Elections have consequences, but not for GOP

Tuesday, December 4

If you can't beat 'em ... limit them? The GOP's strategy in states lost during the midterm elections screams of sore losers.

In states they lost (Wisconsin and Michigan, most notably), some Republican lawmakers are rushing to limit the incoming Democrats' power.

Voters will be heard

By Ryan Pougiales

Elections have consequences. Or, at least, that is the idea. But after being routed in this year's elections, Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin are rewriting state law on their way out the door to handcuff their Democratic successors.

Some news articles have failed to adequately characterize these actions, obliquely referring to them as "legislative action" or "sweeping lame-duck legislation ." What we are actually witnessing is Republicans casually discarding the will of state voters in favor of their narrow partisan interests.

In Wisconsin, the Republican legislature wants to restrict Gov.-elect Tony Evers and Attorney General-elect Josh Kaul from withdrawing the state from a federal lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act and to put in place cuts to early voting, among other actions. In Michigan, Republican legislators want the power to interfere in legal cases involving state law and to shift campaign-finance oversight from the new Democratic secretary of state to a commission.

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Republicans' assault on voters' will is exactly the wrong message after this year's inspired voter participation. According to the University of Florida's associate professor Michael McDonald, this year's midterm turnout rate was the highest since 1914.

Instead, elected officials who are genuinely dedicated to doing the peoples' work should be empowering voters, through steps such as automatic voter registration, restoring the right to vote, and ending parochial and partisan gerrymandering. But that is the point: Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin do not care about the will of the people, and so instead of respecting voters' call for change they are working to implement this 11th-hour legislative coup.

This is not the first time state Republicans have attempted to usurp power on their way out of office. In 2016, North Carolina Republicans worked to strip incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper of his appointment power and lock in Republican control of the state's board of elections. These efforts have become tied up in court or rejected at the ballot box.

A prevailing message from voters this year was that politicians must return to representing their interests. Voters called for getting big money out of politics, a renewed focus on core issues such as health care access and affordability, and they rejected Republicans who spent the past two years kowtowing to President Donald Trump. Republicans in Michigan and Wisconsin are disregarding this clarion call and doing so at their peril, because as ongoing protests in Lansing and Madison show, voters' will will be heard.

Ryan Pougiales is a senior political analyst at Third Way. You can follow him on Twitter: @ryanpougiales.

Suburban Vote Goes To Democrats

R.J. Matson/Portland, Maine/PoliticalCartoons.com

What our readers are saying

It just shows how dirty and corrupt the Republican Party has become. Never vote Republican unless you want your rights taken away.

— Jeff Sparks

Sad. It's clear that the Wisconsin GOP does not support full participation in a democratic society. Party over country seems to be driving every one of its proposals.

If you can't get the vote, work to influence who votes seems to be their motives.

— Tom Kane

The reason Republicans hold a majority in Wisconsin to begin with is because of a horrendously gerrymandered district map. I fully expect them to "take back" all these toxic plans the second Gov.-elect Tony Evers leaves office.

— Mike Benson

Courts will have a field day with what Republicans are doing. Pure tyranny and Trump-style tantrum at its best.

— Jonathan Scott Spicer

What others are saying

James Hohmann, The Washington Post : "What's happening is formally known as an 'extraordinary session,' in which legislative leaders call lawmakers back to town after the normal window for passing bills has closed. But it's really more akin to the loser of a board game changing the rules to make it easier for him to win the next time. It's also a reflection of the Republican Party's wholesale embrace of smash-mouth, zero-sum politics in the Trump era."

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Twitter: "During the special session in 2010, lawmakers considered contracts that couldn't be changed for years. The things being discussed in the 2018 extraordinary session are things that can be changed by the new governor and legislature."

David Leonhardt, The New York Times: "The Republican Party continues to show an alarming disrespect for democracy. ... What's happening ... is an anti-democratic power grab. It is qualitatively different from the usual lawmaking that occurs during so-called lame-duck sessions, just after an election."

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