"This election witnessed new and destructive attempts by the GOP to win: Instead of merely trying to suppress the votes of Black people, the party tried to nullify those votes altogether. In predominately Black city after predominately Black city, Republicans urged courts, state boards of elections, and secretaries of state to throw away ballots cast by legitimately registered voters on the basis of “voter fraud.” They offered no evidence for these allegations but expected officials to throw out literally hundreds of thousands of votes anyway. [snip]
"The Trump legal team is so incompetent and the courts have been so consistent in rejecting his campaign’s amateur-hour lawsuits that people may be tempted to think that the courts, at least, will reject similar threats to democracy in future elections. But I wouldn’t be so sure. The next phase of the Republican project to own our electoral system is now clear. Having seen the obstacles to throwing out the votes of Black people, conservative law professors and their Federalist Society coconspirators can be expected to start cranking out legal justifications to do just that." -- Elie Mystal in The Nation.
The few Republican officeholders who've been lauded by many in the media for doing their jobs aren't necessarily heroes of democracy. Two Trump punching bags who aren't, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger and Gov. Brian Kemp, are already investigating voter registration groups and placing more restrictions on mail- in voting to make it more difficult for Democratic constituencies (read Black voters) to vote in future elections. They're not heroes and they're not turning the page or giving up. Neither must we.
Always remember one of Masha Gessen's warnings about surviving autocracy: institutions will not save you.
BONUS: Infidel 753 has a good companion read on "No Republican Heroes."
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