Politics
Look, in the end governing is about politics. And politics is about winning elections. If we want to change America, we have to win elections. It’s as simple as that.
But, of course, it’s really not that simple at all. Because as today’s Congress and the last three Presidential elections show, America is on an electoral razor’s edge. Four Senate seats, five House seats, and about two percent of the overall votes, and Democrats control the Congress, the Presidency, and the Supreme Court for the last decade. The American “story” would be very different.
This is not “new news”. But it does explain much of the current MAGA attacks on the vote.
Their electoral math is pretty simple. If MAGA can drive down the number of Democratic voters, they can win. The theory is this: MAGA Republicans are highly motivated voters. We’ll see if that’s still true after two years of the second Trump Administration and without Trump himself on the ballot. But the expectation is that those stalwarts will show up. Efforts to make voting more difficult: stop mail-in voting, consolidate polling places into “warehouses”, make voting identification arduous, send ICE to the polls; all have a greater impact on Democratic leaning voters than on Republicans.
Just an aside: the proper labeling is “Democratic voters” not “Democrat voters”. The shortened version is a Republican talking point, designed to diminish the stature of Democrats and to emphasize the “rat”. My suggestion might be in this “tit for tat” environment, call all Republicans “Pubs”, pronounced with a “long U”. But I happen to like “pubs” (short U), at least in the beer tap sense. So, when motivated I replace my Dad’s Republican Party with the letters MAGA. Sounds like maggot.
Make It Count
Another way to drive down the vote, is to make voting inconsequential. The “Red Map” Gerrymandering scheme, which pre-dates Trump and MAGA, pushed both Red and Blue states to draw the least politically competitive districts possible, with pre-ordained political outcomes. Who cares to vote, when you already know who your state legislators and Congressmen will be? If, as Tip O’Neil, Democratic Speaker of the House in the 1980’s said, “All politics are local”; then if all local elections have pre-determined outcomes, fewer will come to vote.
We saw the extreme of that with Trump’s current demand of Red states to “push the envelope” of Gerrymandering, squeezing every possible MAGA House seat out. Some Democratic states responded (unexpectedly). The people of California “checked” the legislature of Texas, at least equaling the balance. But other states, Missouri, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee did their best to keep the House of Representatives in MAGA hands.
Of note: some states on both sides either chose or failed to respond. New York, Virginia and Maryland did not change for the Blue, and Indiana and Nebraska for the Red. Ohio, as usual, pretended to “not Gerrymander”, but at least two more seats that were likely Democratic are now vulnerable.
Drowned in Paper
And then there’s the Save Act. It’s a series of steps to “secure the voting” nationally. The Act would establish difficult proof of citizenship requirements, some of which could potentially disenfranchise millions of women voting in this country (NWLC). The goal of the Save Act is to keep non-citizens from voting in American elections. That’s a solution without a problem.
The conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation (author of Project 2025) has some of the best illegal voting information in their own database. It shows the true extent of illegal voting in America. In data for every state going back forty-four years, there is a total of 1,382 criminal convictions for voter fraud. That’s an average of 31.4 a year (Heritage). Just counting Presidential elections over that time, over 1.4 Billion votes were cast. The number of illegal votes is vanishingly small (about one 10 millionth of a percent).
So why make voters jump through all of these hoops: a paper trail of birth certificates, marriage licenses, divorce decrees, legal name changes, and residency proofs to “solve” a non-existent illegal voting problem?
For two reasons. First, a MAGA “fundamental truth” is that “Real America” would never have voted for Biden (or Harris, Clinton, or Obama). So the elections must be “rigged”, and they must stop the “steal” (heard that before?). In order to maintain that fiction, MAGA political leaders MUST be seen trying to prevent the next “steal”.
Second, all of this incessant paperwork will have the net effect of driving down the vote, by making voting even more difficult. That’s especially true for those with less access or time to find that paperwork; minorities and poorer voters. Some just won’t try. And since a large proportion of them vote Democratic, the Save Act helps MAGA suppress the “Blue” vote.
Your Voice
So far, the Republican Senate has not succumbed to Trump’s pressure to pass the Save Act. As Republican Senator Thom Tillis said, it’s far “late in the game” to change the voting rules for 2026. But that doesn’t mean they still won’t try. Save Act or not, Gerrymandering or not, it is essential that Democrats show up in November. Even if their state legislative and Congressional seats are Gerrymandered, their votes for statewide office, including Senators are not. And sometimes even the best laid Gerrymandering districts are flawed. Texas, and even Ohio, may elect more Democrats than they planned.
The people’s voice has a way of overwhelming all opposition. November of 2026 is the time to start having a say.
Use your vote.
