PEOPLE FROM VOTING
The size of Obama’s victory in 2008 stunned Republicans, winning many states by unheard of margins and included deep red states that no one thought a Democrat could even compete in. Many of these states allowed “early voting” and the Obama campaign recognized that victory depended on getting masses of new and infrequent voters to the polls. In North Carolina, 70% of African American voters voted early in an overall increase of African American votes of 6%. Republicans had to scramble to increase their own numbers, but figured out it would be easier to get less Democrats to vote than getting more Republicans. Voter ID laws were the backbone of the plan.
On its face, voter ID laws seem harmless—you need to show an ID to get in a bar and to buy cold medicine. The evil genius of these laws is that they sound so harmless that too many Democrats are afraid to make the argument against them. They are not harmless. They are quite effective at keeping the people most likely to vote Democratic from voting. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 25 percent of African Americans don’t have a government-issued ID. Only 8 percent of whites don’t have an ID. This not an accident. Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman said the quiet part out loud when he argued that a Republican would be able to win Wisconsin in 2016 because “now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is going to make a little bit of a difference as well.”
STEP TWO: THE GERRYMANDER
Not all elections have equal results because every ten years the party in power has influence in redistricting. In 2012, absurd GOP gerrymandering delivered extremely skewed results as House Democrats picked up only 8 house seats despite more votes.
In Wisconsin, the Democrats won every statewide election in 2018—some by wide margins—yet the Republicans still won 63 of 99 state assembly seats and 11 of 17 state senate seats. The goal of gerrymandering to this degree is not just to make your vote count less; it’s to make you know your vote doesn’t count in the hope that you won’t vote again. Cynicism is the ally of conservatism.
In a five-to-four decision in 2019, the Supreme Court ruled that gerrymandering was an issue for voters to decide, not the courts. In other words, the Supreme Court said if you don’t like gerrymandering, vote out the people doing the gerrymandering—except you can’t vote them out because of (yes, you guessed it) gerrymandering. Apparently, Harvard Law doesn’t require a course in common sense for a law degree.
STEP THREE: PUTTING A FOR SALE SIGN ON DEMOCRACY
In short, the Supreme Court delivered Citizens United. In the mid-terms before Citizens United, outside groups spent $70 million. In the mid-terms post-Citizens United, outside groups spent $300 million. In 2012, Obama raised more money than Romney, but Republican groups outspent Democrats $418 million to $130 million. In 2020, it’s expected to be worse. The new Republican supported system makes candidates reliant on billionaires to get their message out.
STEP FOUR: RIGGING THE COURTS
The Republicans have taken steps to prevent you from voting, worked to make your vote count less if you do vote, and empowered billionaires to buy elections. But what if all those things fail and Democrats still win?
Conservatives controlling the courts is the fail proof plan of Republicans to ensure that progressive policies are blocked no matter what the majority wants.
If a Democratic House and Senate along with a newly elected Democratic president pass a new Voting Rights Act that protects against voter suppression and gerrymandering, a Republican governor can sue, and the case lands in the Supreme Court. See where this is going?
Republicans have been grooming for this scenario for decades, with The Federalist Society producing conservative lawyers for just this reason. Robert Bork and Antonin Scalia were two of the first models. When W. Bush was president, every judicial appointment was Federalist Society approved.
The secondary measure to the courts plan is to ensure the fewest Democratic appointments as possible. When Obama was president, Mitch and the GOP filibustered even non-consequential appointments to slow down the Obama confirmations.
THE STAKES
Republicans have spent years to rig the system in their favor, and winning the next presidential election and removing Trump is not enough. Authoritarian leadership did not begin with Trump.
The next Democratic president will be governing with one hand tied behind his or her back if the party does not engage in an aggressive, comprehensive strategy to unrig the game and “Make America a democracy again.”