There are several things that concern me as we enter the 2024 election season. I’m certainly concerned with the ‘quality’ of some of the Republican candidates. Leading the parade is Trump who has essentially vowed to use the government as his own personal vendetta tool should the electorate be foolish enough to usher him into the White House again. Ron DeSantis’ use of executive power in Florida to push his ‘anti-woke’ agenda is quite frightening if you think through what that would look like at the national level. (I mean who the hell goes to war with Mickey Mouse?) The others in the growing field of Republican candidates do little to assuage any fears I have that the United States under any of their administrations would be better off for the average American.
It would be much of what we have seen in the past – slash taxes to benefit the wealthy, refuse any kind of gun control, push a nationwide abortion ban and try to figure out ways to cut social programs including Social Security and Medicare. Almost all those policy positions are unpopular with most Americans which brings me to the issue that concerns me more than anything else with respect to 2024.
Republican controlled state legislatures across the country have enacted more and more laws aimed at changing who controls the actual election process to their obvious benefit. Trump spread the ‘Big Lie’ about ‘widespread voter fraud’ in the 2020 election despite a total lack of evidence. There was no ‘widespread’ voter fraud – period. However, Many Republican controlled state legislatures have used the lie to enable them to enact laws under the guise of ‘more secure elections’ which are actually ways to legalize them controlling the election process. I think 2024 could involve ‘widespread election fraud/control’ rather than ‘widespread voter fraud.’ It certainly seems that the Republicans are positioning themselves to win the White House, Senate and House of Representatives regardless of how the actual vote tally comes out.
“Republicans who control the North Carolina legislature are moving to change the makeup of state and county election boards and sideline the state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper.
In Texas, GOP Gov. Greg Abbott signed a new law that allows a state official appointed by him to take over election operations in Harris County – home to Houston and the state’s largest Democratic stronghold. [Is it only me or does it seem strange that this involves only a single county? – pretty damned blatant!]
New laws in Georgia – a key presidential battleground state – have changed who serves on local elections boards.
And in Wisconsin – where the winner in four of the past six presidential races has been decided by less than 1 point – questions hang over who will run elections in 2024. The term of the state elections administrator, Meagan Wolfe, ends July 1, and her reappointment is in doubt. Some Republican lawmakers have taken aim at Wolfe over changes to election procedures in 2020, when Joe Biden flipped this swing state. A key vote on her future is expected Tuesday.
In pockets around the country, Republican officials are working to change who oversees elections in ways that critics say could shift the balance of power to their party or lead to partisan stalemates when high-stakes Senate and presidential contests are on the ballot next year.
“The rules that are going to be governing the 2024 elections are really being written right now,” said Megan Bellamy, vice president of law and policy at the Voting Rights Lab, which tracks election legislation. “These state legislators are seeking new powers over election administration, and the ultimate outcome could be greater authority for partisan actors in the process.””1
Despite all the flowery words about ‘election security’, all these laws and other laws aimed at restricting access to voting are designed to help ensure Republicans win elections in 2024. This is not democracy. This is just another step down the path toward authoritarianism. Countries with authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Putin, Belarus’ Lukashenko, Turkey’s Erdogan, Hungary’s Orbán, and others, all have elections, but everyone knows who will ‘win’ before any vote is ever cast.
The playbook for authoritarian leaders has some basic common principles – control the judiciary and control the election process!! If anyone has any doubt that that is not happening in America, they are simply not paying attention. We are already well down this path, and I believe the 2024 elections will be a pivotal moment in this country’s history, not so much for who is elected, but rather HOW they are elected.
