Election 2022: The Argument for Pessimism

Ye Olde Blogge has been feeling all doom and gloom about the ’22 elections and the prospects for our democracy having noted the amazing success that the GQP has had in (a) populating the federal courts, especially SCOTUS, with judges willing to make nakedly partisan barely logical or reasonable judicial decisions, (b) not only passing voter suppression and nullification laws, but also, acting on them, and (c) grinding the actions of the federal and state governments to a halt so that all they really do is create anxiety in the populace. As we frequently note, when one of the two major political parties refuses to participate in governing, we cease to have a democracy.

The upcoming ’22 election will be the first under the new gerrymandered districts and using the state’s voter suppression and nullification laws, so we’ll see how it turns out. Unfortunately, it probably won’t seem much different to your average disengaged mostly somnambulant white middle-aged middle-class suburban voter. Let’s just make some predictions about what it will look like, and, as always, feel free to add your thoughts and predictions in the comments.

Voting and the Election

Election 2022: How Confident are we in the Counting of the Vote?

One of the vexing things about living in a pseudo-democracy is that elections are held, some people still get to vote, a candidate is declared the winner, and the winner takes office. Just like it doesn’t matter whether your cat or dog for that matter actually does love you as long as they do enough things to make our brains feel loved, it may not matter whether our elections are real or sham as long as they use enough of the trappings of a fair election to make us think they are.

What might elections in a pseudo-democracy look like:

• VOTING. People will still vote. There will be fewer of them voting, but there will be people voting.
• REGISTRATION. It will be more difficult to register to vote as many are finding out now, especially those wanting to vote absentee.
• VOTER ROLL PURGES. Secretaries of state in Republican controlled states will specialize in purging their voting rolls of Democratic and PoC voters. They will do it closer to the election date making it much less likely that those purged will be able to vote.
• POLLING PLACES. It will be more difficult to cast your vote as the reduction of polling places and removal of dropboxes in precincts around the country indicates. We’ve already seen hours-long lines in recent elections. There is every indication that this trend will continue and worsen.
• VOTING OPTIONS. Voting options will be restricted. Absentee, early voting, and mail-in ballots will all be more difficult to cast.
• POLL WATCHERS. Poll watchers — as long as they are Republican — will be much more aggressive and intimidating. Perhaps they will even be armed. They will challenge your right to be there at the precinct casting your vote.
• PROVISIONAL BALLOTS. Provisional ballots will not be offered as often. If there is something wrong, especially in precincts dominated by Democrats or PoC, there won’t be the option of casting a provisional ballot so that it can be counted if the problem is rectified.
• NULLIFIED VOTES. Political partisans will be making judgments about whether the votes in a precinct or district should be counted or not. These political hacks will be dismissing the votes of Democratic-leaning precincts at the least accusation of irregularity, see the poll watchers above and vote counting monitors below.
• COUNTING MONITORS. The typical vote monitors who observe the counting of the vote will no longer be a balance of representatives of both major political parties. They will be largely Republican and will see irregularities as frequently and easily as Cole Sear sees dead people.

VOTER FRAUD EVERYWHERE! In short every juncture of the process of voting and counting the vote will become more difficult. Everything from registration, to casting a ballot, to counting the ballots will be affected. It will all be done in a blatantly partisan fashion with a thin veneer of ensuring election integrity painted over it. The thin coating of truthiness will be just enough to convince the 50+% of white voters who voted for four more years of Trump that we are still a democracy.

Congress and State Legislatures

The Coming Psychopathocracy: How the Dark Tetrad has taken over the Republican Party

We’ve seen that Republican controlled legislatures have been much more than willing to enact voting suppression and nullification laws around the country. We can depend on such measures spreading to wherever Republicans have a majority in law-making bodies whether at the local, state, or federal levels.

• STATE LEGISLATURES. Voter suppression and nullification legislation will be cast wherever Republicans become the new majority after the 2022 elections. In every state where Republicans control the legislator, these laws will become more draconian and more blatantly partisan.
• ELECTION FRAUDITS. If you thought the Cyber Ninjas and whatever the shitegas they are doing in Michigan and Wisconsin were bad, you ain’t seen nothing yet. You’ll see even more dubious fraudits of the 2020 and 2022 elections taking place in states around the country with conclusions written before any “auditing” activity even takes place. In localities where the legislature won’t oblige local government will fraudit themselves.
• DECERTIFICATION. Any Democratic candidate that can still manage to win an election in a Republican controlled state will not be certified as the winner because voter fraud. No governor will certify the election. They will not be sent to their office to be seated. It will all be tied up in the courts for as long as the Republicans do so.
• CITIZEN VIGILANTES. Republican controlled states will turn their citizens into a vigilante force using Texas style anti-abortion vigilante laws where anyone can sue anyone and get $10,000.00 + court costs for any number of pet conservative ideas. It will be citizen vs. citizen in a court-based civil war.
• DEJA VU ALL OVER AGAIN. Should the Republicans take over the House…
  • Impeachment galore. They will impeach Biden, Harris, cabinet members, and federal judges. It will be almost the only thing they do. I’m sure they’ve got articles of impeachment written up for Biden, Harris, and a Dem president to be named later.
  • Benghazi! If you thought the Benghazi investigation was as interminable as it was fruitless, you ain’t seen nothing yet. They will investigate the 2020 and 2022 elections endlessly as well as the investigation into the 6 January Insurrection, Hunter’s laptop China-Ukraine connections, our siding with Ukraine against Russia, and anything else they can imagine.
  • Punishing members. You can be sure that McCarthy et al. will…
    • Not seat any Democratic members on any committee
    • Censure Democratic members at the drop of a hat
    • And, should they have a two-thirds majority, expel Democratic members of the House
    • All of it starting with Nancy Pelosi and the Squad
  • Conservative legislative orgy.
    • Tax cuts for the rich… AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN! Who cares whether they will pass the Senate or get signed into law, there’s political donations to be earned!
    • Federalized elections. They will be passing their Jim Crow 2.0 voter suppression and nullification laws.
    • #COVID19. Anti-mandate legislation will be passed.
    • Abortion. National restrictions on abortion will be passed.
    • Other legislation. Gun “rights,” immigration restrictions, sentencing mandates, you name it, if the MAGA have been fapping to it, they’ll be passing it.
• OUT OUT DAMN SPOT! Should the Republicans win the Senate…
  • Filibuster, schilibuster! The filibuster is history with McConnell blaming the Democrats for forcing their hand just like he did when he abolished it for SCOTUS appointments
  • No soup for you! There will not be another Biden appointee approved by the Senate. No judge. No cabinet member. No ambassador. Nothing. No one.
  • Trial. All impeachments coming over from the House will be tried.
  • House Legislation. All those horrific bills coming out of the House promoting conservative fantasies of owning the libs will get taken up and passed by the Senate.

DROWNED IN A BATHTUB. In essence, the Republican elected officials will not be governing, instead, they will be seeking political retribution for past perceived slights and grinding the legislative process across the country to a halt. When and where they can pass legislation it will always favor big business and corporations.

Politicizing Everything

We’re So Fucked: Voters Unwilling to Punish Politicians for Tactics and Positions

One of the most telltale signs of the #GOPDystopia will be politalization of literally everything.

• PROSECUTIONS. Republican state attorneys general will start politically motivated investigations into Democrats, liberals, and activists bring charges on the worst trumped up charges.
• STATE VIOLENCE. Republican controlled states will increase the use of state sponsored violence to control any opposition. Any and all protests will be violently put down either through the police tolerating extra-judicial violence committed by militias and citizens a la Kyle Rittenhouse or through the use of state forces to restore order. Regular citizens will be mowing down protesters with their cars with the blessing of the state and stand your ground laws will be used to justify shootings of protesters. Before the 2024 elections, expect to see Kent State style mass shootings at protests committed by the police, militias, citizens, or a combination.
• CULTURE WARS. If you thought the Mr. Potato Head and MnMs controversies were ridiculous, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Any and all changes to any public entity that can be the least bit construed to be liberal leaning will be trotted out for mass MAGA outrage. They’ve got to keep the rank and vile riled up.
• SCHOOLS, CURRICULUMS, AND IDEAS. The state will be hijacked to enforce the white supremacist point-of-view. Much like you’re seeing now but only on steroids. School boards will reject any curriculum that requires the study of inequality as a thing. Libraries will burn books that contradict the official white supremacist view on social issues. City councils will promote white supremacist heroes and other historical events.
• SUE! SUE! SUE! Any and everything will be tied up in courts as lawsuits challenge laws and state actions. As the Republicans cement their control of state and federal courts, though, the rulings against them will grow fewer and eventually become non-existent.

Cynicism is Killing Our Democracy: The Donna Brazile, Edition

CYNICISM FOR THE WIN! As the average citizen MAGA, independent, or liberal realizes that there is no winning against city hall, cynicism will snuff out any widespread protest movement. If the courts side with state oppression, then many citizens will assume that it is legal and okay since the law is far too complicated for them to understand. Corporations will follow their profits and if that means siding with Joe Rogan over Neil Diamond, then so be it.

In 2024 if the Republicans when the White House and increase their majorities in Congress, they will use the federal administration to squeeze the remaining Democratic states and force them to comply with federal laws of voter suppression and nullification and other conservative social issue mandates.

The fact that we still hold elections on schedule, field candidates, and have campaigns will be sufficiently convincing to allow Republicans to solidify their control over all levels of government. By the time middle class suburban white people realize that they are living in Cancer Alley, drinking Flint water, paying for Texas utilities, and dying quickly and quietly when they can no longer contribute more than they cost the one percent like they were a common Black person, it will be too late.

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Image Attribution

“Book Burning” by Tengrain is licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0