I had to check to make sure they weren’t just talking about the internal GOP party processes there but nope - they mean America as a whole.
The talking point I see often is, we are NOT a democracy, we are a republic. I don’t know what they think they get by claiming that, but I see it a lot.
They get to erode the idea that we’re a democracy, which is entirely the point.
There’s also the whole thing around the two party names but mostly it’s justification for their attacks on American democracy.
Which, of course, ignores the fact that a republic is a type of democracy.
It’s common to use this anti-democratic argument to justify the electoral college. The claim is that, if we went to a direct popular vote, we would no longer be a republic, which would somehow lead to tyranny. It’s a stupid claim, because the U.S. would just as much be a republic with direct election of the president as it is now.
One reason so many Republicans make this claim is that they know they’re now in the minority nationwide. If the U.S. were to change to a more democratic system by, say, directly electing the president, and eliminating or reducing gerrymandering, it would significantly reduce their power. A really radical change, like getting rid of the Senate, would destroy their power at the national level.
Do Republicans ever argue in favor of eliminating state ballot initiatives? That really is direct democracy, as opposed to republicanism. Do they ever argue against the direct election of governors, in favor of something like the electoral college at the state level? Do they argue in favor each state having part of its legislature not directly elected? If they were logically consistent, they’d want the same things at the state level that they favor at the national level. They don’t really believe in these things. It’s all about holding onto power.
Yes, because of the state abortion-access initiatives that are now popular.
I believe GOP attacks in Ohio and Missouri (the Alabama of the Midwest) lend credence to the party’s hypocrisy re: citizen initiatives.
Great rant, by the way. For.
They are not logically consistent and it is entirely about holding onto power.
If they don’t control things at a federal level, they insist the states should decide. When they gain federal power, they happily impose laws on a national level, even on issues they previously said should be left up to the states.
Lies, hypocrisy and moral bankruptcy are all they have any more.
They are very consistent about hating the right people, though.
I thought they hated the left people though?
Nominally they get the party name glory. “Were not spreading Democrats worldwide, we’re spreading Republicans.”
More insidiously, they are actively gutting democracy. They want to restore Senators to being selected by the State Legislature. That means cutting out voters, one level removed from selecting their representers.
They already are trying to limit voters, cut voting access, make it harder for poor people. They want to eliminate all mail- in votes and all electronic means of counting. This is supposedly in the name of vote integrity, but limits access to hourly workers others who don’t set their own schedule. Counting by hand is supposed to eliminate cheating in the system by rigging the software, but it means needing dozens more volunteer staffers, from both parties, to monitor the counts. Like the hanging chad debacle in Florida on 2000. Our the situation in Arizona.
I have been saying that Republicans are so afraid of Democrats that they are fighting Democracy - now they go and prove me right.
Let’s just split the difference and agree that they hate everyone! 
That also means declaring that the Seventeenth Amendment doesn’t apply to Washington State, apparently.
And even if they could make that happen, it’s tough to see how that would benefit the GOP, since the Democrats enjoy a 58-40 majority in the state Legislature.
They want to campaign to have it repealed.
The premise is it makes Senators more beholden to the State. Somehow it nebulously gives the states more power to offset the federal growth in power.
Yeah, I can see that, but if they’re beholden to the state without being beholden to the GOP, it’s difficult to ferret out a motivation for the GOP to want it. And it’s not like playing the long game is exactly on-brand for these guys.
Mainly because they can’t Gerrymander senate races.
There doesn’t seem to be any logic to it other than elections = bad and stupid democracy because it’s Democratic. “We don’t want to be a democracy, we want to be a republic.”
Uh, those aren’t mutually exclusive things.
‘People? The Democrat party is illeagle! It’s write they’re in the Constitution!’
Article IV, Section 4: The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government
And today’s GOP believes Republican means Authoritarian. Odd thing, though, is they accuse the Liberals of being authoritarian. I guess this is another example of “every accusation”.
For whatever reason, I think this is a good moment to remember a funny line from the 1978 version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers:
Matthew Bennell : Do you want to go see my friend David Kibner?
Elizabeth Driscoll : The psychiatrist?
Matthew Bennell : Not like that. Talk to him. He would put things into perspective. -…
Elizabeth Driscoll : I’m not crazy.
Matthew Bennell : No, no, no. I’m serious. He would eliminate whether Geoffrey was having an affair, or had become gay. Whether he had a social disease, or had become a Republican. All the things that could have happened to have made you feel he had changed.
Or from the SNL parody, where the pods were making liberals into conservatives.
“The answer, my friend/is Ronald Reagan…”