I grew up in a liberal, city-dwelling, NPR-listening household—and my parents always taught me that while we don’t agree with Republicans, we respect their right to vote.

Because in a democracy, everyone has the right to have their voices heard. We want everybody to vote.

Which is why I find the Republican War on Voting so distressing. They know they can’t win an election fair and square, so they have to rig the system to stay in power.

But it goes beyond that. In 1980, Paul Weyrich—the “founding father of the conservative movement”—gave the following speech at a Religious Right gathering in Texas:



I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people. They never have been from the beginning of our country, and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections—quite candidly—goes up, as the voting populace goes down.

Republicans don’t want everybody to vote, but we do. And if we don’t get out the vote on Tuesday, they will win—and Mitch McConnell will be Senate Majority Leader.

That’s why we need you to make get-out-the-vote phone calls today.