Justice Editor, ThinkProgress. Author of Injustices: SCOTUS’ History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted imillhiser@thinkprogress.org
The fundamental question of our era is whether elections will still matter.
“Authoritarianism” is one of the most misunderstood words in America today.As Cornell government professor Thomas Pepinsky writes, authoritarian nations rarely resemble Nazi Germany. People don’t necessarily live in fear of a secret police, or even fear that there will be consequences for dissent. Rather, the dividing line between democracy and authoritarianism comes down to something much more basic: “you know that you are no longer living in a democracy because the elections in which you are participating no longer can yield political change.”
By this definition, there is a thick cord of authoritarianism winding its way around the Republican Party.
Think of the gerrymanders. The voter suppression laws. The voter purges. The lawsuits asking courts to toss out ballots. None of these cancel elections outright, or even prevent most Democrats from participating in elections. But they make it much less likely that voters who are dissatisfied with Republican governance can bring about political change.
No non-incumbent Republican president has won the popular vote since 1988. Democracy is not on the GOP’s side, and it knows it.
The judiciary plays a major role in the GOP’s authoritarian designs. Republicans on the Supreme Court waved their hand at gerrymanders. They gutted a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. They give their blessing to voter suppression. Bush v. Gore happened.
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https://thinkprogress.org/the-gop-has-turned-against-democracy-and-neil-gorsuch-is-their-champion-81045b50f5eb#.vpabxgf0z
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