[EL] Dept. of self-promotion

[Jim Gardner]

In case anyone is interested, I have two op-eds out today.

One, in RealClear Politics, is entitled The GOP's Maxim: For My Friends, Everything - For My Enemies, Election Law<https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2021/09/23/the_gops_maxim_for_my_friends_everything__for_my_enemies_election_law_795549.html>.  It begins:


Since Joe Biden's election last fall, the American political left and center - territory now occupied exclusively by Democrats - have acted as though the Donald Trump years never happened. Progressives have revived a longstanding agenda aimed at perfecting American democracy. Moderates, led by President Biden, stand ready to compromise with Republicans to make deals because politics, they still believe, is the art of the possible.

These tactics are not only misguided but also dangerous to the goals both groups wish to achieve - because both tactics depend for their success on conditions that no longer exist.
It concludes:


In these circumstances, it is not merely naïve but dangerous in the extreme to approach election law reform as though it were business as usual.

First, what is at stake is not control over the levers of power in a liberal democracy, but the fate of liberal democracy itself. Four more years of Trump, or one of his toadies, will, I fear, extinguish any possibility of maintaining liberal democracy as it has been known in this country.

Second, under these circumstances no compromise is possible. On what grounds can liberalism compromise with illiberalism, or democracy with authoritarianism? "We say all people count equally, you say only Republicans count; okay, we'll meet you halfway"? "We say governmental legitimacy requires fair competition and rotation in office among political parties, you say government is legitimate only when it is controlled by Republicans; okay, let's split the difference"?
Third, the only possible way to secure the continuation of liberal democracy in this country is through the exercise of power when those committed to liberal democracy have the opportunity to use it. That moment is now - when Democrats control both houses of Congress and the presidency. Delay here cannot be tactical; it can only be fatal - fatal to the freedom and equality that liberal democracy alone among modern forms of government has been able to secure.

The other piece, in the online journal The Regulatory Review, entitled Only Federal Regulation Can Ensure Fair Elections<https://www.theregreview.org/2021/09/28/gardner-regulation-fair-elections/>, argues:
Across the nation, Republican-controlled states have generated<https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-july-2021> a tsunami of legislation making it more difficult to vote. For half a century, Americans have relied almost exclusively on federal courts to maintain a democratically legitimate system of free and fair elections, at all levels of government. Reliance on the courts is unfortunately no longer a viable solution. The only way to secure free and fair democratic processes is through direct regulatory intervention by the U.S. Congress.
Sorry, I'll stop now!

Best to all,
Jim

___________________________
James A. Gardner
Bridget and Thomas Black SUNY Distinguished Professor of Law
Research Professor of Political Science
University at Buffalo School of Law
The State University of New York
Room 514, O'Brian Hall
Buffalo, NY 14260-1100
voice: 716-645-3607
fax: 716-645-2064
e-mail: jgard at buffalo.edu<mailto:jgard at buffalo.edu>
Faculty page: https://www.law.buffalo.edu/faculty/facultyDirectory/GardnerJames.html
Papers at http://ssrn.com/author=40126


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