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The GOP Wants Fewer People to Vote for Them
By Tina Dupuy, August 10, 2012
The Republican primary has been over for months now but it’s hard to
tell. The presumptive nominee (I’ll get to stop writing that phrase in a
couple of weeks … hopefully), Mitt Romney, is still campaigning like
he’s trying to convince his own party he’s Mr. Right, Mr.
Right-Enough—or in his case Mr. Right…Now.
“What America is not is a collective where we all work in a kibbutz,” Romney said at
a fundraiser in Chicago this week. “Instead it’s individuals pursuing
their dreams and building successful enterprises which employ others and
they become inspired as they see what has happened in the place they
work and go off and start their own enterprises.”
America, not a collective: Not a place where people work together,
according to Romney. Just a place where bosses are untethered by the
shackles of pensions, environmental concerns or worker safety
regulations so they can create magical towers of tax-free enterprise
which “employs others.”
Willard M. Romney, the Everyman.
Romney is not trying to be popular; he’s running for president on the
Republican ticket. He’s still trying to get Republicans to like him and
Republicans now make up less than 35 percent of
Americans. Reaching outside of their “big tent,” Romney spoke at an
NAACP event, and after being booed by the crowd he explained it was
because the attendees at the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People want free stuff. He loves free stuff (like tax-free!) but finds it distasteful in people not clever enough to borrow money
from their parents for college.
Romney’s international tour was of a
whopping three countries. Notably at least one didn’t boo him. In the
immortal words of George W. Bush, “Don’t forget Poland!”
Romney doesn’t appear to be trying to win the support of the majority
of Americans (or the world for that matter). He appears to be playing
for the affections of a few key shareholders. Romney is a niche
candidate of a tiny percent of Americans who think working for a living
describes what your money does for you.
Let’s take stock of the groups Republicans are no longer attempting
to appeal to: Wage earners. Women in their child-bearing years. People
with pre-existing conditions. Unions. Public workers. The unemployed.
Monogamous gay couples. The under-employed. Moderate Republicans.
Muslims. Latinos. Oh and independent voters. We’re not going to see a
“Romney Democrats” group pop up before November, save maybe a political
wonk’s Halloween party.
Romney is nominee no one really likes. Fewer people will vote for
Mitt. The only chance for a mediocre candidate to win the majority of
votes is for fewer votes to be counted. Voter ID laws have become vogue
in states like Florida,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, South Carolina and Indiana.
All of a sudden the Grand Old Party is concerned about voter fraud,
which even the Republican National Lawyer Association in a stretch of
their data claims only 311 cases in
the last decade. Other estimates put the number in the tens. Way more
Americans have won gold medals than have voted fraudulently. So
Republicans must “fix” this non-problem (in places which just so happen
to swing states/counties/districts) by making it as difficult as
possible to cast a ballot. On ABC’sThis Week, Washington Post columnist George Will called early voting “deplorable” because it interferes with campaigning. The horror! You know what interferes with voting?
Having a j-o-b. Early voting is the easiest way for blue-collar workers
to be able to have their vote counted. Less early voting, fewer people
who earn a paycheck at the polls. And that’s deplorable if you’re a
Republican in the 2012 election cycle.
Republicans are working very hard to get fewer votes. Instead of
stacking the deck they’re just trying to disenfranchise all the cards
who disagree with them (you know, the majority of the country). It’s a
reasonable strategy as their presumptive nominee (gah!) brands himself
as the small government/voting bloc candidate who likes being able to
fire people.
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