Comment by bleepblorp | Hacker News Reader

Comment by bleepblorp | Hacker News Reader

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Faith is eroding in the American electoral process because the Republican party has been working very hard both to undermine the process and to spread propaganda to the effect that the process is untrustworthy.

People could have more faith in the process without more legal cases like Florida 2000 (which kept Gore out of the White House despite him winning the vote in Florida), the Brooks Brothers Riot[0] and its 2020 replicas, the 2019 Georgia governors race (where the Republican candidate was also the secretary of state responsible for counting the votes; needless to say, there were 'irregularities.'), pervasive efforts to prevent demographics that historically do not vote Republican from voting[1], manipulation of the postal service to disenfranchise likely Biden voters[2], the continuing myth of 'voter fraud' that the GOP spreads[3] to justify disenfranchisement, and the constant drumbeat of 'it's rigged if I don't win' emerging from Trump's Twitter account and replicated by Facebook and other right-wing media outlets.

There's no clear way to restore faith in the electoral process without removing disdain for democracy from the Republican Party's DNA.

[0] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/what-is-the-brooks-b...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression_in_the_Unite...

[2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/11/05/usps-late...

[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/09/24/fbi-has-not-seen-evidence-of...

Is there a way for the Supreme Court to censure the Republican Party for the damage they've caused? Serious question…

The Republican party was under a consent decree to prohibit it from attempting to prevent minorities from voting, but once enough Republican justices were installed on the supreme court the consent decree was terminated. The court also voided the most effective parts of the voting rights act, which further allowed the GOP to suppress voter turnout among demographics likely to vote Democratic.

The preponderance of partisan, Republican, judges on the supreme court is very much part of the problem.

No, this is not in the constitution. But regardless, two-thirds of the supreme court are Republican appointees.

Faith is eroding in the American electoral process because the Democratic party has been working very hard both to undermine the process and to spread propaganda to the effect that the process is untrustworthy. [See the Russia hoax that was propagated and still believed to this day].

Take a step back, take a deep breath, and remember that issues are more complicated than "my team good, your team bad."

Co-ordinated Russian election interference was investigated by Trump's own Justice Department. They didn't find any. That sounds like democracy working to me.

Or perhaps we shouldn't investigate foreign election interference?

> Russian election interference was investigated by Trump's own Justice Department. They didn't find any.

The DoJ very much found signs of Russian election interference. They just couldn't prove that the Trump campaign actively conspired with Russia.

Wrong.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_report

At least read the Wikpiedia summary of the Mueller Report[0] if you don't have the time to read the whole document.

The 'Russia hoax' produced multiple criminal charges, both of Russians for interfering in the 2016 election, and of several Americans for obstructing the DoJ's attempts to investigate the possibility of people in the Trump orbit conspiring with the Russian government.

It has been factually established that Russia interfered with the 2016 election. The only question -- which cannot be answered because people in the Trump orbit lied to investigators and concealed evidence -- is whether the Trump campaign actively conspired with Russian entities beyond Trump openly asking for their help to access H. Clinton's 'emails.'

Take a step back, take a deep breath, and remember that some issues are a lot clearer than intentionally obfuscatory Republican narratives make them out to be.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mueller_report

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