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So let’s say I’m the Republican Party and I’ve noticed over the last few years that the popular vote has not been going my way. If I were both intelligent and rational, I would say to myself, “You know, there are too many voters who don’t like our principles or policies. If we’re going to start winning elections in the future, we really have to start looking at things with fresh eyes and be open to change if we want to win over people’s hearts and minds—and votes.”
Simple, straightforward, thoughtful. A proposal that involves openness to change, willingness to adapt and evolve.
But not the way of the Republican Party.
Instead, being the Republican Party, I say to myself, “You know, there are too many voters who don’t like our principles or policies. If we’re going to start winning elections in the future, we’d better find ways of keeping those people away from the ballot box.”
Actually, as attractive as the strategy of voter suppression is, it must be said that other members of the Republican intelligentsia (yes, I know that’s an oxymoron) have an alternative/complementary plan. Let’s find a demagogue, they say, someone whom people will attach themselves to and follow blindly. It won’t matter what that person represents, or whether our standard bearer lies and cheats, as long people are simple enough to follow our cult-like leader.
Let’s see. Is there anyone out there who might fit that description?
Those wily Republicans might have an abundant supply of authoritarian leaders capable of winning over people by appealing to their emotions and fears. And, yes, many state legislatures are finding creative ways to make it hard for immigrants, students, and the poor to vote. Still, I just don’t see these strategies as winning the day in the long run.
I ask myself how an organization like the Republican Party could possibly succeed by living in the past while shutting out young voices and trying to find enough people to vote against everything that could be labeled progressive. And I get excited when I hear a familiar tune pop into my head, courtesy of a young Robert Zimmerman:
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
I try to convince myself that Americans are just too smart to settle for the old ways when those ways stop making sense. I tell myself that this nation couldn’t possibly turn backward and let the gains we’ve made dissolve into dust.
Then I return to my senses and become not only cautious but fearful. I hear a different voice in the back of my head, that of journalist H.L. Mencken. It’s not as interesting and certainly not as poetic as Dylan’s. And I don’t even remember the exact words, but I remember his scary message: No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American people.
