California Republicans see what happens when more voters vote, and they don't like it one bit

[Demovictory9]

https://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-hiltzik-voters-cal-20181130-story.html

California Republicans, drummed out of office by the carload in the recent election, have exited whining.

They’ve figured out why they got thumped so badly, and it’s simple: California, that dastardly state, allowed voters to vote. The result was that seven Republican House seats turned Democratic, including all four in Orange County, transforming that once reliably GOP stronghold into a blue streak.

“I just think it’s weird,” outgoing House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said of California’s system of allowing every vote to be counted, even if it’s filed with local election officials days after election day. “California defies logic to me.”



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The GOP’s focus on California is understandable, given its decline in the state. But it’s probably a mistake for the party to avoid noticing that its problems are more widespread. Ryan lamented that the party was down by only 26 seats on election night but today, three weeks later, its losses come to 40. California, however, accounted for only five of those late gains.


The most comprehensive whine about California’s vote has come from Shawn Steel, a former state Republican Party chair, writing in the conservative Washington Times. Steel’s argument deserves careful scrutiny, especially since he concedes at the outset that “there’s no evidence of ballot box shenanigans” in California.

Instead, Steel complains, California has changed its voting laws to allow more voters to vote. Taking Steel’s particulars from the top, they are:


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4. Teen preregistration. The state has begun registering 16- and 17-year-olds to vote, in preparation for their casting ballots after they turn 18. Steel calls this “a thinly veiled effort to capture voters while they’re young and more likely to identify as liberal Democrats” and notes that “of the nearly 89,000 minors that participated in the program, only 10 percent registered as Republicans.”

There’s an obvious solution to this for Republicans: Start advocating policies that young persons find appealing, rather than the racist, anti-immigrant, anti-LGBTQ pap that the GOP has become identified with. Maybe then more young people will register as Republicans.

[winstars]

1. Teen preregistration, thats what I am talking about. Hello! Great!

“of the nearly 89,000 minors that participated in the program, only 10 percent registered as Republicans.”

[RHMerriman]

2. Good piece...

Hey, California GOP - when the last decent Republican in statewide office was George Deukmejian, what the hell did you expect?

And Steel is a damn ratfucker, just like Stone and Segretti and the rest of the Young Americans for Fascism; his claim to fame was the jinned up recall election aimed at Gray Davis.

The California GOP has been dying since they tried a variant of the Atwater school of race-baiting in Prop. 187, as Steel - who was an appointee of Gov. Pete Wilson - should know full well.

And Steel, born in 1946, was, of course, a draft dodger.

Typical GOP POS.

[ailsagirl]

3. ISN'T THAT JUST TOO DAMN BAD?!?!

Maybe they out to examine the beliefs of their party-- racism, anti-immigration, pro-war, anti-LGBTQ, anti-environment, etc etc etc etc

Of course, they'd never, ever concede they're so off-base it's almost laughable (I said almost)

[David__77]

4. Political pluralism in California has no need of that party.

It can vanish from the state more or less completely and nothing will be lost in terms of political diversity.

[AlexSFCA]

5. gop has always been totally useless in California

we are much better off with democrats and independents.

[Cha]

6. Props to California! No Voter

Suppression here in Hawaii, either.

[Demovictory9]

7. glad to hear that

[Garrett78]

8. Just imagine if we had 100% turnout (or damn close) nationwide. Make it mandatory.

Lift all barriers, making it as easy as possible to vote. Make Election Day a holiday. Mail-in, early voting in every county of every state. Multiple days for in-person voting, including a weekend.

Then penalize any eligible voter who doesn't vote.