Politics is dirty. All Americans know that. The question is, what lengths will politicians go to and then excuse their actions in order to advance their control of government and promote their ideology?
Republicans realize they are underdogs in the coming midterm elections, with Trump’s performance being disapproved of by the majority of Americans. He promised no foreign wars and now we are in the midst of the Iran conflict. He promised to attack the problem of affordability and inflation remains a major problem. So what can the GOP do to try and win the midterms. One of the options is to try and block Democratic voters.
In 2025-6, President Trump and Republicans in the Senate and House tried to gain control of the voting process using the Federal government in all the states by the SAVE Act (Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act). Its supposed goal was to prevent non-citizens from voting through proof of citizenship by showing certain documents such as birth certificates or passports. However, many elderly citizens and naturalized citizens don’t drive and don’t have their birth certificates.
Republicans would like to have fewer of these citizens voting as they tend to vote Democratic. The SAVE Act would also eliminate mail-in voting, which makes the process very convenient and increases the number of voters.
The SAVE Act was passed by the House in February 2026 but is yet to pass the Senate where the possibility of a filibuster looms. Currently, instances of non-citizens voting are believed to be extremely rare, and the SAVE Act would make voting difficult for many citizens. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, in an opinion article in the New York Times declared that the reason Republicans were so keen on passing the SAVE Act was to purge voters ahead of the midterms, particularly those who tended to vote Democratic.
President Trump has long been opposed to mail in balloting. In mid-March 2026, the issue of mail in voting in Mississippi came up before the Supreme Court. On the basis of questions asked by the Justices of the Mississippi lawyers, it seemed likely that they would change the process of mail in voting in some way. Perhaps they might abolish it completely or transform the dates when it was considered legal. Though President Trump is adamantly against mail-in voting, he used mail-in voting himself for a local Florida election when he was in Washington. More convenient.
An indication that democracy is being suppressed by GOP actions is the fact that in Wisconsin, Republicans won 64 percent of State Assembly seats even though Democrats had beaten them in voting by a 54-46 percent margin. This was the result of markedly inequitable gerrymandering by Republicans when they controlled the legislature and governorship. While blatantly unfair, the question is whether this will be nullified by a conservative Supreme Court. In addition, the legislatures in a number of GOP controlled states have made it more difficult for minorities and students to vote by cutting down early voting and the hours and days when voting is possible. Voter ID laws are also being used to suppress minority voting. These actions are the result of unfettered partisanship, with no consideration given to how they damage democracy.
Measures to restrict citizen voting are undemocratic and should be opposed by both political parties. Political expediency has outweighed democratic principles for too long.
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020