Levine challenges the concept that the United States is a democracy by selecting examples of decisions made by the republican party in order to make vote by mail difficult, and relate it to the discouragement of the minority vote. The first problem I find with this analysis is that the United States is a federal constitutional republic, not a direct democracy, although it adopts characteristics of a democracy just as much as a republic. In the United States, mostly local decisions are made by direct democratic processes, while federal decisions are made by democratically elected representatives. So yes, one may call the United States a democracy, although organizationally, it is not the case. What makes an individual call the country a democracy are the processes of which elected officials are chosen and operate.

In terms of the voter suppression, the actions of big government have hurt the ability for citizens to vote.

An example is given by Levin, from 2013, during the Obama administration, the supreme court dismantled the special provisions in the Voting Rights Act that allows the federal government to regulate election laws and block discriminatory voting policies in order to make voting fair. This change allowed the states the removed provisions to change their election laws without advance federal approval. In other words, they could re-enact race-related discriminatory policies, and disenfranchises felons and individuals who do not have acceptable literacy test results, redistricting maps without federal approval, etc.

Another example Levin provides is Texas' decision to only allow voters to vote by mail depending on age and other criteria, and not allowing individuals to register to vote online, and their decision to uphold these voting policies during the spread of COVID-19 in the US.

What I do not agree with in his analysis is the claim that the republican party was behind all the decisions and aim to discourage and restrict citizens from their ability to vote for their candidates. Like I mentioned before, the decision to "gut" the 1965 Voting Rights Act was made by a 5-4 vote, which consisted of 5 liberals and 4 originalists, not republicans. The objective of which Texas and other states who employ regulations in election laws such as voter ID, is to ensure the validity of ballots, therefore only letting American citizens to vote. The core objective of the republican party in terms of election laws in the 2020 election cycle are to minimize the opportunities for discrepancies or voter fraud, as it has been warned time and time again that vote by mail is a likely way of which fraud may occur, not to racially discriminate citizens based on their ability to vote. One thing to point out, the republican party in the past week have heavily expressed the difference between a legal vote and an illegal vote, and in order to show the difference, they promote regulations such as voter ID.

Another part that may contradict, instead of support Levin’s claim that the Americans are “fighting back” is the turnout in the 2020 election cycle, where over 161 million Americans voted as of November 4th, the highest voter turnout in modern history, regardless of the restrictions the author claims harmed the ability to vote. In terms of hurting the minority vote, the majority of the Black vote this year was won by the GOP, along with a considerable percentage of the Muslim vote, and the majority of the Latino vote; this consequently contradicts the concept that Levin proposes that there would be major resentment from the minority communities directed at the republican party, as majority seats have been won by the GOP in the House of Representatives and the Senate; it is still a win for the republicans regardless of the results of the presidential race.

If anything, the 2020 election cycle demonstrates a higher presence of democratic processes in the United States, and regardless of the results of the electoral college, the republican party's "tactics" would have allowed a more transparent election. Even though I disagree with the claims within the analysis,  therefore I will agree with Levin's conclusion up to the extent of what theoretically makes the United States election process democratic.

(feel free to suggest tweaks and feedback, I greatly appreciate it)

Very well written.

Anything you would add or change?

Nothing I would add or change, its a great rebuttal to the article.

> jeffrey epstein didnt kill himself
@Twist20081 far out

Im going to go some what conspiratorial with the guardian article, I feel its just a precursory argument in case Biden is confirmed president to have legislation wrote to make an admenment that gives the federal gov the authority to write the voting laws. I feel they want to take the states rights away and use racism to do it.

> Im going to go some what conspiratorial with the guardian article, I feel its just a precursory argument in case Biden is confirmed president to have legislation wrote to make an admenment that gives the federal gov the authority to write the voting laws. I feel they want to take the states rights away and use racism to do it.
@the silent trucker
What I think is.. in terms of house of representatives and the senate, it’s now flipped and/or remained mostly republican, which means regardless of who wins the presidential race, two outcomes can happen: Nancy Pelosi (which has been a rather burden on the house of representatives) may be booted off, and in terms of policy, there wouldn’t be much Biden/Harris could do without reaching a compromise in both the house and the senate. Umm.. Amy Coney Barrett.. wow. I honestly want to see how she will manage as Supreme Court Justice... What I’m thinking is, regardless of voter fraud, Trump will delay the vote count with legal action as a desperate attempt to win, and if the final results can’t be determined by January (If I remember correctly, that's as far as citizen vote can determine election results before being disqualified and taken to the house).. Like I mentioned before, most seats flipped and/or remained mostly republican.. Meaning that the chances Trump is re-elected via the House of Representatives is likely.. really smart contingency..

One of the talking points I heard consistently in the news was this “blue wave”... let me tell you, this phenomenon already happened.. in 2008 with Obama. This time the pendulum swung back and there’s a red wave.. even though it possibly wouldn’t be reflected on a presidency, it has been visibly demonstrated on the energy for the republican party and the presence of republicans in the house of representatives and the senate. Because of that, should Biden win the presidential race, the next 4 years will look like an inert government instead of an active government..

Another thing I believe is that in 4 years time, the republicans will present a candidate that produces similar political performance that have been presented the past 4 years with Trump (regardless of the results in the 2020 election cycle), but this time without the excesses that Trump brought into office. Less sensationalism, drama, being in social media, etc. ; more so courteous to opposition, yet firm on core conservative principles.

But that's what I'm not confident on.. Because the kind of energy Trump gave to the momentum of the republican party is something you rarely see. But at the same time, the executive performance Trump gave can be used as a baseline for what are the expectations of the American public.

ANYWAY, that's what I think. Probably should be on <#760648730431979560> instead of in this chat room

If the GOP wasnt so spineless I would completely agree, however if trump is gone the GOP will go back to licking the blue boots.

Well, I'll just be optimistic that the GOP isn't weak-minded this time

dont worry

our party will be stronger than ever in 2024

more diverse, representing the america of the future

"Unity Through Prosperity!"

In my opinion I don’t think we’ll ever see the republic party back in power. I think Biden and the people running him have plans to make us slaves under their tyranny. Big tech and the media are all in on it and once they shutdown the country because of the “virus” and they shut down the economy, it’ll never open back up. They are censoring everything on the mainstream media, and they’ve already claimed Biden the winner. Since when has the media called elections? No. They don’t rule our lives but they will. They don’t choose who wins elections. The courts will decide. This is looking more and more like 1984. Just saying.

The Republican party IS in power.

With the exception of the presidency, we made gains across state legislatures, in the house, and we kept the senate.

They just have to actually do something about the goddamn corruption.

I'm not scared of Biden winning. I'm scared of Biden winning illegitimately through mass mail-in voting enabled by COVID-19. If that happens, the Democrats will keep us locked down forever because "muh virus" and keep us voting by mail forever so they can keep cheating. And honestly, not getting my social life back is scarier than BLM and Antifa.

Thanks for ruining America, China.

The thing is, they don’t play by the rules. They’ll keep this country shut down long enough to destroy smaller businesses and we’ll be left with nothing but companies like Amazon who have enough wealth to make it however long they need. They’ll only shut down smaller more irrelevant companies because of the “virus.” We’ll see America lose jobs like never before. Companies like Amazon have doubled profits in the last year with the shutdowns already. Biden will do what he wants, he’s backed by big tech and the media, and they’re all run by communist China and the socialists and globalists. They have the media to back them up and hide the truths about the corrupt actions they’re taking. The media is already censoring all media exposing the truth or exposing fraud voting. Biden has already said he’s going to go to every governor of every state for the mask mandate, and if they won’t abide, he said “And if they refuse, I’ll go to the mayors and county executives and get local masking requirements in place nationwide.” Which is already out of his legislation.

I don't trust the political party of "When's the last time an actor killed a President?" to play fair.

Black Lives Matter is just a money laundering service for Democrats...change my mind

https://www.exposesunrise.com/

These people don't exactly like the dems that much either.

It's just a convenient alliance.

??

Yep my buddy told me to ask siri how old the president was and it comes up with that.

even siri knows that biden wouldn't be the real president

Bruh I just tried it on my phone and Siri says the same thing.....

Same

I tried it actually before I saw this 😂

Damn i dont have siri lol but google says Trump