“Republicans are laying the groundwork to refuse to certify a 2024 Democratic presidential victory . . .”

– Opinion by Perry Bacon Jr., Washington Post 5/20/2021

I have a bet with my wife about the Senate filibuster. My bet is that the Biden Administration cannot or will not modify the filibuster enough to allow passage of the pending voting rights acts. Without these acts to stop them, Republicans have all but finished laying the groundwork to overturn the next presidential election. The radical right has been brilliantly working on the statehouses for several decades. This work has been done quietly and effectively. Conversely, the anti-democratic radicals have loudly and egregiously warped the U.S. Supreme Court in their favor. They flagrantly did this right in the Democrat’s face even though they represented a minority of the population. The Republican statehouses have learned they can refuse to certify presidential elections that run in favor of Democrats. When they refuse to certify, the election, as dictated by the Constitution, is thrown to the U.S. House where the election decision is made by one state one vote. Republican states represent a minority of the population but they are the majority of the states and so the democratically decided election will be overturned in favor of a Republican.

The democratic experiment in the U.S.A. has as much as ended. The work has been done. Much of the country is asleep about it or fine with it. We will have a one party minority rule.

What will be the consequence? What will the silenced majority do? What will you do?

One thought is to move to a blue state. Blue states will inevitably enact democratic laws to block some of the damage caused by right-wing minority rule. Republicans make a lot of noise about state’s rights, but they will inevitably use the power of the federal government to block the blue states from remaining democratic (small “d”). Will the Republicans be willing to send in the Army to enforce their autocratic rule? Probably. There is no depth they will not plumb. They will say, as they do, that they are saving the Union.

Another thought is that it won’t make much difference. Americans will still have plenty of sports and other TV to watch. Big Tech will continue to rule the economy. There will be ever more cows and cars. The climate will continue to overheat, the earth’s ecology overrun (imagine for instance the night sky lit up by the coming flood of satellites launched by Musk and Bezos), bigotry and prejudice will prevail. Republican cronies will eagerly prosper from political patronage.

Just like now.

Will Americans care?