The Republican Party is literally doing whatever it can to prevent more Americans from voting. Knowing full well that the GOP is in deep trouble in the next election, voter suppression efforts are in full force.
Just a few weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) threw a fit on the Senate floor over an effort that would expand voting rights in the United States. The Democrats in the House of Representatives had already passed the For the People Act — legislation that would give Americans a holiday on Election Day so they could vote, automatically register voters, and expand voting rights to convicted felons.
This, of course, is a major threat to Republicans and McConnell knew it. The GOP is so afraid of it that McConnell himself calls it the “Democrat Politician Protection Act.” In a speech on the Senate floor, he blasted Democrats for trying to make voting easier for all Americans. He said:
Like many Americans, I’ve spent the last several weeks watching with interest as prominent leaders in the Democratic Party have engaged in a political footrace. They’re sprinting as far left as possible, as quickly as possible, trying to outdo one another. The result is that one of our two major political parties has begun embracing one radical, half-baked socialist proposal after another. It’s really a sight to see.
First came the Democrat Politician Protection Act, a sweeping Washington D.C. takeover of what Americans can say about politics and how they elect their representatives. Speaker Pelosi and her House colleagues were ready with that from day one of this new Congress. They chose it as their ceremonial first bill of the year – H.R. 1. And let me say, this is quite a piece of legislation to hold up as the defining product of the new Democrat House majority.”
And he did not stop there. Blaming Democrats for the tampering of absentee ballots that happened in North Carolina’s 9th District (which was actually GOP candidate Mark Harris’ fault), McConnell laid the blame everywhere but his own party:
House Democrats are championing an unprecedented takeover of our nation’s electoral system — one that would overhaul campaign rules and make it harder for private citizens to exercise their right to political speech. Replace private money in political campaigns with your taxpayer dollars—up to $5 million to any candidate that wants it—even the candidates you disagree with. And swing the partisan balance of the federal authority with the final say in election regulations. Oh, and it all comes under the guise of — you guessed it — ‘restoring democracy.’ Of course, this sprawling, 622-page doorstop is never going to become law. I certainly don’t plan to even bring it to the floor here in the Senate.
For years and years, every Republican who dared to call for commonsense safeguards for Americans’ ballots was demonized by Democrats and their allies. We were hit with left-wing talking points insisting that voter fraud wasn’t real — never happens, they said.
[A]s you might expect, now that an incident of very real voter fraud has become national news and the Republican candidate seems to have benefited, these long-standing Democratic talking points have been really quiet. Haven’t heard much lately from the Democrats about how fraud never happens, they’ve gone silent. Now some are singing a different tune.
[I’d] like to welcome my friends on the left to their new realization. They’ve just discovered in this subject really matters. but I’ve yet to see any evidence they’re actually interested in cleaning up the conditions that leads to messes like this one in North Carolina.”
You can watch McConnell lose it in the video below:
It should be no surprise that Republicans want the act of voting to be difficult — because that would mean that only the most privileged Americans can vote. The more voting becomes accessible to all, the more ballots are likely to be cast for the left.
Featured image via screen capture
