If one had to guess which GOP-led state would manage to enact new election laws that – due to pure incompetence – manage to backfire and hurt the GOP, there would be many candidates. But “Florida,” led by the ultimate “Florida Man” in Governor Ron DeSantis, and being MAGA HQ, would win going away.
It is hard to know how all the new election laws will impact each state. But a study of Florida’s new election laws makes it fairly clear that at least in Florida… “Oops.” From the Washington Post [1]:
Republican campaigns invested millions of dollars encouraging their supporters to cast ballots by mail. State legislators passed laws making it easier. Over the ensuing decades, GOP voters in Florida became so comfortable with casting ballots by mail that in 2020, nearly 35 percent of those who turned out did so, according to state data compiled by University of Florida political science professor Daniel A. Smith.
Wow. It is stunning that no member of DeSantis’s crew ever mentioned: “Hey guys, until this year, our crowd was passing laws to make all this vote by mail stuff easier. As I kind of look around at our statewide offices, it doesn’t look so bad. You know?”
Nope. Florida.
Virtually every narrow Republican victor of the past generation — and there have been many, including two of the state’s current top officeholders, Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Rick Scott — owes their victory, at least in part, to mail voting.
Again, DeSantis’s aides, or legislative staff: “So, anyway, since our top people are all GOP, maybe we should first look at why? Just throwin’ it out there, you know?”
Nope. Florida.
“Donald Trump attempted to ruin a perfectly safe and trusted method of voting,” said one longtime Republican consultant in the state who spoke on the condition of anonymity to offer a candid assessment. “The main law that we pass when we pass election bills in Florida is the law of unintended consequences,” he said. Now, he added, the GOP must live with the result.
DeSantis’s aide: Shakes his/her head, walks away.
Given the fact that many of the other states haven’t completed their new statutory efforts or haven’t had their laws sufficiently studied under past data, it is entirely possible that Florida is not the only state to outsmart itself, just the most obvious, obviously.
Not a single portion of the above makes any attempt, in any state, forgivable. There is no doubt that the MAGAs intend to stamp out democracy and some of the legislation will be successful – very successful. To the extent they succeed, the elections look more like those in Russia. Russia holds elections. But they are for show, the result is preordained. Have no doubt, the GOP shares the same ultimate goal.
They are setting up permanent minority rule because they understand that they are increasingly in the minority. Preordained minority rule is also known as fascism, and the national leader is a dictator, often called “the president.” Putin’s title is “President Putin.” The words themselves do not mean we’re still a constitutional republic. We must guard the principles underneath.
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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @JasonMiciak