The War on Elections: Not Just for Republicans and Russians Anymore
Discouraging Participation Is Just Another Form of Voter Suppression...
The democracy part of our political equation is under sustained attack. Oligarchs, both foreign and domestic, are leveraging their wealth in new ways. Ideologues are promoting intolerance, denying science, and seeking to mute discourse.
Donald Trump’s electoral college victory in 2016 spurred a movement towards increased public involvement in both the electoral and activist fronts. 2018’s Blue Wave, increased labor activity, and the frequency of street protests were manifestations of this awareness.
The erratic behavior and obliviousness toward the rule of law by the man currently occupying the White House may eventually lead to his fall from grace.
As this week’s New York Times article on Trump’s running battle with those investigating him shows, there is no guarantee of justice prevailing.
Mr. Trump’s public war on the inquiry has gone on long enough that it is no longer shocking. Mr. Trump rages almost daily to his 58 million Twitter followers that Mr. Mueller is on a “witch hunt” and has adopted the language of Mafia bosses by calling those who cooperate with the special counsel “rats.” His lawyer talks openly about a strategy to smear and discredit the special counsel investigation. The president’s allies in Congress and the conservative news media warn of an insidious plot inside the Justice Department and the F.B.I. to subvert a democratically elected president.
Reading the 4600+ word Times investigation, it’s not hard at all to believe all we’ll see from the investigative process is lot of noise and few underlings having to endure the indignity of a criminal proceeding while waiting for their pardons to arrive.
I remember having a conversation with a prominent local politico on election eve in 2016 where he assured those of us upset with the implications of Trump’s victory the checks and balances of the system would serve to preserve democracy. He was unfortunately assuming the other players in the system would honor the intentions of the founders.
As Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and a host of rotating executive branch sycophants have shown, rules and tradition are no hindrance when it comes to corrupting the processes of the country. A seemingly unending procession of compliant judicial nominees is meant to serve as a future prophylactic against legal challenges.
Trump is, after all, merely a symptom of what ails this country. The forces enabling his tenure--tax adverse billionaires, hard-core evangelists, and authoritarian conservatives-- aren’t going anywhere.
There are three things standing in the way of success for this unholy alliance of reactionaries:
an engaged electorate
campaign finance reform, and
enough self awareness not be played for fools.
None of these things are easy. Or necessarily quick. But hard work and tenaciousness can prevail in the end.
H.R. 1, or the For the People Act, is legislation before the congress offering reforms focusing on voter registration modernization, election security, and campaign finance reform, among other issues.
Last week the Brennan Center’s Wendy Weiser urged members of Congress to prioritize improving the country’s systems of democracy, highlighting three reforms outlined in H.R. 1:
Restoring the Voting Rights Act, a landmark civil rights law that was hobbled by the Supreme Court’s 2013 Shelby County decision;
Automatic voter registration (AVR), which would streamline how Americans register to vote — and could add up to 50 million new voters to the rolls; and
Small-donor public financing, which would amplify the voices of ordinary voters by providing public funds to match small donors.
You and I both know there is no way such legislation will get passed and signed before the 2020 election. However, big changes start with small steps. The testimony and increased public awareness created by the House hearings will go a long way toward getting these changes codified in the not-so-distant future.
https://twitter.com/girlsreallyrule/status/1097861410707726337
The self awareness part of this equation is the part making me anxious.
We’re already being played for fools as the 2020 primary season is getting underway. And the sardonic nihilists among us see no problem with playing this game.
As each of the marquee Democrats have declared their candidacy, a wave of social media attacks has materialized. Watching twitter on Tuesday following Bernie Sanders’ announcement was painful. Accounts both pro and anti Sanders raged well into the night.
Some of these folks are true believers (or non-believers). I just don’t know in what universe people think re-litigating the 2016 primaries will be a productive use of time.
Will one more person vote because of these recycled rants?
Nope.
Will some humans chose not to vote because they’re disgusted by the vitriol?
You betcha.
Here’s a snip from an article in today’s Politico about the disinformation being spread (prior to Sanders announcement):
Recent posts that have received widespread dissemination include racially inflammatory memes and messaging involving Harris, O’Rourke and Warren. In Warren’s case, a false narrative surfaced alleging that a blackface doll appeared on a kitchen cabinet in the background of the senator’s New Year’s Eve Instagram livestream.
Not all of the activity is organized. Much of it appears to be organic, a reflection of the politically polarizing nature of some of the candidates. But there are clear signs of a coordinated effort of undetermined size that shares similar characteristics with the computational propaganda attacks launched by online trolls at Russia’s Internet Research Agency in the 2016 presidential campaign, which special counsel Robert Mueller accused of aiming to undermine the political process and elevate Donald Trump.
“It looks like the 2020 presidential primary is going to be the next battleground to divide and confuse Americans,” said Brett Horvath, one of the founders of Guardians.ai, a tech company that works with a consortium of data scientists, academics and technologists to disrupt cyberattacks and protect pro-democracy groups from information warfare. “As it relates to information warfare in the 2020 cycle, we’re not on the verge of it — we’re already in the third inning.”
It’s more than likely at this point there are multiple players both foreign and domestic behind this latest batch of information warfare, so I’m not sure finger pointing is a worthwhile exercise. There is anecdotal information about the Saudis, Israel, China, and North Korea hoping to covertly influence voters.
I’m not naive enough to think we can get through an election cycle without rancor and/or petty squabbles. I’m just hoping enough people will wise up to the fact it’s a waste of time to engage or encourage bad behavior.
The point of all these deplorable expressions is to discourage participation.
That’s how the bad guys will win.
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