Chris Hayes told us something we would have figured out, but it's nice to know we were right.
"Mitch McConnell is pretty upset that Democrats are trying to make it easier for people to vote. First piece of legislation, HR1 would simplify voter registration -- McConnell has already wrote a very angry op-ed about this horrible offense," Hayes said.
Just what America needs. Another paid holiday and a bunch of government workers being paid to go out and work, I assume our colleagues on the other side, on their campaigns. This is a Democrat plan to restore democracy?
"Ah, yes. What could be worse than giving people a day off on Election Day so they can vote? How nefarious. McConnell has called this bill a power grab, and in one sense, he is right. The idea behind it is to start to grab power back from politicians who choose their voters through gerrymandering and try to restrict access to the franchise and give it back to those in whom power should be rightly vested: the voters," Hayes said.
"Nothing to me is more revealing of the core pathology of the modern Republican party than the way that it sees widening access to the ballot and higher turnout as a threat -- and they're not necessarily wrong. I mean, Mitch McConnell's ideal political system is one in which ultra-wealthy anonymous donors pour unlimited money into PACs to elect Republican majorities that can gerrymander their states to insulate them from Democratic accountability, all while he pushes through dozens to hundreds of unelected judges who can sit on the court and knock down future liberal legislation, no matter how much people demand it.
"More than any other politician, it is Mitch McConnell who is the soul of the modern Republican party. If his project is successful, he will barricade the power of a shrinking minority of voters and plutocrats inside a structural fortress that cannot be penetrated by Democratic will. Historian Christopher Browning wrote, 'If there is someone who historians will look back on as the gravedigger of American democracy, it's Mitch McConnell.'
"But that's that's only if the forces of democracy are vanquished by McConnell and the movement and party he represents and that is still very much an open question," Hayes concluded.
Ed. Note (Karoli) Look at these numbers!
