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So I was reading along through Andy Shers Times-Free Press story about the ACLU helping a couple of Tennessee business owners sue to stop the implementation of the anti-trans bathroom law (which we also covered on Friday). I was thinking, Oh hey, nice, Bob Bernstein is in on this, and, Yep, thats some bigoted stuff coming from the state, when I get to this part:

Rep. Tim Rudd, R-Murfreesboro, the House sponsor, said in a statement, "The law also does not alter, limit or affect a business or a person's free speech. The law does not require property owners to guard the entrance to a restroom, ascertain whether or not someone is transgender, nor prohibit anyone from entering or using restroom facilities. The law is in fact very limited in scope. It simply requires a warning sign to be placed at the entrance of a restroom that allows the opposite biological sex to enter that has multiple stalls and allows multiple people in at the same time. Nothing more than that. Women and parents of a female child have a right to know if a man could be waiting on them in a restroom. They also have a right to know if a property owner's policies could give cover to sexual predators waiting to pray upon women and children."

What the hell kind of men does Tim Rudd know? Seriously. As the daughter of a man and the sister of some men and the aunt of some men and boys, and as someone who has peed in the same bathroom at the same time as cis men, trans men and drag queens, I have never once observed them or their friends waiting in the bathroom to sexually assault anyone. Maybe the real issue here is that Tim Rudd needs better friends.

Im sure someone somewhere once did wait in a restroom to try to assault a stranger, but its very, very rare. Most people are sexually assaulted by someone they know perhaps a trusted basketball coach, or a teacher, or a minister, or their dads friend, or their friend or their dad. And Im not sure what sign is going to fix that problem.

And if men's bathrooms are such a danger if rapists just skulk around bathrooms waiting to assault people why arent there more bathroom rapes in mens bathrooms? Men are so horny and daring that theyll prey on women and children in a public restroom, but not so dangerous that other men have to be concerned? I find that very hard to believe.

These signs are just about forcing bigoted speech on business owners and not actually about protecting women and children. Its easy to see if you just swap out the wording. Imagine this:

I have no doubt people would have liked signs like this being posted in public restrooms at the end of segregation. Its still wrong. People are different than you. Its fine. Literally no one is being hurt by transgender people peeing in Fidos.

Heres who is being hurt. Say youre a father traveling with your small daughter. She has to pee. Its an emergency. You pull into a rest area. Which bathroom do you take her into? Or say that youre the female caregiver of a man with multiple sclerosis. Can you not go into the mens bathroom with him without causing a Republican scandal in this state? The men I have most often seen in womens bathrooms are of an age where I feel very confident that their prostates had decided they couldnt wait for the mens room to open up. Judging by the age of a lot of our legislators, this is a problem they will face. And we could choose to just be compassionate and mind our own business.

If you need to be warned before you pee in public that people who are different than you exist and sometimes also need to pee, maybe you should just stay home instead of making the rest of us wish you had.

Go here to read the rest:
Tennessee Republicans' Ongoing Bathroom Bigotry | Pith in the Wind | nashvillescene.com - Nashville Scene

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Just a few days after the polls closed in Floridas 2018 general election, Rick Scott, then the states governor, held a press conference outside the governors mansion and made a stunning accusation.

Scott was running for a US Senate seat, and as more votes were counted, his lead was dwindling. Targeting two of the states most Democratic-leaning counties, Scott said there was rampant fraud.

Every person in Florida knows exactly what is happening. Their goal is to mysteriously keep finding more votes until the election turns out the way they want, he said, directing the states law enforcement agency to investigate. I will not sit idly by while unethical liberals try to steal this election from the great people of Florida.

Scott eventually won the election, and his comments eventually faded. But the episode offered an alarming glimpse of the direction the Republican party was turning.

A little over two years later, fanned repeatedly by Donald Trump throughout 2020, the myth of a stolen American election has shifted from a fringe idea to one being embraced by the Republican party. The so-called big lie the idea that the election was stolen from Trump - has transformed from a tactical strategy to a guiding ideology.

For years, civil rights groups and academics have raised alarm at the way Republican officials have deployed false claims of voter fraud as a political strategy to justify laws that restrict access to the ballot. But the way Republicans have embraced the myth of a stolen election since Trumps loss in November, is new, they say, marking a dangerous turn from generalized allegations of fraud to refusing to accept the legitimacy of elections.

Supporting the idea of a stolen election has become a new kind of litmus test for Republican officeholders.

Republican election officials in Georgia and Nevada who have stood up for the integrity of the 2020 election results have been denounced by fellow Republicans. Republican lawmakers across the US have made pilgrimages to visit and champion an unprecedented inquiry into ballots in Arizona, which experts see as a thinly veiled effort to undermine confidence in the election. One hundred and forty-seven Republicans in the US House voted to overturn the results of the November election absent any evidence of voter fraud and after government officials said the 2020 election was the most secure in American history.

Voter suppression is not new, the battle lines have been drawn over that for quite some time. But this new concern about election subversion is really worrisome, said Richard Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Irvine, who studies election rules.

The willingness to deny election results comes amid heightened concern that Republicans are maneuvering to take over offices that would empower them to block the winners of elections from being seated. Several Republicans who have embraced the idea that the election was stolen are running to serve as secretaries of state, the chief election official in many places, a perch from which they would exert enormous power over elections, including the power to hold up certifying races.

I do think its a relatively new phenomenon, unfortunately, and disturbing, said Edward Foley, a law professor at the Ohio State University who has written extensively about the history of contested elections in the US. Weve had disputed elections in the past, but weve never had the denial of the basic mathematical reality of counting votes.

The effort to undermine the election results appears to be working. A majority of Republicans, and a quarter of all Americans, believe Trump is the true president, according to a May Reuters/Ipsos poll. Sixty-one per cent of Republicans believe the election was stolen from Trump, the same poll showed.

Rohn Bishop, the chairman of the local Republican party in Fond du Lac county in Wisconsin, said it was damaging to have such widespread uncertainty about the results of elections and was generally supportive of efforts to restore confidence. But he noted his dismay that Republicans continued to push lies about the election. He noted that the Republican party of Waukesha county, a bastion of GOP voters, recently hosted a screening of a film backed by Mike Lindell, a Trump ally and prominent election conspiracist, that pushed false claims of fraud.

We need to win back those suburban Republican voters that Waukesha county used to turn out, not keep poking them in the eye by forcing down their throat more of this election stuff, Trump stuff they dont want to hear, he said. I dont know why its so hard for Republican elected officials to tell the base the truth. That would help.

Alexander Keyssar, a Harvard historian who studies elections, noted that there was a long history in America of using fraud as an excuse to push back on gains in enfranchisement among Black and other minority voters. White voters are becoming a smaller share of the US electorate, data shows. There are definitely echoes of this now, he said. There has always been an inclination to see new voters of different ethnicities or appearance as agents, or unwitting agents of fraud.

Mac Stipanovich, a longtime Republican operative in Florida who is now retired, said the lies about the election provided a kind of cover for those unable to concede they were a shrinking minority in the population.

In the past, party elders, party leaders exploited the crazies in order to win elections and then largely ignored them after the elections, he said. What has happened since then is that Trump opened Pandoras box and let them out. He not only let them out, he affirmed them and provoked them. And so now theyre running wild and they are legitimatizing these delusions.

While there have been other nastily contested elections in US history President Rutherford B Hayes was labeled Rutherfraud and His Fraudulency after the contested election in 1876 both Keyssar and Foley said it was difficult to find a comparison to what was happening now.

Weve never had that. Weve never had McCarthyism-style fabrication of a conspiracy theory applied to the process of counting votes I would say its especially dangerous when its the electoral process, Foley said. Because its the electoral process that ultimately allows for self-government. When the mechanisms of self-government kind of get taken over by a kind of McCarthyism, thats very troubling.

Read more:
How Republicans came to embrace the big lie of a stolen election - The Guardian

Boeing Co.s political action committee resumed giving to federal candidates and committees in May after a three-month pause, including donations to members who opposed certifying the 2020 election results for President Joe Biden.

The aerospace giant joined dozens of other companies on Jan. 13 in announcing that they would suspend and review their political action committee donations in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot by supporters of Donald Trump.

But beginning on May 3, Boeing gave out nearly $900,000 to political committees and candidates, according to its latest filing with the Federal Election Commission.

Among sitting lawmakers who received $5,000, the maximum amount a PAC can give per election, were House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Representative Vicky Hartzler of Missouri. Representative Jack Bergman, a Michigan Republican who also voted against certification, got $2,500.

All four were among the 147 Republicans who voted against certifying Electoral College votes for Biden in alignment with Trumps false claim that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Five people were killed as a result of the mob storming the Capitol.

More from Election

Earlier: Wall Street Looks to Quietly Reopen Wallets for Politicians

We will continue to carefully evaluate our giving to ensure that we support candidates who support our business and policy priorities, said Boeing spokeswoman Chris Singley. She said the company also takes into account the interests of its customers, its diverse workforce and the communities in which it operates when considering its political contributions.

Boeings PAC also gave $25,000 to the Republican Attorneys General Association. An affiliate of the group, the Rule of Law Defense Fund, helped organize protests on Jan. 6 that preceded the riot, paying for robocalls urging Trump supporters to attend the Stop the Steal rally.

The PACs biggest donations went to the Republican Governors Association, which got $200,000, and the Senate and House arms of the Democratic and Republican parties, each of which got $105,000 -- the maximum that a PAC can give to a party committee per year.

Democratic politicians also received contributions. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn each got $5,000 for their primary campaigns, while Majority Leader Steny Hoyer got $5,000 for his primary race and $5,000 for the general election.

Boeings PAC and employees were the 77th largest source of campaign contributions in the 2020 election cycle according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which studies political donations. The Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was the biggest recipient with $790,000. Biden was second, receiving $726,148 followed by Trump, who got $602,962.

(Updates with Boeing statement, in sixth paragraph.)

Before it's here, it's on the Bloomberg Terminal.

Excerpt from:
Boeing PAC Resumes Giving to Republicans Who Opposed Certifying Election - Bloomberg

Its hard to see how or when or why or indeed whether things go back to what we might call the pre-Trump normal in the functioning of our poor dear nations system of politics and government.

The old normal wasnt as great as perhaps many Americans assume. Our system is screwy and dysfunctional in many basic ways. We have a system in which a plurality or even a majority of Americans can vote for a presidential candidate who nonetheless loses thanks to the workings of the anachronistic Electoral College system.

Our system is particularly prone to gridlock, in which each party is able to block the other from governing, in the sense of implementing the program on which it was elected. In its current partisanized condition, the Supreme Court can function as an unelected superpower, able to further prevent the elected branches that are supposed to be in charge of making and executing the laws from doing so. The fundamental nature of the U.S. Senate, in which the two members from Wyoming have equal weight with the two members from California, notwithstanding the one of them having 68 times more population, is hard to reconcile with a modern understanding of how a democracy should be organized.

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But in addition to those longstanding structural problems, we now have an enormous cult, comprising about a third of one of our two major parties, clinging to beliefs that are provably wrong.

That last paragraph refers not exclusively but specifically to the recent polls indicating that three in 10 Republicans (29%) believe that Donald Trump not only won the election that he lost last year, but will soon be reinstated as president, according to a new Politico/Morning Consult poll.

Im sure youve heard this before. And the expected reinstatement will absolutely not happen unless Trump somehow manages to be elected in 2024 to a fresh term, which, unfortunately, is not beyond the realm of the imaginable. I would like to say that the reinstatement scenario is beyond that realm, but obviously that would be incorrect if millions of Americans not only imagine it but expect it to occur.

Now 29 percent of Republicans is not a majority of the country, nor even, thank goodness, even of the party. But it is many millions of Americans, and we saw on Jan. 6 how much trouble and carnage a much smaller number of motivated Trump supporters can cause.

The estimate of how many believe that this will occur is based on a Politico/Morning Consult poll completed a week ago.Although its been noted elsewhere, Im relying on this writeup of the poll in Vanity Fair, which appropriately acknowledged that on the one hand, 61 percent of Republicans did not expect the Trump reinstatement to occur, but also declared that one third of a major political party is an unnervingly high percentage.

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It's unnerving indeed that 3 in 10 Republicans think Trump will be 'reinstated' this year - MinnPost

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George P. Bushs first trip outside Austin after he announced his campaign for attorney general wouldnt surprise anyone watching Texas politics these days: Like many other ambitious Republicans, he visited South Texas.

The states current land commissioner, who is seeking to unseat incumbent Attorney General Ken Paxton, spoke with members of the Border Patrol union along the Rio Grande, met with high school students in San Juan and helped clean beaches on South Padre Island.

It was part of a flurry of GOP activity in the predominantly Hispanic region this month. Nearly a year ago, Republicans relative success in the areas along the Texas-Mexico border helped them fend off the strongest challenge to their political dominance by Texas Democrats in decades. Now the GOP wants to take the fight to the Democrats in next years midterm elections and attack one of the states most reliably blue regions.

The work has already begun.

In addition to last weeks trip by Bush, Associated Republicans of Texas, a GOP political group, announced this week that it would target six Democratic state House seats in South Texas, citing growing support for Republicans in the area. On Thursday, Gov. Greg Abbott held a border summit featuring local leaders from both parties. At the event, he announced that plans were in the works "for the state of Texas to begin building the border wall," but he didn't give details.

And in a development Saturday that gained national attention, a former chairman of the Hidalgo County GOP was elected mayor of McAllen, long a Democratic stronghold. According to the county party, Javier Villalobos was the first registered Republican elected mayor of the city this century.

Theres something going on down there, said Aaron De Leon, political director for Associated Republicans of Texas. We see a great opportunity in South Texas and we want to take the offensive and take it to the Democrats in what has historically been their territory.

Republicans were encouraged by former President Donald Trumps surprise victories in the area during the 2020 election. Trump won 14 of 28 counties on or near the border that Hillary Clinton had nearly swept in 2016 and he came within 5 percentage points of Biden in traditionally Democratic Starr County. Clinton won the county by 60 percentage points.

Not surprisingly, longtime Democratic State Rep. Ryan Guillen whose Rio Grande City district is located in Starr is among ARTs targets. The other five targets are: Eddie Lucio III and Alex Dominguez of Brownsville, Bobby Guerra of Mission, Abel Herrero of Robstown and Eddie Morales Jr. of Eagle Pass.

Democratic officials say they welcome the GOPs challenge.

If they want to do that, theyre entitled to do everything they want to do, but Im not trembling in my boots, said Gilberto Hinojosa, chairman of the Texas Democratic Party and a former Cameron County judge. All it does is allow these state representatives who normally dont have contested elections to invest enormous amounts of resources in defending their seats and thatll help us increase voter turnout for our nominees running for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and land commissioner.

Democrats will continue targeting 12 to 14 statehouse seats elsewhere in the state to flip the Texas House, Hinojosa added.

But Dominguez, one of the targets, said ARTs stated goals in South Texas are bold and should be taken seriously.

Both the state and national party should be looking at this very closely, he said. The border Democrats have been the blue wall in Texas for decades. We cant afford to lose the blue wall.

If Republicans are able to recruit strong down-ballot candidates, theyll get a much-needed boost from some of the state GOPs biggest names, like Bush and Abbott.

Abbott, who consistently polls as the states most popular politician, has shown considerable attention to the border in recent months. On Thursday, he was in Eagle Pass to hold a Border Security Summit. His chief political adviser, Dave Carney, said securing the border was a major issue for voters they've surveyed in South Texas who have dealt with the influx of immigrants near the Mexico border.

It will help all of us to work on ways to stem the flow of unlawful immigration and to stem the flow of illegal contraband, Abbott said.

Carney also said Latinos in the region align with Republican values like access to good jobs, keeping the economy strong and educational opportunities.

Democrats have written off Hispanics as part of their base coalition, Carney said. Their issues are so much aligned with us.

He also said the area has untapped potential for right-of-center candidates.

Our biggest shortfall has been candidate recruitment. If wed had a full slate in 2020 we would have had an inroad, he said. Were rectifying that at the moment. Were out recruiting candidates for the state Legislature and for Congress. Plans are to launch a full assault there to make sure we have the ballot full and have engaged campaigns up and down the ballot.

Villalobos, the newly elected McAllen mayor, encouraged Republicans to run for office in South Texas but said theyd have to stay focused on kitchen table issues, like being fiscally conservative, to run competitive campaigns.

He also admonished GOP leaders who use divisive language that turns Latinos away and said his campaign was victorious because it garnered support from Republicans, Democrats and independents.

The advice is just look to be inclusive, he said. Talk to everybody, do not be adversarial. If the Republican Party wants to grow, youll have to bring in the other party. Most people have a common goal, they want whats right. Unfortunately [some Republicans] go the other route.

Bush, whose mother is Mexican American, also sees potential for Republicans in the region, according to his campaign.

Hispanics in South Texas believe in faith, family and freedom. They believe in border security. Theyre tired of critical race theory and Latinx nonsense. Thats just not resonating with them, said J.R. Hernandez, Bushs senior adviser. Were going to continue to expand the Republican tent.

Hinojosa said Democrats are ready.

Were not taking anything for granted, weve gotta make sure enough people are registered to vote, he said. Were going to work but well have many more resources to do that.

Villalobos race was a nonpartisan municipal election, and Hinojosa said that the Republican actively tried to hide his party affiliation.

Nobody other than a few people knew that Javier Villalobos was a Republican, he said.

Still, Abbott and other Republicans celebrated his victory Saturday night.

Javier is a proven leader who cares deeply about the McAllen community," Abbott said in a statement. "I congratulate him on his election as Mayor of McAllen and look forward to working alongside him to ensure an even more prosperous future for the people of the Rio Grande Valley."

Hinojosa acknowledged that Trump picked up support in South Texas last year. That stemmed partly from Republican efforts to tie Democrats to the defund the police movement and calls to move away from the fossil fuel industry. Law enforcement and the energy industry are two of the main job providers in the area. Democrats struggles also came from a lack of investment by the Biden campaign in the region, he said.

But Hinojosa took solace in the lack of down-ballot flipping. Even though Trump came within striking distance of Biden in Starr, Guillen handily beat his Republican opponent with nearly 60% of the vote. In his congressional race, longtime Laredo Democrat Henry Cuellar beat his GOP opponent by a similar margin.

Hinojosa said thats because voters trust their local Democratic officials and know that they are representing their needs in Austin and Washington.

Guillen, who has been in office nearly two decades, has a campaign war chest of more than half a million dollars. Several of the other state House targets have more than a decade of experience and name recognition. And even newcomers like Dominguez will put up a strong fight.

To win his first term in 2018, Dominguez ousted longtime Democrat Rene Oliveira, who had been elected consecutively to his seat for nearly 30 years.

Bring on all challengers, he said. Not only can I stand on my record but theyll find me a very energetic and formidable opponent.

But both parties ambitions in legislative races are complicated by redistricting. Lawmakers will convene in Austin this fall for a special session to redraw the legislative maps. Republicans control the redistricting process in Texas, and could have the opportunity to rearrange boundaries to give Republicans a better shot in the region.

Regardless, Democrats have to work to counter Republican messaging, Dominguez said. No state House Democrat ran on defunding police and local officials in South Texas are supportive of law enforcement and have expanded their budgets. If that issue re-emerges next year, he added, South Texas Democrats have a chance to push back on the narrative.

Most of the state reps and congressional representatives have strong ties to both law enforcement and Border Patrol, he said. There was a missed opportunity to counter-message that Democrats also support law enforcement and were not in favor of chaos and were the ones who provide tools for law enforcement and border patrol.

Democrats will also sell voters on their agenda of good jobs, health care and education, Hinojosa said. They plan to capitalize on Bidens efforts to control COVID-19 which hit South Texas hard and the financial relief congressional Democrats have provided Americans, and contrast that to what state Republican leaders have prioritized.

They didnt get any of that from the Republicans, Hinojosa said. [Republicans] spent their time on these mean transgender bills and racist voter suppression bill.

Jason Villalba, president of the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation, said the messaging war will be key. In the last election cycle, Republicans successfully painted Democrats as socialists who were on the wrong side of key local issues like border security and protecting oil and gas jobs.

Thats not real, but they got the message across, he said. If Democrats are going to be effective they'll have to tailor the message to regional concerns.

See more here:
Republicans think they can take South Texas especially after a win in McAllen - The Texas Tribune