If I were to ask Jim Lyons, the former Andover state rep and ardent Trump supporter who chairs of the Massachusetts Republican Party, what he thinks of the "Statement of Concern" issued earlier this month by a large group of "scholars of democracy," including 21 professors from Massachusetts, I'm pretty sure he'd dismiss their concerns as so much partisan twaddle.
In their statement, titled "The Threats to American Democracy and the Need for National Voting and Election Administration Standards," the scholars say they're watching with "deep concern as Republican-led state legislatures across the country have in recent months proposed or implemented what we consider radical changes to core electoral procedures in response to unproven and intentionally destructive allegations of a stolen election."
These are the same changes that Lyons and millions of other Republican regard as much-needed improvements ensuring the security and integrity of our elections.
And where the scholars see states like Florida and Georgia enacting laws that betray "our precious democratic heritage," Lyons et al. see far-left Democrats stirring people up with wild exaggerations and leading them astray with falsehoods and phony, inflated rhetoric.
Me, I'm looking at the scholars as I would a group of highly credentialed and experienced physicians. If my primary care doctor were to recommend that I consult one or more of them on a medical issue of some import, I might wish to ignore that advice and hope my problem went away on its own; nevertheless, I would make the necessary appointments and follow any directives the specialists might give me. It's better to be safe than sorry, alive than dead
These scholars could be right.
And if the U.S. Congress fails to do as they are now urging it to do -- enact federal legislation to establish uniform, nationwide standards for voting access and election procedures -- America could cease to exist as we have known it for 200-plus years and become instead an authoritarian nation masquerading as a democracy, as is now the case in Turkey, Hungary and other countries.
When the stakes are this high, every citizen should at the least read with an open mind and heart what these academics are saying in their unprecedented "Statement of Concern."
The complete text of their statement follows. After that, I list the names of the Massachusetts signatories, and after that, I cite the views of a particular U.S. Senator on this subject.
We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy who have watched the recent deterioration of U.S. elections and liberal democracy with growing alarm. Specifically, we have watched with deep concern as Republican-led state legislatures across the country have in recent months proposed or implemented what we consider radical changes to core electoral procedures in response to unproven and intentionally destructive allegations of a stolen election. Collectively, these initiatives are transforming several states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections. Hence, our entire democracy is now at risk.
When democracy breaks down, it typically takes many years, often decades, to reverse the downward spiral. In the process, violence and corruption typically flourish, and talent and wealth flee to more stable countries, undermining national prosperity. It is not just our venerated institutions and norms that are at risk -- it is our future national standing, strength, and ability to compete globally.
Statutory changes in large key electoral battleground states are dangerously politicizing the process of electoral administration, with Republican-controlled legislatures giving themselves the power to override electoral outcomes on unproven allegations should Democrats win more votes. They are seeking to restrict access to the ballot, the most basic principle underlying the right of all adult American citizens to participate in our democracy. They are also putting in place criminal sentences and fines meant to intimidate and scare away poll workers and nonpartisan administrators. State legislatures have advanced initiatives that curtail voting methods now preferred by Democratic-leaning constituencies, such as early voting and mail voting. Republican lawmakers have openly talked about ensuring the "purity" and "equality" of the vote, echoing arguments widely used across the Jim Crow South as reasons for restricting the Black vote.
State legislators supporting these changes have cited the urgency of "electoral integrity" and the need to ensure that elections are secure and free of fraud. But by multiple expert judgments, the 2020 election was extremely secure and free of fraud. The reason that Republican voters have concerns is because many Republican officials, led by former President Trump, have manufactured false claims of fraud, claims that have been repeatedly rejected by courts of law, and which Trump's own lawyers have acknowledged were mere speculation when they testified about them before judges.
In future elections, these laws politicizing the administration and certification of elections could enable some state legislatures or partisan election officials to do what they failed to do in 2020: reverse the outcome of a free and fair election. Further, these laws could entrench extended minority rule, violating the basic and longstanding democratic principle that parties that get the most votes should win elections.
Democracy rests on certain elemental institutional and normative conditions. Elections must be neutrally and fairly administered. They must be free of manipulation. Every citizen who is qualified must have an equal right to vote, unhindered by obstruction. And when they lose elections, political parties and their candidates and supporters must be willing to accept defeat and acknowledge the legitimacy of the outcome. The refusal of prominent Republicans to accept the outcome of the 2020 election, and the anti-democratic laws adopted (or approaching adoption) in Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Montana and Texas -- and under consideration in other Republican-controlled states -- violate these principles. More profoundly, these actions call into question whether the United States will remain a democracy. As scholars of democracy, we condemn these actions in the strongest possible terms as a betrayal of our precious democratic heritage.
The most effective remedy for these anti-democratic laws at the state level is federal action to protect equal access of all citizens to the ballot and to guarantee free and fair elections. Just as it ultimately took federal voting rights law to put an end to state-led voter suppression laws throughout the South, so federal law must once again ensure that American citizens' voting rights do not depend on which party or faction happens to be dominant in their state legislature, and that votes are cast and counted equally, regardless of the state or jurisdiction in which a citizen happens to live. This is widely recognized as a fundamental principle of electoral integrity in democracies around the world.
A new voting rights law (such as that proposed in the John Lewis Voting Rights Act) is essential but alone is not enough. True electoral integrity demands a comprehensive set of national standards that ensure the sanctity and independence of election administration, guarantee that all voters can freely exercise their right to vote, prevent partisan gerrymandering from giving dominant parties in the states an unfair advantage in the process of drawing congressional districts, and regulate ethics and money in politics.
It is always far better for major democracy reforms to be bipartisan, to give change the broadest possible legitimacy. However, in the current hyper-polarized political context such broad bipartisan support is sadly lacking. Elected Republican leaders have had numerous opportunities to repudiate Trump and his "Stop the Steal" crusade, which led to the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6. Each time, they have sidestepped the truth and enabled the lie to spread.
We urge members of Congress to do whatever is necessary -- including suspending the filibuster -- in order to pass national voting and election administration standards that both guarantee the vote to all Americans equally, and prevent state legislatures from manipulating the rules in order to manufacture the result they want. Our democracy is fundamentally at stake. History will judge what we do at this moment.
MASSACHUSETTS SIGNATORIES
Daniel Carpenter, Professor of Government, Harvard University
Daniel W. Drezner, Professor of International Politics, Tufts University
Archon Fung, Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard University
Jill S. Greenlee, Associate Professor of Politics, Brandeis University
Jennifer Hochschild, Professor of Government, Harvard University
Alexander Keyssar, Professor of History and Social Policy, Harvard University
Daniel Kryder, Associate Professor of Politics, Brandeis University
Peter Levine, Professor, Tisch College, Tufts University
Steve Levitsky, Professor of Government, Harvard University
Jane Mansbridge, Professor Emerita of Political Leadership and Democratic Values, Harvard University
Pippa Norris, Professor of Political Science, Harvard University
Robert D. Putnam, Professor of Public Policy, Harvard University
Miles S. Rapoport, Senior Practice Fellow in American Democracy, Harvard University
Nancy L. Rosenblum, Professor Emerita of Ethics in Politics and Government, Harvard University
Virginia Sapiro, Professor of Political Science, Boston University
Kay L. Schlozman, Associate Professor of Political Science, Boston College
Alan D. Solomont, Dean, Tisch College, Tufts University
Alexander George Theodoridis, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Alejandro Trelles, Assistant Professor of Politics, Brandeis University
Lawrence H. Tribe, Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law, Harvard Law School
Daniel Ziblatt, Professor of Government, Harvard University
"AN INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS MOMENT"
Senator Angus King, an independent from Maine, was interviewed by The New York Times as part of its reporting for an article published June 14 under this headline: "In Congress, Republicans Shrug at Warnings of Democracy in Peril."
King, a former professor of American politics at Bowdoin College, was quoted as describing our democracy as a "240-year experiment that runs against the tide of human history." That tide, he noted, usually leads from, and back to, authoritarianism.
"This is an incredibly dangerous moment," King said, "and I don't think it's being sufficiently realized as such."
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