Expanding Voting Access Benefits Everyone, Including Republicans

This isn’t the hot-button issue of the week anymore, so maybe I’m a few days late to share this. But even so, it’s clear as day that the GOP is continuously waging war on voting rights, and it’s important that we continue to keep an eye on this situation.

Their efforts to restrict voting is painfully obvious, even without commentary or biased reporting from left-leaning media outlets. All it takes is simple observation.

Criminalizing the gifting of water, surgically restricting voting access specifically in black and brown or otherwise left-leaning neighborhoods, suddenly shutting down polling stations on the day of voting in those neighborhoods, forcing people who had been waiting for hours to leave polling stations for no apparent reason (as we saw in places like Atlanta), giving Democratic legislators only minutes to analyze lengthy voter suppression bills before putting them up for a vote, their insistence that only this election was questionable when it was no different than previous ones… the list goes on.

Conservatives certainly try to downplay these destructive measures, saying things like “So what if you can’t share water bottles, B.Y.O.B.” However, judging by the fact that they went out of their way to implement these restrictions at all, I’m not sure how it’s humanly possible to spin this as anything but nefarious.

But despite their own appointed election officials confirming time and again that there was no fraud to be addressed, they press on, disregarding the surmounting evidence that consistently invalidates their claims.

But just in case we need more evidence to prove that their regressive efforts are baseless, consider this:

What they are not saying is perhaps just as clear an indicator of their intentions as their restrictive efforts.

Even Republicans Benefit from Expanded Voting Access

Republicans fail to recognize — or perhaps more accurately, admit — that the expansion of ballot access, early voting, and absentee ballot accessibility benefits everyone, themselves included. After all, it doesn’t matter if you vote blue or red — who wants to spend hours upon hours waiting in line, risking the chance that you won’t even make it to the voting booth in time?

With ever-expanding populations and communities, increasing commute times for people in those communities, and long work hours spurred on by declining wages and a rising cost of living, it just makes sense to make voting easier for everyone, right?

Wouldn’t you feel better knowing you could cast your vote at a number of nearby ballot boxes instead of planning a day trip to drive across town and stand in line all day? Moreover, wouldn’t it be easier to simply vote from home, especially during a global pandemic? You know, the way numerous states have done for decades?

Now, I know Republicans aren’t too keen on science or public health, so perhaps the pandemic factor doesn’t quite apply to their reality. But the fact that COVID-19 is still killing the overwhelmingly conservative unvaccinated population in droves is undeniable. And surely they’ll continue denying it. But, as with all other tragedies, they’ll probably only accept it when it happens to them or someone they know. But I digress.

Honestly, they would be doing themselves a favor by expanding voting access. Their supporters are the ones who refuse to get vaccinated and are at greatest risk of COVID-related illness or death. The safer and healthier their base is, the more votes they will receive.

Silently Loud

So why is the party of convenience so opposed to convenience in this instance alone? The answer is clear.

Their silence in the face of their own potential benefit from voting expansion speaks louder than their barbaric assault on the election system. It basically confirms that they have no interest in bolstering the democratic process, let alone simply upholding it. Instead of, say, motivating their base to turn out in record numbers on election day, they’d rather undermine democracy as a whole just so they can deal a blow to the Democratic party.

Simply put, they’ll do as much damage as they can to everyone, even themselves, so they can be contrary purely for the sake of being contrary.

After all, contrarianism has become their ethos since the early days of the Obama administration. They do not define success by the improved livelihood of all, but rather by the damage they inflict on certain demographics — namely those who progressives strive to support in times of need.

So here we are, calling out the idiocy and blatant danger of their tactics while progressives must actually set aside progressivism and offer stability, preventing our political landscape from slipping backwards into barbarism.