Republicans have taken up the politics of bigotry, putting US democracy at risk

“There is no ‘surge’ of migrants at the border and there is no huge voter fraud problem – there is only hard-right attack”

Republicans are outraged – outraged! – at the surge of migrants at the southern border. The House legislator , Kevin McCarthy, declares it a “crisis … created by the presidential policies of this new administration”. The Arizona congressman Andy Biggs claims, “we undergo some periods where we’ve these surges, but immediately is perhaps the foremost dramatic that I’ve seen at the border in my lifetime.”

Biden’s no LBJ but he must protect voting rights. What else is that the presidency for?

Donald Trump demands the Biden administration “immediately complete the wall, which may be wiped out a matter of weeks – they ought to never have stopped it. they’re causing death and human tragedy.”

“Our country is being destroyed!” he adds.

In fact, there’s no surge of migrants at the border.

US Customs and Border Protection apprehended 28% more migrants from January to February this year than in previous months. But this was largely seasonal. Two years ago, apprehensions increased 31% during an equivalent period. Three years ago, it had been about 25% from February to March. Migrants start coming when winter ends and therefore the weather gets a touch warmer, then stop coming within the hotter summer months when the desert is deadly.

To be sure, there’s a humanitarian crisis of youngsters detained in overcrowded border facilities. And a good worse humanitarian tragedy within the violence and political oppression in Central America, worsened by US policies over the years, that drives migration within the first place.

But the “surge” has been fabricated by Republicans so as to stoke fear – and, not incidentally, to justify changes in laws they assert are necessary to stop non-citizens from voting.

Republicans still allege – without proof – that the 2020 election was rife with fraudulent ballots, many from undocumented migrants. Over the past six weeks they’ve introduced 250 bills in 43 states designed to form it harder for people to vote – especially the young, the poor, Black people and Hispanic Americans, all of whom are likely to vote for Democrats – by eliminating mail-in ballots, reducing times for voting, decreasing the amount of drop-off boxes, demanding proof of citizenship, even making it a criminal offense to offer water to people waiting in line to vote.

To stop this, Democrats try to enact a sweeping voting rights bill, the For the People Act, which protects voting, ends partisan gerrymandering and keeps dark money out of elections. It passed the House but Republicans within the Senate are fighting it with more lies.

On Wednesday, the Texas Republican senator Ted Cruz falsely claimed the new bill would register many undocumented migrants to vote and accused Democrats of wanting the foremost violent criminals to cast ballots too.

The core message of the Republican Party now consists of lies a few “crisis” of violent migrants crossing the border, lies that they’re voting illegally, and blatantly anti-democratic demands voting be restricted to counter it.

The party that when championed lower taxes, smaller government, states’ rights and a robust national defense now has more in common with anti-democratic regimes and racist-nationalist political movements round the world than with America’s avowed ideals of democracy, rule of law and human rights.

Donald Trump isn’t single-handedly liable for this, but he demonstrated to the GOP the political potency of bigotry and therefore the GOP has taken him abreast of it.

This transformation in one among America’s two eminent political parties has shocking implications, not only for the longer term of yank democracy except for the longer term of democracy everywhere.

“I predict to you, your children or grandchildren are getting to be doing their doctoral thesis on the difficulty of who succeeded: autocracy or democracy?” Joe Biden opined at his press conference on Thursday.

In his maiden speech at the state department on 4 March, Antony Blinken conceded that the erosion of democracy round the world is “also happening here within the United States”.

The secretary of state didn’t explicitly mention the Republican Party , but there was no mistaking his subject.

“When democracies are weak … they become more susceptible to extremist movements from the within and to interference from the surface ,” he warned.

People round the world witnessing the fragility of yank democracy “want to ascertain whether our democracy is resilient, whether we will rise to the challenge here reception . which will be the inspiration for our legitimacy in defending democracy round the world for years to return .”

That resilience and legitimacy will depend in large part on whether Republicans or Democrats prevail on voting rights.

Not since the years leading up to the war has the clash between the nation’s two major parties so clearly defined the core challenge facing American democracy.