The new fight for democracy

The New York Times While much of the country was focused on Donald Trump’s shocking victory in the presidential election two years ago, Republicans in North Carolina were attempting a brazen power grab. After their nominee — the sitting governor — lost re-election in November 2016, Republicans in the state decided to weaken the governor’s office. The state legislature passed two bills stripping the governor of some powers, and the outgoing governor, Pat McCrory, signed them.

In doing so, McCrory and his allies rejected the peaceful transfer of power that is essential to democracy. They instead chose the peaceful transfer of some power.

In 2018, it became clear that this problem extended beyond North Carolina. Republicans in Wisconsin and Michigan followed the same strategy. Perhaps the most chilling aspect is that Trump had nothing to do with these power grabs. Most of the leadership of the Republican Party in each state decided that their overriding goal was partisan power.

Along similar lines, Republicans in many states also pushed to make voting more difficult. They closed polling places, reduced voting hours and introduced ludicrous bureaucratic hurdles — like requiring Native Americans who have no street address to have one in order to vote.

The struggle over American democracy is my choice for the year’s second most significant news story. It’s a struggle that goes to the core of American ideals and that will affect politics for years.

Fortunately, it’s also a struggle that has now been joined. This country has the beginnings of the pro-democracy movement that it needs.

In Florida, 65 percent of voters — which means large numbers of Democrats, Republicans and independents — approved a ballot initiative restoring the voting rights of people who had been convicted of a felony. In Missouri, 62 percent of voters approved a law to reduce corruption and gerrymandering. Pro-democracy initiatives also passed in a few other states. At the federal level, House Democrats have promised to make electoral reform the subject of the first bill they offer, after taking control next month.

Voting fairness isn’t simply a Democrat-versus-Republican story. In New Jersey, state Democrats recently pushed for an inequitable new gerrymandering plan — until progressive activists beat back the plan. Gerrymandering remains a problem in other blue states, like Illinois and Maryland. Across parts of the West, meanwhile, Republican officials have supported an expansion of voting by mail.

But if both parties deserve some blame, they don’t deserve anywhere near equal blame. The efforts to restrict voting (and the attempts at cheating) have come overwhelmingly from Republicans, while the efforts to expand voting access have come mostly from Democrats. The reason is obvious enough. Many Republicans have come to believe they will lose fair elections with high voter turnout.

In 2019 and beyond, I’ll be rooting for more Republican leaders to decide they can win elections the old-fashioned way: By persuading more voters that they deserve to win. Until they do, I hope voters across the political spectrum will punish Republican politicians who decide they care more about power than democracy. They’re going down a very dangerous road.

For more, Eric Levitz has a piece in New York magazine called, “The GOP’s 2018 autopsy: Democracy is our enemy.” In The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum explains that the struggle for democracy is even more intense in Europe.