By Jennifer Rubin
Columnist |
Today at 10:00 a.m. EST
The mainstream media’s fixation with false equivalency between the two political parties and fear of criticism from the right has led to distorted coverage and misleading characterizations of the assault on democracy.
Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up.
Voter suppression is called “tighter voting requirements.” The Republican’s descent into authoritarianism and its dalliance with violence is explained away as “polarization.” Meritless cases to overturn the election are described as “lawsuits stemming from the 2020 election,” and rarely is it made clear that “concerns about fraud” is a red herring or that the 2020 election was the most reviewed and reaffirmed in history (thanks to the slew of audits).
The media talks about the “lack of civility” in politics. But when do Democrats post videos depicting violence against Republicans? When do they follow Republican members down the halls of Congress to harass and scream at them?
ADVERTISING
Marc Elias, the Democrats’ top voting rights lawyer, writes for Democracy Docket: “Avoiding discussing partisanship leaves out the who, the what and the why of what is happening to American democracy. Without the context of partisanship, a person has no way to make sense of who is supporting voter suppression laws, what these laws are doing or why all of this is even happening.” He adds:
Not every Republican voting rule is designed to suppress minority voting or subvert the administration of elections, but voting suppression and election subversion comes from the Republican Party only. Even when high turnout favors Republicans (as in the Virginia gubernatorial race), Democrats still want to make voting easier. In short, one party is committed to democracy, and one is committed to subverting it to serve its interests.
The media assiduously covers the reluctance of Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for their reluctance to fiddle with the filibuster, but Republicans senators are rarely if ever grilled about their opposition to reauthorizing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, their refusal to consider meaningful police reform or their failure to censure (let alone remove) radical members of their party such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.).
Why isn’t Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quizzed as to how his party can take direction from a former president who plotted to overthrow the election? Why isn’t every Trump-picked candidate quizzed as to whether they buy the “big lie” of a stolen election and asked to renounce violence? Will debate moderators confront Republican candidates with questions as to whether President Biden won the election and whether they would oppose state legislative efforts to overturn the will of their voters by submitting an alternative slate of presidential electors to the House in 2024?
Part of the problem in identifying the source of the threat to democracy stems from the mainstream media’s refusal to recognize that we no longer live in a political world in which two political parties engage within acceptable bounds of democracy. But Democrats are apparently also temperamentally unsuited to calling out their opponents as anti-democratic or un-American. (How else would one describe the cheering for an unpeaceful transfer of power?)
Democratic consultants tell elected officials not to dwell on Trump, but they wind up giving a pass to the anti-democratic movement he unleashed. Some Democrats members talk about the need to reform the Electoral Count Act, but few if any bluntly state: “Unless we tighten the law, we cannot trust Republicans in the Trump cult to refrain from subverting the 2024 presidential election.”
And Biden, who’s been focused on trying to “reduce the temperature” (hard, when Republicans are torching democracy), has hesitated to label Republicans as anti-democratic or to make their aversion to democracy an issue for 2022. (To the contrary, he’s been holding on to the filibuster as if its survival is crucial to our democracy, thereby giving cover to Republicans.)
As the Republican Party strays further from democratic norms and standards of civil conduct, the refusal to pin blame on them for erosion of democracy serves to provide cover for their illiberal conduct and anti-democratic sentiments. A democracy that can no longer recognize existential threats is in no position to defend itself against shameless foes.
Columnist |
Today at 10:00 a.m. EST
The mainstream media’s fixation with false equivalency between the two political parties and fear of criticism from the right has led to distorted coverage and misleading characterizations of the assault on democracy.
Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up.
Voter suppression is called “tighter voting requirements.” The Republican’s descent into authoritarianism and its dalliance with violence is explained away as “polarization.” Meritless cases to overturn the election are described as “lawsuits stemming from the 2020 election,” and rarely is it made clear that “concerns about fraud” is a red herring or that the 2020 election was the most reviewed and reaffirmed in history (thanks to the slew of audits).
The media talks about the “lack of civility” in politics. But when do Democrats post videos depicting violence against Republicans? When do they follow Republican members down the halls of Congress to harass and scream at them?
ADVERTISING
Marc Elias, the Democrats’ top voting rights lawyer, writes for Democracy Docket: “Avoiding discussing partisanship leaves out the who, the what and the why of what is happening to American democracy. Without the context of partisanship, a person has no way to make sense of who is supporting voter suppression laws, what these laws are doing or why all of this is even happening.” He adds:
Only one party, the GOP, protects members who post violent, outrageous material. Only one overwhelmingly opposed a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. Or tossed a party member out of her leadership position for refusing to lie about the Donald Trump-inspired effort to overturn the election. Or filibustered debate on any voting rights reform (with the exception of a single Republican senator from Alaska).
Not every Republican voting rule is designed to suppress minority voting or subvert the administration of elections, but voting suppression and election subversion comes from the Republican Party only. Even when high turnout favors Republicans (as in the Virginia gubernatorial race), Democrats still want to make voting easier. In short, one party is committed to democracy, and one is committed to subverting it to serve its interests.
The media assiduously covers the reluctance of Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for their reluctance to fiddle with the filibuster, but Republicans senators are rarely if ever grilled about their opposition to reauthorizing Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, their refusal to consider meaningful police reform or their failure to censure (let alone remove) radical members of their party such as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.).
Why isn’t Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) quizzed as to how his party can take direction from a former president who plotted to overthrow the election? Why isn’t every Trump-picked candidate quizzed as to whether they buy the “big lie” of a stolen election and asked to renounce violence? Will debate moderators confront Republican candidates with questions as to whether President Biden won the election and whether they would oppose state legislative efforts to overturn the will of their voters by submitting an alternative slate of presidential electors to the House in 2024?
Part of the problem in identifying the source of the threat to democracy stems from the mainstream media’s refusal to recognize that we no longer live in a political world in which two political parties engage within acceptable bounds of democracy. But Democrats are apparently also temperamentally unsuited to calling out their opponents as anti-democratic or un-American. (How else would one describe the cheering for an unpeaceful transfer of power?)
Democratic consultants tell elected officials not to dwell on Trump, but they wind up giving a pass to the anti-democratic movement he unleashed. Some Democrats members talk about the need to reform the Electoral Count Act, but few if any bluntly state: “Unless we tighten the law, we cannot trust Republicans in the Trump cult to refrain from subverting the 2024 presidential election.”
And Biden, who’s been focused on trying to “reduce the temperature” (hard, when Republicans are torching democracy), has hesitated to label Republicans as anti-democratic or to make their aversion to democracy an issue for 2022. (To the contrary, he’s been holding on to the filibuster as if its survival is crucial to our democracy, thereby giving cover to Republicans.)
As the Republican Party strays further from democratic norms and standards of civil conduct, the refusal to pin blame on them for erosion of democracy serves to provide cover for their illiberal conduct and anti-democratic sentiments. A democracy that can no longer recognize existential threats is in no position to defend itself against shameless foes.
