For Republicans, It’s Never Too Soon To Start Rigging the Next Election

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President Donald Trump’s invasion of Venezuela to kidnap President Nicolás Maduro may be part of a larger plot to legitimize the ultimate MAGA lie that the 2020 election was stolen by Joe Biden. The idea, apparently, is to get the captive Maduro to confirm that he or those he knew were part of the Trump-alleged “fraud” (can anyone say “under duress”?).

Sydney Powell, one of Trump’s braintrust of legal eagles, laid out the purported conspiracy after the election. 

According to Wikipedia: 

Powell took the lectern and alleged, without evidence, that an international communist plot to rig the 2020 election had been engineered by Cuba, China, Venezuela, Hugo Chávez (who died in 2013), George Soros, the Clinton Foundation and Antifa. She also alleged that Dominion Voting Systems “can set and run an algorithm that probably ran all over the country to take a certain percentage of votes from President Trump and flip them to President Biden.” (emphasis added)

But you can’t win an election on lies alone. Massive voter suppression is always helpful to Republicans. Red states keep passing voter suppression measures that Democratic operatives keep fighting in court. And at the federal level looms Trump’s SAVE America Act, which, should it somehow get by the Senate, would supercharge voter suppression all across America. 

Another method of voter suppression being used by Trump is the entire mission of ICE. ICE doesn’t need to “guard” polling places to suppress voter turnout. All they have to do is be in a city doing what they’re doing in Minneapolis and many voters will be afraid to leave their houses. Resistance organizers in Minneapolis and Chicago have spent a lot of energy and resources making sure that all of the people who are afraid to leave their homes because of ICE raids have food and other essentials. The raids will work as a form of voter suppression, particularly since many understandably regard voting as less essential than, say, eating. Many citizens of color who have seen their neighbors targeted will stay away from the polls out of fear.

It is up to citizens across the country to volunteer to be election workers, to have eyes on potential cheating and intimidation. Neighbors can help neighbors get to the polls or, better yet, file their votes by mail where possible. But remember, the US Postal Service has messed with the postmarking process — so mail those votes in early. 

While you’re here enjoying DonkeyHotey’s latest cartoon, please take a moment to read these articles on related topics: 

• Crazy Old Man Worried About the Midterms Rants About Voter ID
• The Fog of Epstein
• Other DonkeyHotey cartoons

The cartoon above was created by DonkeyHotey for WhoWhatWhy from these images: Nicolas Maduro – Caricature (DonkeyHotey / Flickr – CC BY 2.0), body (Rainerzufall1234 / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 4.0), Bondi (The White House / Wikimedia – PD), and background (Till Niermann / Wikimedia – CC BY-SA 3.0).