Ari Ogoke: The GOP is definitely taking voter rights to a new extreme. I don't think we can accuse the Democrats of the same.
However, the Democrats are complicit in the two-party hegemony of USA politics. That hegemony seems to be breaking down, but we should acknowledge that the Democrats had a hand in where we are today.
About 20 years ago, Canada adopted a law that voters have to present a voter ID to get a ballot. This was done to stop zealous party workers from misrepresenting themselves as voters who were not going to vote. In the first election, maybe about 5% of the voters were angry with this rule and raised a lot of fuss. But after a few election cycles, voters got used to bringing ID. It is no longer an issue. Party workers can no longer represent someone else.
When voter ID is proffered as an improvement to America democracy, the Democrats have kyboshed it. It's not hard to understand why. Enough of their base does not have the standard ID--the driver's license--in their wallet or purse. I would surmise that D's are likely to lose a few close elections. Short-termism, yes! But voter ID is good for long-term democracy.
There have been many Medium articles on the abolishment of the electoral college to elect the president. The Republicans do have a little advantage for sure, but why aren't the D's championing this electoral change?
https://medium.com/politically-speaking/abolishing-the-electoral-college-83ff9ce24a6c
Maine and Nebraska have different way of electing the EC electors. That way is more representative of who the people really in their president. Why aren't the D's encouraging other states to do the same?
Gerrymandering seems to be out of control (more towards the R's). But in the recent past, there were tacit agreements between the two parties to create more "safe" seats in Congress for D's and R's. The D's signed off on the gerrymandering as long it got its 200 or so safe seats.
What about the credibility and advancement of third parties? If the people want to go in a third party direction, this could be resolved with a ranked choice vote. But the D's resist such a move.
For decades, there has been a tacit agreement between the R's and D's: You get to govern 50% of the time and we get to govern 50%. Let's agree to make it difficult to bring other parties into this process.
The R's are starting to see that they are in a position to govern 100% of the time. That will make the R primaries the main election in US politics. They no longer need to compromise with the D's on sharing power.
We got to this state because the D's were unwilling to make democracy better. Stop blaming the Republicans.
