Even before President Joe Biden’s long-speculated withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, allies of former President Donald Trump floated the possibility of suing to block Democrats from having anyone other than Biden on the ballot in November.
But election administration and legal experts said the timing of Biden’s exit on Sunday makes it unlikely that any Republican ballot access challenges will succeed, with some calling the idea “ridiculous” and “frivolous.” Democrats are on safe legal ground as they identify a new standard-bearer, they say, because the party hasn’t officially chosen its nominee. That typically occurs with a vote of delegates at the party’s convention.
“It’s ridiculous for people to talk about ‘replacing Biden.’ He hasn’t been nominated yet,” said Richard Winger, a leading expert on state ballot access laws and the longtime editor of the “Ballot Access News” newsletter.
That’s because it is! Just one of the thousands of many little ways the American Republicans have made life worse for everyone, including their own. Gerrymandering and tampering with voter registration are historically Republican strategies that serve no purpose other than voter disenfranchisement. They can’t win a popular vote and they know it, so their best strategy is to prevent people from voting in the first place. Hence their history of arcane voter registration rules, disgustingly absurd gerrymandered districts, removal or last-minute changing of acceptable voting locations in Democratic areas, voter intimidation, even active voter endangerment via refusal of water bottles during summer heat - not as in they wouldn’t give you water at the voting lcoation - no, you aren’t allowed to have water, even if you brought your own, even if someone showed up and tried to donate water to you. They took it right out of our hands. Meanwhile we were standing in a line in a parking lot with no shade in 96F weather for multiple hours because local republican leadership also shut down all other democratic voting locations within an hour’s drive.
It is disgustingly undemocratic, dangerous, abusive and frankly it’s embarrassing. These are not politicians, these are spoiled little children stamping their feat and screaming “no, I get to be king, and you have to go home!” They actively will not associate with the word “democracy” anymore because it’s too close to accidentally being called a Democrat.
If you’ve noticed Americans being a little more pissy than usual recently in the last several years, it’s largely because people are starting to open their eyes to this truth. It’s nothing new, but it is starting to get noticed. Trump flipped over a big ol’ rock and suddenly everyone saw all the worms and slugs squirming underneath.
I actually caught myself mouthing “What the fuck” at the water part of your comment. That’s some third world country shit. Everyone’s entitled to water, it’s the most basic human right. How would one argue that a ruling like that benefits the people?
It’s called “line warming” or “line relief” in case anyone wants to look up more about it.
Their argument, such that it is, argues that Democrats are running the country into the ground and that they cannot be allowed to make decisions for other people. Not that the people should be allowed to govern themselves, no, the people should only be allowed to vote for things that are “in their best interest” as defined by Republicans.
Which is, obviously, horseshit. But a semi-significant percentage of our population eats up the anti-Democrat messaging and keeps enough of them in office that they can continue fucking with human rights without retribution.
