Voter suppression is scary, but there's another effort behind the scenes that's even worse.
Every day seems to bring yet another worrisome news account of a political maneuver that undermines our faith in American democracy. |
It can be difficult to gauge whether these are isolated, petty cases, or if they hint at a broader challenge to the American electoral system. How are we to measure the threat? |
I turned to Michelle Cottle, a veteran political reporter on The Times's editorial board. She explained how voter suppression stories disproportionately grab the spotlight because people can easily grasp the idea of obstruction, especially when policies are racist. |
Michelle also told me that voter suppression is not the most dangerous challenge to American democracy. She said there's a far bigger menace, though it gets fewer headlines because it's happening largely out of sight, at the lowest levels of government, where the Republican Party has historically had a huge advantage. |
This threat is frightening, she told me. |
Imagine a government overthrow in the spirit of the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, but one that is nonviolent, lawful and may actually succeed. |
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Michelle's opinion inspired me to commission a short film. So I paired her with Johnny Harris, one of the godfathers of video explainers and a YouTube phenom with a policy background. Johnny previously directed two Opinion videos: the first, a collaboration with Nicholas Kristof and me, about how the United States bungled its pandemic response; and the second, with Binyamin Appelbaum, about liberal hypocrisy. (The latter was nominated for an Emmy in the news and documentary category this year, and the awards ceremony is next Wednesday.) |
Michelle and Johnny, in collaboration with the Opinion Video team, spent months producing their film in the hope that it would serve as a guide for people to better interpret news stories about democracy under threat. In it, we unpack how the G.O.P. has concocted a sophisticated plot that not only aims to influence who votes but also how those votes are counted. It's an attempt to reshape our voting system by exploiting rarely used electoral procedures, and it urgently demands your attention. |
Here's what we're focusing on today: |
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