Thread by @rickhasen

My new oped in the @nytimes: "We must not succumb to despair or indifference. It won’t be easy, but there is a path forward if we begin acting now, together, to shore up our fragile election ecosystem." nytimes.com/2022/01/07/opi…

https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1479455263082135556

Let’s begin by reviewing some of the key problems. Those who administer elections have faced threats of violence and harassment. One in four election administrators say that they plan to retire before 2024.

Republican election and elected officials who stood up to Mr. Trump’s attempt to rig the 2020 vote count are being pushed out or challenged for their jobs in primaries by people embracing Mr. Trump’s false claims, like Representative Jody Hice.

If Mr. Hice is Georgia’s Secretary of State in 2024 and declares Mr. Trump the winner of the 2024 election after having embraced the lie that Mr. Trump won Georgia in 2020, which Democrats will accept that result?

Trumpist election administrators and Mr. Trump’s meddling in Republican primaries and gerrymandered Republican legislatures and congressional districts create dangerous electoral conditions.

The federal government so far has taken few steps to increase the odds of free and fair elections in 2024.

Congress has fallen down, too. House and Senate Republicans bear the greatest share of the blame. Some were just fine with Mr. Trump’s authoritarian tendencies. Others abhorred his actions, but have done nothing of substance to counteract these risks.

More surprisingly, Democratic House and Senate leaders have not acted as if the very survival of American democracy is at issue, even though leading global experts on democratic backsliding and transitions into authoritarianism have been sounding the alarm.

Here are the three principles that should guide action supporting democratic institutions and the rule of law going forward:

To begin with, Democrats should not try to go it alone in preserving free and fair elections. Some Democrats are willing to write off the possibility of finding Republican partners.

Flying solo is a big mistake. Democrats cannot stop the subversion of 2024 election results alone. Why believe that any legislation passed only by Democrats in 2022 would stop subversive Republican action in 2024?

A coalition with the minority of Republicans willing to stand up for the rule of law is the best way to try to erect barriers to a stolen election in 2024. Remember it took Republican election officials, elected officials, and judges to stand up against an attempted coup in 2020.

Reaching bipartisan compromise against election subversion will not stop Democrats from fixing voting rights or partisan gerrymanders on their own — the fate of those bills depend not on Republicans but on Democrats convincing Manchin and Sinema to modify the filibuster rules.

Republicans should not try to hold anti-election subversion hostage to Democrats giving up their voting agenda.

Second, because law alone won’t save American democracy, all sectors of society need to be mobilized in support of free and fair elections.

It is not just political parties that matter for assuring free and fair elections. It all of civil society: business groups, civic and professional organizations, labor unions and religious organizations all can help protect fair elections and the rule of law.

Civil society needs to oppose those who run for office or seek appointment to run elections while embracing Trump’s false claims of a stolen election. Loyalty to a person over election integrity should be disqualifying.

Finally, mass, peaceful organizing and protests may be necessary in 2024 and 2025.

What happens if a Democratic presidential candidate wins i Wisconsin in 2024 but the Wisconsin legislature stands ready to send in an alternative slate of electors for Mr. Trump or another Republican based on unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud or other irregularities?

These gerrymandered legislators may not respond to entreaties from Democrats, but they are more likely to respond to widespread public protests made up of people of good faith from across the political spectrum.

The hope of collective action is that there remains enough sanity in the center and commitment to the rule of law to prevent actions that would lead to an actual usurpation of the will of the people.

If the officially announced vote totals do not reflect the results of a fair election process, that should lead to nationwide peaceful protests and even general strikes.

If Republicans have embraced authoritarianism or have refused to confront it, and Democrats in Congress cannot or will not save us, we must save ourselves. <END>