What happened in Kansas: Americans know that rights are not just suggestions

[marmar]

What happened in Kansas: Americans know that rights are not just suggestions
Right-wingers thought they had a foolproof game plan in Kansas. It fell apart, and that could change everything

By LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV
PUBLISHED AUGUST 6, 2022 8:00AM


(Salon) Pundits have been wearing out their thumbs on Twitter ever since the results of the Kansas referendum on abortion came in Tuesday night. The victory on the "No" side, against amending the state constitution to remove its protection of abortion rights, was decisive, 59 to 41 percent. Voting "Yes" in the referendum meant that the constitution could be amended and laws further restricting or banning abortion entirely could be passed in the state.

Republicans had made the vote confusing on purpose. To a casual observer, a "no" vote might seem to mean you were against abortion rights, and "yes" vote that you were for abortion rights, when in fact it was the other way around. The state Republican Party also scheduled the vote on primary day in August, when turnout is typically much heavier for the GOP in a state where Republicans outnumber Democrats almost two to one and frequently have competitive primary contests, while Democrats rarely do and their voters often don't bother to show up.. Furthermore, Republicans were betting that turnout among independents would be low because they are not permitted to vote in either party's primaries.

That strategy failed across the board. Turnout among Democrats was high, as it was among independents, all of them apparently driven to the polls by the abortion referendum on the ballot. The vote by political party was not monolithic, either, with many Republicans crossing over to vote no. Even in the conservative rural counties of western Kansas, which Donald Trump carried by lopsided margins in 2020, the vote against the referendum measure was in the range of 40 percent, meaning that many Republicans voted to preserve abortion rights.

....(snip)....

It was the decision of the Kansas Supreme Court that was on the ballot last Tuesday. Did Kansans believe that their state and its government were founded on principles that were worth standing by? Did they, in the words of the court, believe that their constitution's words were "more than an idealized aspiration?"

That's what the vote was about. Did the words that founded the nation, and were then employed to found the state of Kansas, have meaning? Voters were being asked, in effect, whether the word "rights" has meaning. Both the federal and state constitutions have bills of rights. They are not bills of doubts, or bills of exceptions, or bills of maybes, or bills of questions. The Constitution of the United States is said to be the supreme law of the land, just as the constitution of Kansas is the supreme law of that state. They are not suggestions; they are laws. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2022/08/06/what-happened-in-kansas-americans-know-that-rights-are-not-just-suggestions/

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. Democrats are FOR Freedom, Rights, and Democracy...

Keep pressing that and voters will respond in kind. Republicans and Independents will also.

[grumpyduck]

2. Also, a lot of Americans can still recognize bullshit.

Bullshit isn't partisan. It's just bullshit.

The repukes seem to have forgotten that.