Photo via Gage Skidmore/Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0), @yashar/Twitter
March 11, 2021, 1:42 pm
Following the solid victory of Joe Biden against Donald Trump and months of many Republicans engaging in the debunked conspiracy theory that the 2020 election was “stolen” from Trump, the GOP strategy for future elections quickly became clear. The vast majority of U.S. states are now facing bills designed to making voting more difficult, all submitted by Republican lawmakers.
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In Arizona, 24 such bills have been filed so far since January. Republican state Rep. John Kavanagh not only supports these bills, but perhaps said a bit too much about his party’s strategy for winning elections in the future.
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“There’s a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting.”
Many critics of Republicans have accused the party of focusing so much on voter fraud, which is extremely rare in the U.S. and when it does happen, is often done by Republicans, because they don’t want people to vote. The data also makes it clear that when a greater proportion of Americans vote, Democrats are more likely to win.
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This doesn’t look good for the GOP, yet in recent years they seem increasingly willing to admit that what they really want is for fewer people to vote.
“Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they’re totally uninformed on the issues,” Kavanagh continued. “Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.”
Voter suppression efforts such as voter ID laws, closing polling sites, and shortening voting periods disproportionately impact low-income communities of color who tend to vote in large numbers for Democrats. This strategy by the GOP has been apparent for decades, but until recently they’ve avoided saying it outright since low voter turnout and voter suppression efforts are signs of an unhealthy democracy.
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Democrats, meanwhile, have been sounding the alarm on this strategy and condemning Republicans for pursuing such an anti-democracy agenda.
“They are trying to make it harder for everyone to vote based on the hope and desire that the people who it harms more and who it disenfranchises more are the people less likely to vote Republican,” said state Rep. Athena Salman.
Journalist Yashar Ali is far from the only non-politician to notice Kavanaugh’s openness on the issue.
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The Arizona GOP is saying the quiet part out loud. This gem from John Kavanaugh to CNN today, in which he says “Not everybody should be voting” and it’s about the “quality of the votes” as well. Cats out the bag aye???
pic.twitter.com/WS0kbQSqr6
— Tim Larsen
[email protected]@ver (@thamemeweaver) March 11, 2021
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*First Published: March 11, 2021, 1:42 pm
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