Capt. Brett Crozier wrote in a letter to superiors under two weeks ago, “We are not at war. Sailors do not need to die.” The commander of the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt, Crozier requested the Navy’s aid in addressing a COVID-19 outbreak aboard his ship.
With the global pandemic killing thousands of Americans, the man occupying the Oval Office has declared himself a “wartime” president. He wishes. But if we accept the metaphor for a moment, the war against COVID-19 is not the only war in town.
Wisconsin’s state Supreme Court blocked Gov. Tony Evers attempted to postpone the election scheduled on Tuesday amidst stay-at-home orders during the worst week yet of the pandemic in the United States. (Evers declared a public health emergency on March 12, but was slow to support postponement.) The U.S. Supreme Court blocked an effort to extend the deadline for voters to submit absentee ballots thousands had yet to receive.
The election forced on Wisconsin on Tuesday was a crime against the polity. The images of thousands standing in line wearing face masks to vote in the middle of a deadly pandemic are a testament to Americans’ determination to having their voices heard. But the odds are for many it will be the last vote they cast.
Crozier’s letter only cost him his job. These two decisions by Republican-leaning courts will cost Americans their lives.
Citizens need not die for exercising their right to vote, Evers believes. We are not at war. Two Republican-controlled supreme courts and the Republican Party behave as if they are. It is a one-sided war against democracy itself.
Do not doubt it. Do not forget it.
Now, what to do about it?
David Roberts writes at Vox:
The best way for Democrats to ensure that November’s elections are viewed as free and fair amid a coronavirus pandemic is to make them so. The best way to make them so, in the time remaining, is to implement universal access to postage-paid mail-in ballots with extended deadlines, serviced by a funded and functional Postal Service. (This is not the only reform needed, but it is the backbone.)
The only way for Democrats to secure that policy is to make it non-negotiable bottom line — a condition of voting through any further stimulus bills. This would be a tough political strategy to follow through on, running counter to national Democrats’ institutional timidity and fears about holding up cash and unemployment for those who really need it. They would be attacked ruthlessly by the right and mau-maued endlessly by the centrist pundits whose opinions they so prize.
But it is the right thing to do on the merits, so they should do it, and defend it without apology. This ought to be a messaging war they can win. If not, what good are they?
It might seem obvious to say that free and fair elections are important in a democracy. But this year, they are by no means assured.
Roberts offers more on the advantages of universal vote by mail here. As for making Democrats fight for it, that’s on you. They won’t get another chance beyond the next stimulus bill to enable it before this fall.
Republicans are at war against free and fair elections. We as a country are suffering under this pandemic worse than other countries because Donald Trump refused to treat COVID-19 as the threat it is until it was too late. Democrats in Congress need to stop dithering and treat the Republican war on voting as if they are fighting one.
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For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide election mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way by June, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.