Yesterday I wrote somewhat tentatively that even a demonstration of the futility of voter suppression efforts might not keep Republicans from pursuing them because it’s an issue of ideology, not just partisan calculation. I expanded on that theory in my weekly column over at TPMCafe, for anyone who’s interested.
The basic point is that for many conservatives (not just now and in the U.S., but in the past and most everywhere) democracy itself is suspect, and thus measures to restrict it are always in season, and don’t necessarily have to be justified via demonstrations of “corruption” or “fraud.” Indeed, for our Con Con friends, who typically think the Founders were inspired by God Almighty to create an ideal set of policies limiting government, establishing perpetual states’ rights and property rights, and even protecting “the unborn,” democracy is fraud if it unsettles those arrangements. So political prudence alone is not likely to bring the War on Voting to an end.
