By Eugene Robinson
Columnist |
October 10, 2022 at 3:26 p.m. EDT
In four short weeks, the nation faces the most important midterm elections of my lifetime. This year, the choice is between our democracy as we know it — messy, incremental, often frustrating — and a hard-edged performative populism fueled by resentment, misogyny and racism. To have any hope of building a better future, we must make a stand here.
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It is hard for me to write those words, because one of the first things I was taught as a young journalist was to be wary of superlatives. But the truth is plain — and painful: Democrats must keep control of at least one chamber of Congress, and preferably both, because the Republican Party has become a danger to the American experiment.
This is not the traditional contest between one set of politicians favoring progressive policies and another offering a more conservative vision. It is between a Democratic Party that believes voters ought to be able to make those ideological choices and a GOP that no longer believes the will of many of the American people must be respected.
A terrifying survey in The Post last week found that of 569 Republican candidates nationwide for House or Senate seats or major statewide offices, an astounding 299 — more than half — “have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election.”
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This is not acceptable. Many Republicans were unhappy after the close 1960 election, alleging irregularities in the vote count in Illinois and Texas, but they accepted Richard M. Nixon’s loss and John F. Kennedy’s victory. Many Democrats were irate following the 2000 election, which was decided by a handful of votes in Florida and an intervention by the Supreme Court. But they plastered “Not My President” slogans on their bumpers and T-shirts, rather than attempting an actual insurrection.
A party that believes only in elections it wins cannot be trusted with power.
The Republicans who pledge to ensure that nothing like the 2020 election ever happens again are serious. Their bloviation about ensuring “election integrity” in the future is a front for a more sinister agenda. The increasingly far-right Heritage Foundation has compiled a database going back to 1982, and in all the local, state and national elections over those 40 years can document only 1,384 “proven instances of voter fraud,” many of them individual acts. This supposed threat is the excuse for disenfranchising millions of Americans, whether by keeping them from the polls or delegitimizing the votes they do manage to cast.
The rhetoric of election denial is pure demagoguery, but with real-world menace. In at least two swing states — Arizona and Nevada — true-believer Republican candidates who deny Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump have a good chance of being elected secretary of state, putting them in charge of elections. If the 2024 results are not to their liking, they may simply not accept them.
At least when it comes to elections, Republicans still feel the need for some sort of fig leaf. In other areas, the party has abandoned all sense of decency.
The GOP has decayed to the point at which its leaders cannot bestir themselves even to condemn openly racist remarks made Saturday by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who said Democrats were “pro-crime” and portrayed African Americans as “the people that do the crime.”
It is too facile to blame all of this on Trump. True, many Republicans are paying lip service to the “stolen election” lie because they fear Trump will turn the GOP base against them and end their political careers. Others saw an opportunity when Trump proved that crudeness and cruelty were no obstacle to political success.
Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) recently recounted a telling anecdote told from the Republican cloakroom on Jan. 6, 2021, when an unnamed GOP colleague came in and signed papers objecting to the election results. Cheney said the fellow House member muttered: “The things we do for orange Jesus.”
That’s self-deception. Trump’s acolytes do have a choice, if not courage or decency. Shame on them for undermining the nation’s faith in the democratic process for personal gain. Vital issues are at stake on Election Day. Abortion rights are gravely threatened after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Voting rights, especially for minorities, are imperiled. Efforts to fight climate change and make the transition to a clean-energy economy would at least be slowed if Republicans took either the House or the Senate.
But the overarching issue is what President Biden calls the fight for “the soul of this nation.” Do we continue our halting but undeniable progress toward making the Constitution’s guarantees of rights and freedoms apply to all Americans? Or do we reverse course?
I hope you care about the answer. And I hope you vote.
Columnist |
October 10, 2022 at 3:26 p.m. EDT
In four short weeks, the nation faces the most important midterm elections of my lifetime. This year, the choice is between our democracy as we know it — messy, incremental, often frustrating — and a hard-edged performative populism fueled by resentment, misogyny and racism. To have any hope of building a better future, we must make a stand here.
Sign up for a weekly roundup of thought-provoking ideas and debates
It is hard for me to write those words, because one of the first things I was taught as a young journalist was to be wary of superlatives. But the truth is plain — and painful: Democrats must keep control of at least one chamber of Congress, and preferably both, because the Republican Party has become a danger to the American experiment.
This is not the traditional contest between one set of politicians favoring progressive policies and another offering a more conservative vision. It is between a Democratic Party that believes voters ought to be able to make those ideological choices and a GOP that no longer believes the will of many of the American people must be respected.
A terrifying survey in The Post last week found that of 569 Republican candidates nationwide for House or Senate seats or major statewide offices, an astounding 299 — more than half — “have denied or questioned the outcome of the last presidential election.”
Follow Eugene Robinson's opinionsFollow
This is not acceptable. Many Republicans were unhappy after the close 1960 election, alleging irregularities in the vote count in Illinois and Texas, but they accepted Richard M. Nixon’s loss and John F. Kennedy’s victory. Many Democrats were irate following the 2000 election, which was decided by a handful of votes in Florida and an intervention by the Supreme Court. But they plastered “Not My President” slogans on their bumpers and T-shirts, rather than attempting an actual insurrection.
A party that believes only in elections it wins cannot be trusted with power.
The Republicans who pledge to ensure that nothing like the 2020 election ever happens again are serious. Their bloviation about ensuring “election integrity” in the future is a front for a more sinister agenda. The increasingly far-right Heritage Foundation has compiled a database going back to 1982, and in all the local, state and national elections over those 40 years can document only 1,384 “proven instances of voter fraud,” many of them individual acts. This supposed threat is the excuse for disenfranchising millions of Americans, whether by keeping them from the polls or delegitimizing the votes they do manage to cast.
The rhetoric of election denial is pure demagoguery, but with real-world menace. In at least two swing states — Arizona and Nevada — true-believer Republican candidates who deny Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump have a good chance of being elected secretary of state, putting them in charge of elections. If the 2024 results are not to their liking, they may simply not accept them.
At least when it comes to elections, Republicans still feel the need for some sort of fig leaf. In other areas, the party has abandoned all sense of decency.
The GOP has decayed to the point at which its leaders cannot bestir themselves even to condemn openly racist remarks made Saturday by Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who said Democrats were “pro-crime” and portrayed African Americans as “the people that do the crime.”
It is too facile to blame all of this on Trump. True, many Republicans are paying lip service to the “stolen election” lie because they fear Trump will turn the GOP base against them and end their political careers. Others saw an opportunity when Trump proved that crudeness and cruelty were no obstacle to political success.
Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) recently recounted a telling anecdote told from the Republican cloakroom on Jan. 6, 2021, when an unnamed GOP colleague came in and signed papers objecting to the election results. Cheney said the fellow House member muttered: “The things we do for orange Jesus.”
That’s self-deception. Trump’s acolytes do have a choice, if not courage or decency. Shame on them for undermining the nation’s faith in the democratic process for personal gain. Vital issues are at stake on Election Day. Abortion rights are gravely threatened after the Supreme Court’s decision overturning Roe v. Wade. Voting rights, especially for minorities, are imperiled. Efforts to fight climate change and make the transition to a clean-energy economy would at least be slowed if Republicans took either the House or the Senate.
But the overarching issue is what President Biden calls the fight for “the soul of this nation.” Do we continue our halting but undeniable progress toward making the Constitution’s guarantees of rights and freedoms apply to all Americans? Or do we reverse course?
I hope you care about the answer. And I hope you vote.
