They say cheaters never win, but Republicans across the country are determined to try.
State Rep. Peter Lund, R-Shelby Township, is considering introducing a bill that would alter the way Michigan awards its electoral votes in presidential elections. The status quo is whichever candidate wins the popular vote in a state then receives
that state’s electoral votes.
Chicanery is to be expected in American politics, but the Republican Party will ruin our democratic process with its inability to accept loss.
President Barack Obama defeated Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in the 2012 election cycle 332 to 206; 16 of the electoral votes for Obama came from Michigan. The bill proposed by Lund would instead move votes to be awarded by congressional district.
It is more than a coincidence that if Lund’s bill had been enacted nationwide before the 2012 election cycle Romney would have received an estimated 10 electoral votes from our state, and he would have defeated Obama 273 to 262 electoral votes.
It is more than a coincidence that similar proposals have been introduced in Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia—all swing states Romney failed to win.
It is more than a coincidence that Republicans currently control these states.
State legislatures are empowered to draw a state’s congressional districts after a census has been performed every decade. The party in power always draws district lines to favor their party.
Republicans had control of most states in 2010, so they drew the districts to their favor.
Gerrymandered districts do not lead to better representation, and
if congressional districts award electoral votes, well, then the perfect process our founders devised becomes a game of who can rig the system the best every 10 years.
Most of the political establishment in the news media expected a contrite and reformed Republican Party after the last election.
They failed to win the presidency, lost seats in the House of Representatives and were unable to take control of the Senate.
This was a poor assumption, and it is already evident this reformation will not take place any time soon.
Reince Priebus, who delivered these disastrous results in the 2012 election cycle as chairman of the Republican National Committee was recently re-elected to his position—unanimously.
Ohio Republican and speaker of the House John Boehner said last month it was a national priority to “help make abortion a relic of the past.”
For all of the insistence on jobs, jobs, jobs, the Republican Party has spent a lot of time preoccupied with women’s bodies.
It is a preoccupation that led Richard Mourdock, the Republican senate candidate in Indiana, to lose, and for Todd Akin, also Republican, to fail at his senatorial bid in Missouri.
Evidenced by recent developments, a majority of Republicans will not attempt introspection; they will not take the spiritual journey necessary for future victories.
It has been settled. If the Republican Party can’t win with ideas, they’ll just cheat.
