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m_d_hAnybody who knows some history views current politics with some perspective and can see the hypocrisy on both sides.
Democrats are currently complaining vehemently about Republicans trying to curtail voting rights in the states Republicans control, because Republicans have decided that fewer voters is better for continued Republican control.
Yet it was not long ago when many Southern states were de facto one-party states controlled by Democrats. Republicans weren't even allowed on the ballot in many cases, and of course black people were plainly denied the vote.
Democrats used this lock on the South to control the White House, the House, and the Senate for most of the period between 1932 and 1980.
But Democrats shot themselves in the foot by championing voting rights in the 1960s. Ironically, as elections became more free in the US, Republicans became more competitive in the South. Now it is the Republicans who are trying to overturn voting rights, at a time when Democrats are nominally ascendent -- if we had a pure democracy, Democrats would presently have a clear edge.
For decades it was Democrats who counted black people solely for purposes of allocating Electoral Votes and Congressional Districts, while not allowing them to vote. It's weird that Democrats can so easily get away with ignoring their own history while calling out Republicans for taking baby steps in the same direction today.
In 1919, it was Republicans in the House and Senate who voted to allow women to vote. Most Democrats either opposed the Constitutional Amendment, or abstained. Yet do women today remember the Republican Party as their heroes for expanding the franchise? And, yes, it was Republicans who freed the slaves, the Republican Party was literally founded to oppose slavery.
It's weird how things can turn around. A political party that cared about voting rights in the past, tries to get rid of them now. A political party that opposed voting rights in the past, supports expanding them now. And we're not supposed to think about how they've traded places. Maybe the only principle in US politics is that parties generally support whatever voting rules will keep them in power. Trump is more willing to say this quiet part out loud.
Democrats are currently complaining vehemently about Republicans trying to curtail voting rights in the states Republicans control, because Republicans have decided that fewer voters is better for continued Republican control.
Yet it was not long ago when many Southern states were de facto one-party states controlled by Democrats. Republicans weren't even allowed on the ballot in many cases, and of course black people were plainly denied the vote.
Democrats used this lock on the South to control the White House, the House, and the Senate for most of the period between 1932 and 1980.
But Democrats shot themselves in the foot by championing voting rights in the 1960s. Ironically, as elections became more free in the US, Republicans became more competitive in the South. Now it is the Republicans who are trying to overturn voting rights, at a time when Democrats are nominally ascendent -- if we had a pure democracy, Democrats would presently have a clear edge.
For decades it was Democrats who counted black people solely for purposes of allocating Electoral Votes and Congressional Districts, while not allowing them to vote. It's weird that Democrats can so easily get away with ignoring their own history while calling out Republicans for taking baby steps in the same direction today.
In 1919, it was Republicans in the House and Senate who voted to allow women to vote. Most Democrats either opposed the Constitutional Amendment, or abstained. Yet do women today remember the Republican Party as their heroes for expanding the franchise? And, yes, it was Republicans who freed the slaves, the Republican Party was literally founded to oppose slavery.
It's weird how things can turn around. A political party that cared about voting rights in the past, tries to get rid of them now. A political party that opposed voting rights in the past, supports expanding them now. And we're not supposed to think about how they've traded places. Maybe the only principle in US politics is that parties generally support whatever voting rules will keep them in power. Trump is more willing to say this quiet part out loud.