An epidemic is plaguing the Republican Party these days. For some reason, perhaps it's their consciences or perhaps it's the pressure of backstopping an incompetent nincompoop in the White House, who knows, it could be anything. Whatever the root cause, it appears as if the ...read more
After incumbent Wisconsin governor Scott Walker lost re-election to Democrat Tony Evers last November, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed a controversial bill stripping key powers away from both Evers and incoming Attorney General Josh Kaul. Under the new rules, ...read more
On Election Night, networks called California's 21st congressional district for incumbent Republican David Valadao over Democratic challenger TJ Cox. The district, which encompasses parts of Fresno as well as the Central Valley, the state's largest agricultural region, has not ...read more
Last month, the Supreme Court voted 6-2 to uphold a North Dakota court of appeals ruling requiring an ID with a physical address to vote - a P.O. box simply won't do anymore. This law effectively disenfranchises at least 5,000 members of the state's Native American community - ...read more
Last night on CNN, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach got a taste of his own medicine when legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told him the truth about the draconian voter ID laws he has pushed that have made Kansas the ninth-hardest state in which to vote. Kobach, who is currently ...read more
After Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation, I decided to channel my anger into activism, vowing that for every day from now until the election I would either canvas or phone bank for Democrats and if I couldn't do either of those things, I would just give $5.00 to a candidate I like. ...read more
Since the rise of Trump, it's been tempting to revise our collective memory of the 2012 election and make Mitt Romney seem like a good guy. After all, he smiles a lot, he seems like a loving grandfather, and he did invent Obamacare. I've gone easy on him too: on my second day of ...read more
Oregon just announced that its "opt out" automatic voter registration system significantly boosted voter turnout in an election that saw below average voting most everywhere else. Coincidentally, Hillary Clinton walloped Donald in Oregon by 10 points. It's a political law that ...read more
Back before Antonin Scalia (Satan Rot His Soul), died last year, a lot of anti-Hillary liberals insisted that the Supreme Court didn't matter; that ideological purity was far more important. After he died and Republicans took the unprecedented step of blocking any new Court ...read more
I hate so say "I told you so," but it appears as if Donald Trump is borrowing talking points from Bernie Sanders and the Bernie-or-Bust crowd. The presidential debate schedule has been publicly known since last September, and yet Trump is just now realizing that two of the three ...read more
In the spirit of good will, I'd like to personally thank various Republicans for making my life considerably easier in these difficult times. Since 2012, I've been tracking the creeping threat of Voter ID laws for The Daily Banter, and how they're systematically disenfranchising ...read more
North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory appears to be a true believer when it comes to crimes that don't exist. As we've all been following recently, McCrory signed HB2 into law, which effectively bans transgender citizens from using public restrooms appropriate to their gender ...read more
They keep doing it. Republicans continue to accidentally spill the beans about unspoken GOP plots to roll back constitutional rights. Donald Trump, last week, accidentally blurted something about punishing women who undergo illegal abortions. And this week, It should be obvious. ...read more
In a nation where voting is the cornerstone of our form of government, how pathetic is it that the following cliche actually makes sense: America can put a man on the Moon, but we can't hold an election without prohibitively long lines and politically-motivated plots to ...read more
The Supreme Court ruled, this weekend, that a Texas voter I.D. law which has been ruled "deliberately discriminatory" can be used to restrict voting rights in this year's midterm elections, which is just the latest of the Roberts Court's injuries to voting rights. That court ...read more
Democrats and the activist left have managed to achieve several victories in the last several weeks -- while almost entirely ignoring the issue itself. Concurrent with a resurgence of interest in Edward Snowden and NSA surveillance, given the premiere of Laura Poitras's ...read more
Republican Senator and 2016 presidential hopeful Rand Paul (R-KY) gets a lot of credit from the media for allegedly reaching out to black voters, but when it comes to Republican voter suppression measures, Rand is still a good ol' boy at heart. In an interview following a ...read more
The issue of voting rights is beginning to gain some suction with the mainstream media, a trend that should be encouraged. One idea that should not be encouraged is former President Bill Clinton's suggestion that Social Security cards should have a photo option, in order to ...read more
There's something seriously wrong with a party that wants to make it more difficult to vote, but easier to buy a semi-automatic assault rifle. That's today's Republican Party. Cloaked in tri-corner hats and patriotic bumper stickers, the GOP has been endeavoring to restrict the ...read more
Last week, I posted two articles about the Supreme Court's decision to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, clearing a path for the ongoing Republican effort to disenfranchise millions of Americans with Voter ID laws. And so, predictably, conservative trolls filled my ...read more
One of the major takeaways from the series dramatic political events over the last 48 hours is quite simply that the Republicans will do anything to win. Almost literally anything. Chicanery and complex scheming in politics isn't anything new (see also House of Cards), but the ...read more
Here's a fantastic example of cognitive dissonance. On Tuesday, Republicans and conservatives managed to somehow continue their collective screeching about the rapidly fizzling IRS non-scandal and how the government unfairly targeted conservatives, while also applauding the ...read more
Whenever a Republican says something horrendous, the subsequent apology usually involves a confession that saying the horrendous something was a "mistake" or "an error." Of course it is. The mistake was saying out loud what far too many Republicans believe to be true, but rarely ...read more
When reality began to disprove Republican ideas, instead of coming up with better ideas, conservatives created their own television news network to broadcast their "side" of reality, as if reality has "sides." When the neoconservative faction of the Republican Party wanted to ...read more
By Bob Cesca: This probably won't go over very well in the southern states where the whiny, pouty threat of secession has been revived yet again, but the federal government needs to take over the regulation and process of voting -- and specifically in the states where ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From Huff Post: Jim Greer, the former head of the Florida Republican Party, recently claimed that a law shortening the early voting period in the state was deliberately designed to suppress voting among groups that tend to support Democratic ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From Huff Post: Poll watchers from groups ostensibly targeting voter fraud are headed primarily to minority voting precincts on Election Day, lending support to the argument that their real goal is to suppress the African-American and Latino ...read more
By Bob Cesca: For the last year or so, I'vebeentracking the Republican effort to suppress voting rights by passing various Jim Crow style "Voter ID" laws. The latest round of laws in Pennsylvania, Alabama, Kansas, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Wisconsin and so forth is a ...read more
By Suevon Lee: Voter ID laws have received plenty of attention recently, but they're not the only controversial changes to election rules this year. Some states have made changes that critics say could impact individuals' ability to vote. Here are four. Ohio won't count ...read more
The Daily Banter Headline Grab. From Huff Post: A Pennsylvania judge on Tuesday postponed the enforcement of the state's new strict voter ID requirement until after the November presidential election. In a much-anticipated ruling, Commonwealth Court Judge Robert E. Simpson ...read more
By Suevon Lee: Voter IDs laws have become a political flashpoint in what's gearing up to be another close election year. Supporters say the laws — which 30 states have now enacted in some form — are needed to combat voter fraud, while critics see them as a tactic to ...read more
