Nice try, Mitch McConnell

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The GOP will henceforth struggle to win elections of national import with our diverse electorate and higher turnout. The party is beholden to its mission as the party of manufactured white and evangelical grievance, and it won’t budge from this. Instead of reforming itself into a functional party with broader appeal, the party seeks to restrict the vote as much as possible. The QAnon party doesn’t care how unethical its anti-democracy measures are, and it will do anything to try to regain and keep power.

If you’re disinclined to vote Republican, the QAnon party wants to disenfranchise you. As of mid-February, Republicans in 43 states had proposed some 250 measures to make voting harder. These GOP-sponsored bills would bring the most sweeping restrictions to voting since Reconstruction. It’s Jim Crow-level disenfranchisement that the right is desperate to see put into place. Tens of millions of us would be affected, with the intent to make voting as onerous as possible for non-Republicans.

Senate Minority Leader McConnell, whose morals are nonexistent, says Democrats’ attempts to protect voting rights and ensure more citizens can partake in our democracy are “a solution in search of a problem” and an “invitation to chaos.” As usual, McConnell is wrong and untruthful.

Of Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Schumer wants to know “why are you so afraid of democracy?” We know why the QAnon party is afraid of democracy and our increasingly progressive and diverse polity. Some Republicans say the quiet parts aloud, admitting they cannot win elections fairly. While it’s easy to feel despair and worry evil has prevailed, it has not. We can overcome the right’s attempts by not becoming complacent and by continuing to show up to vote despite the obstacles the GOP tries to erect in our path to the ballot box. Our turnout can overcome their attempts to disenfranchise us.

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