Radical right GOP attacks on elections continue

No, the Republican Party is not done yet passing laws to suppress votes, rig elections in their favor and undermine confidence in elections and democracy generally. All the ducks will be in line in time for the 2022 elections. The New York Times writes:

A new wave of Republican legislation to reshape the nation’s electoral system is coming in 2022, as the G.O.P. puts forward proposals ranging from a requirement that ballots be hand-counted in New Hampshire to the creation of a law enforcement unit in Florida to investigate allegations of voting fraud.

The Republican drive, motivated in part by a widespread denial of former President Donald J. Trump’s defeat last year, includes both voting restrictions and measures that could sow public confusion or undermine confidence in fair elections, and will significantly raise the stakes of the 2022 midterms.

After passing 33 laws of voting limits in 19 states this year, Republicans in at least five states — Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Oklahoma and New Hampshire — have filed bills before the next legislative sessions have even started that seek to restrict voting in some way, including by limiting mail voting. In over 20 states, more than 245 similar bills put forward this year could be carried into 2022, according to Voting Rights Lab, a group that works to expand access to the ballot.

In many places, Democrats will be largely powerless to push back at the state level, where they remain overmatched in Republican-controlled legislatures. G.O.P. state lawmakers across the country have enacted wide-ranging cutbacks to voting access this year and have used aggressive gerrymandering to lock in the party’s statehouse power for the next decade.

But the left remains short of options, leaving many candidates, voters and activists worried about the potential effects in 2022 and beyond, and increasingly frustrated with Democrats’ inability to pass federal voting protections in Washington.

“What we are facing now is a very real and acute case of democratic subversion,” Ms. Abrams said in an interview, adding that the country needed a Senate willing to “protect our democracy regardless of the partisanship of those who would oppose it.”  

Republicans say the bills are needed to preserve what they call election integrity, though electoral fraud remains exceedingly rare in American elections. 

G.O.P. lawmakers in at least five states have put forward legislation to review the 2020 election and institute new procedures for investigating the results of future elections.

Many of the other bills are similar to those passed this year, which aim to limit access to mail-in voting; reduce the use of drop boxes; enact harsher penalties for election officials who are found to have broken rules; expand the authority of partisan poll watchers; and shift oversight of elections from independent officials and commissions to state legislatures.

This is more clear and undeniable evidence that the republican Party is authoritarian and out to subvert elections and democracy. The authoritarian's intent cannot be clearer, despite their claims of just wanting to insure “election integrity.” Their laws target democrats, minorities, college students and poll workers. 

At this point, the situation for Democrats looks bleak. Republicans can and are subverting future elections in states where they can. All the Republican anti-election measures might be sufficient to make it almost impossible for Democrats to ever gain control of government again as it has now. Maybe a backlash among Democratic voters could increase turnout, but odds of that possibility is unclear. Democrats tend not to vote compared to Republicans, especially in non-presidential election years. 

It also need to be kept in mind that the Republicans do not need to suppress a large number of votes in Senate and Presidential races. All they need to do is disenfranchise a small number to win a close race. 

Questions: 

1. It is reasonable and evidence-based to believe that the Republican Party is (i) authoritarian (or fascist), and (ii) intent on subverting elections and public trust in them? If the answer to (i) is no, how much more and what kind of evidence is needed to draw the opposite conclusion?

2. How much responsibility each do the ex-president and the Republican Party bear for the party's turn to solidly anti-democratic authoritarianism, assuming one believes that has happened, e.g., about equal, mostly ex-president or mostly GOP?