Taking Fascism Seriously, Teil 2
By 
To Wisconsin Republicans, elections are never rigged enough:
The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Friday prohibited the use of most drop boxes for voters returning absentee ballots, giving the state’s Republicans a major victory in their efforts to limit voting access in urban areas.
The 4-to-3 ruling by the court’s conservative majority will take effect in time for Wisconsin’s primary elections next month, although its true impact most likely will not be felt until the November general election. Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, and Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, both face what are expected to be very close re-election bids.
The court adopted a literal interpretation of state law, finding that returning an absentee ballot to a municipal clerk “does not mean nor has it been historically understood to mean delivery to an unattended ballot drop box,” Justice Rebecca G. Bradley wrote for the majority.
[…]
n November, the court created a “least changes” standard for legislative redistricting that would apply to the gerrymandered 2011 map drawn by Republicans. The move locked in another decade of near supermajorities for Republicans in the State Legislature, even though the state is among the most closely divided in the country.
Republican state lawmakers in Wisconsin, spurred by Mr. Johnson, have recently sought to take control over the state’s election administration. The leading Republican candidates for governor this year have proposed eliminating the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission — which was created by G.O.P. lawmakers and former Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican — and giving elected officials the authority to oversee state elections.
And of course this ethos is about to be taken national by our Article III lawless authoritarians:
Last week, the Supreme Court announced it would hear arguments in Moore v. Harper, a challenge to North Carolina’s new congressional map.
The long and short of the case is that North Carolina Republicans proposed a gerrymander so egregious that the state Supreme Court ruled that it violated the state’s Constitution. Republicans sought to restore the legislative map, citing the “independent state legislature doctrine,” which asserts that state legislatures have almost absolute power to set their own rules for federal elections. Once passed into law, then, those rules cannot be overturned — or even reviewed — by state courts.
A Republican victory at the Supreme Court would, according to the election law expert Rick Hasen, “radically alter the power of state courts to rein in state legislatures that violate voting rights in federal elections. It could essentially neuter the ability of state courts to protect voters under provisions of state constitutions against infringement of their rights.”
I recommend reading Jamelle’s column, with its usual deep historical learning, in its entirety. If you think it can’t happen here it’s critical to remember that it’s already happened here.