They really do hate democracy
by David Atkins
The common thread in the budget hostage negotiations for Republicans was the idea that Democrats lack legitimacy to rule. President Obama’s re-election didn’t matter because Republicans are right, dammit, and his voters are just moochers anyway. Democratic control of the Senate doesn’t matter because blue states are dens of iniquity. That Republicans only hold the House by virtue of gerrymandering doesn’t matter, because the 1.4 million more voters who chose Democratic House candidates are parasites of the 47%. That none of these things are true doesn’t matter. They feel true to a certain kind of scared, suburban, mostly male, mostly Southern white Republican voter who thinks of himself as John Galt.
Democratic elected officials are irrelevant to them because in their minds, Democratic voters shouldn’t even have the right to vote. Where Republicans have the ability to do so, they’re restricting voting rights as much as they dare, including in Virginia:
Virginia elections officials say they have already purged nearly 40,000 names from the voter rolls that are the subject of a lawsuit filed by Democrats seeking to keep those voters registered.
The Democratic Party of Virginia filed suit in federal court earlier this month over plans to purge as many 57,000 names ahead of November’s gubernatorial election based on evidence the voters had registered in other states. Democrats say the list is riddled with errors.
In a court filing late Tuesday, the State Board of Elections said it has already purged 38,870 names, while keeping more than 11,000 on the rolls after county registrars conducted their own reviews.
After all, who cares if the voters would prefer even a tattered Democrat like McAuliffe over a nutcase like Cuccinelli? They’re not the right voters, so they don’t count.
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