The Jan. 6th committee hearings have shown how Donald Trump sought to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which he lost. But Trump’s efforts are far from the most serious threat to our democracy.
Across the country, Republicans have spread Trump’s Big Lie that the election was stolen, and used it as a weapon to justify a range of restrictive legislation that makes registration and voting more difficult, and gives partisan officials greater scope to overturn the results of elections where they don’t like the result. Worse, these efforts have been bolstered by a series of Supreme Court decisions – written by activist right-wing judges – dating back long before Trump–that undermine free and fair elections in the United States.
First the Supreme Court acted to open the sluice gates to big money in politics. It invented the doctrine that money is speech and ruled that individuals could give unlimited sums to their own campaigns. Now, as inequality has grown perverse, we see a proliferation of wealthy candidates seeking to buy an election the way they would purchase a yacht. Then the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are people and outlawed any limits on what they contribute to campaigns. That opened the door to what now amounts to more than a billion in “dark money,” money contributed to independent PACs with no disclosure, so drug and oil companies can boost their own candidates for office.
Then the Court struck down any overall limits on the amount an individual can contribute directly to federal candidates, parties or PACS. Now billionaires can and do literally pay for the party and the candidates. Most recently, in the case of the FEC v. Ted Cruz for Senate, the right-wing majority struck down the prohibition on candidates raising money AFTER the election to repay PERSONAL loans that they made to fund their own campaigns. This means that the rich and corporations can wait to see who wins and then contribute directly to that candidate’s pocket, opening the door for legalized bribery.
At the same time that the Court has been opening the door for big money, it has been closing the door for fair elections. In 2013, the conservative majority gutted the Voter Rights Act, the centerpiece of the civil rights movement designed to protect the right of Blacks to vote. Since then, 26 states have passed restrictive legislation, most of which would have had to get preclearance from the Justice Department.
Then in Rucho v. Common Cause, the right-wing judges ruled that the federal courts would not stand in the way of the most partisan gerrymandering, no matter how egregious. That opens the door for states so distorted that a majority of the voters get a small minority of the legislators.
Now the right-wing majority on the Supreme Court has decided to take up Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina case that argues that when it comes to federal elections, the state legislature is supreme. There are no checks and balances. No governor’s veto, no state court review, no state constitution limits. If adopted, this would empower a majority in a state legislature representing a minority of a state’s voters to overturn the results of a presidential election vote if they didn’t like the result. It is an open door to Trump’s Big Lie and to democratic crisis.
This isn’t the first time right-wing Supreme Court justices have undermined the right to vote, the cornerstone of democracy. There is no guarantee of the right to vote in the Constitution. After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment guaranteed due process and equal protection under the laws. The 15th Amendment prohibited denying the right to vote on the basis of race, color or previous condition of servitude. The Congress then passed a series of laws to enforce the new rights and protect freed slaves from racially motivated violence or intimidation. Yet, invoking the doctrine of “states’ rights,” the Supreme Court struck down nearly every law protecting the former slaves. With Plessy v. Ferguson, the Court’s majority ratified apartheid in America, embracing segregation. And nearly every state in the former Confederacy passed new constitutions and laws that made it virtually impossible for African Americans to exercise their right to vote. That led to nearly a century of segregation which ended only with the civil rights movement.
Once more, the right-wing judges on the Court are invoking the doctrine of “states’ rights” to undermine the right to vote. They have opened the door to big money and gutted the protections of the Voting Rights Act. They have opened the door to unlimited partisan gerrymandering. Now they seem intent on giving a majority in a state legislature the absolute power over federal elections.
Donald Trump and his Big Lie (as the hearings have shown) pose a clear and present danger to our democracy. And once more, a conservative majority on the Supreme Court is aiding and abetting those intent on undermining the right to vote. Pollsters tell us the threat to democracy isn’t a leading issue for American voters. But just as it took the civil rights movement to overcome segregation, it will take a new citizens movement to save democracy from those intent on subverting it.
You can write to the Rev. Jesse Jackson in care of this newspaper or by email at jjackson@rainbowpush.org. Follow him on Twitter @RevJJackson.
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
