Not everyone loves David Frum here but he said it best—if conservatives can’t get what they want through democracy, they won’t give up conservatism. They’ll give up democracy. And they have.
He did, and kudos for his honesty, but what does it say that he hasn’t stopped being a conservative himself or supporting Trump-like conservatism in his home country of Canada?
It helps explain why …
What conservatism has become since Gingrich doesn’t have a lot to do with the philosophical stance that government should be small, foreign adventures avoided, etc. etc. You might have disagreed with Rockefeller Republicans, say, but you wouldn’t think of them as demented traitors. How has Frum supported Trump-like conservatism in Canada?
Yes, Gingrich had much in common with the Bolsheviks.
I like David Frum for the most part. He at least knows what conservatism is. A growing number of self-professed “conservatives” don’t even know what it means.
Look up his support for Jason Kenney, new nutjob premier of Alberta, who won the election despite (or perhaps because of) extremist and racist candidates. He also still shills for Stephen Harper (the savviest and most stealthy dirtytrickster in Canadian history; Iraq war-apologist, suppressor of the census and of government science and importer of American-style culture wars). Both these guys (Kenney and Harper) are the biggest and most unapologetic boosters for Alberta oil sands. Remember that next time David Frum sends a anxous tweet about impending climate apocalypse.
But he’s never said he wasn’t a conservative any more. And so it would be natural for him to take positions we libs here disagree with. If he views Trump as uniquely dangerous and unfit, I think we can simply agree with him there, and disagree with him elsewhere.
“The last thing we need are more of the wrong sort voting”, GOP Tennessee politicians said.
Motherfucking Republicans…
“We’re all going to need new jobs to go with our new undies if those damn Democrats keep showing up to vote in record numbers,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett told his fellow party apparatchiks.
To me, his statement implies that built-in, permanent conservative advantages (Senate, electoral college, banana repbulic-type electoral laws) are legitimate because they can keep conservatives in the nominally democratic camp, even if their ideas can’t win majority support. I don’t hear him calling for reforms that make elections more democratic. I hear him rail against immigration though.
Well, I have to disagree. Let’s just leave it at that.
Hey stupid GOP legislators to avoid all of those issues, implement automatic voting registration via Department of Motor Vehicles you big redneck dummies!
Additionally, the bill makes it a class A misdemeanor if those groups break certain other rules surrounding voter registration drives, such as Tennessee’s prohibition on paying workers per ballot collected or its vague mandate of training for registration drives of a certain size. A class A misdemeanor brings with it up to one year in jail time and/or up to a $2,500 fine.
This shouldnt pass the giggle test in Federal Court. Until it gets to the young Dixie Republican double play combination, Alito to Gorsuch to Kavanaugh.
Tennessee Republicans, including Secretary of State Tre Hargett, pushed the bill after a boost in turnout in 2018 election.
… because “a boost in turnout” is a problem to be solved.
It’s commonplace to cite America’s abysmally-low turnout numbers as a sign of voter apathy, usually to support the argument that we deserve the bad things that are happening.
Maybe it’s not voter apathy. Maybe voter turnout is low because one political party has declared itself the enemy of voting rights as such. Maybe low turnout is as much consequence as it is cause.
Ah, but there is a “new” federal court of McConell/Trump appointees…
So if you don’t submit every registration form, you go to jail. And if you do submit every registration form you go to jail.
I begin to see a pattern.
The story should consistently mention registrations rather than referring to ballots.