Opinion by Greg Sargent: The GOP is quietly “Trump-proofing” our system behind his back
Why is all this happening? One reason: This is an easy way for Republicans to do something about the Trump threat. It’s highly technical and doesn’t require direct condemnation of Trump himself. Attaching reform to the omnibus avoids a stand-alone vote on it, which could subject Republicans supporting it to more attacks.
Republicans can also plausibly cite self-interest here. Reform will make it less likely that a rerun of Trump’s coup is attempted, which means Republicans are unlikely to face pressure to help steal a future election. It helps in this regard that many Republicans who ran on an explicit willingness to nullify future losses have been defeated.
No one should confuse this with a full-scale outbreak of pro-democracy sentiment among Republicans. Most resolutely support making voting harder, and many are actively working to sabotage a full national reckoning with Trump’s insurrection and widespread GOP support for it.Still, something of a split screen is now discernible. On one screen, House Republicans are widely dismissing the news that the House select committee examining Trump’s insurrection iscriminal charges.
On the other screen, many Senate Republicans are quietly preparing to support reforms that functionally acknowledge the grave nature of just about every key aspect of Trump’s coup plot. They are implicitly acknowledging that the MAGA movement would do this all over again, and that pathways to this outcome must be choked off.
In effect, Senate Republicans are poised to join Democrats in Trump-proofing our elections behind his back. It’s sobering that this is happening at the very last second, with insurrectionist Republicans set to seize control of the House, but at least it appears close to getting done.
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