From TPM, Josh Marshall on the curiously weak right to vote and on how the battle for the right to vote has never been won; and Gregory Downs on how today’s voter suppression tactics have a 150 year history: Rebels in the post-Civil War South perfected the art of excluding voters, but it was yankees in the North who developed the script. Voter purges are on the rise in states with a history of racial discrimination: The increase coincides with a Supreme Court decision on the Voting Rights Act (and more and more). If Kavanaugh is confirmed, you can kiss the right to vote goodbye.
What’s good for democracy is also good for Democrats: America is at its best when it turns the disenfranchised into the enfranchised. Voter registration won’t save the Democrats: Progressives need to target the large pool of citizens who are registered but don’t bother to vote. A group of “patriotic millionaires” thinks Democrats can run — and win — on taxes. Swing voters are extremely real: There aren’t that many of them, but they matter a lot. A changing U.S. electorate will sweep away Trumpism: Sam Fulwood interviews Bill Frey, author of Diversity Explosion: How New Racial Demographics are Remaking America.
The messy reality of Donald Trump’s poll numbers: He’s playing a strong hand, poorly. Trump’s reelection slogan, “Keep America Great”, belies how much trouble he’s in. All that’s left is the vote: The midterm elections are the last obstacle to Trump’s consolidation of power — and the greatest obstacle to voting is the feeling that it doesn’t matter.
