Kansas and all of the United States teeter on the edge of a treacherous canyon. If we drop into that vast gulf, climbing out again will take years if not decades.
Yet nearly half of us, if not more, prefer to ignore the yawning abyss.
As evidence, I present two separate yet interconnected stories. The first appeared in Kansas Reflector over the weekend. It outlined the potential consequences of a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Called Moore v. Harper, the case involves a bizarre concept called the independent state legislature theory.
As Minnesota Reformer reporter Michelle Griffith explained, if the nation’s high court backs this theory, the consequences could be cataclysmic. State lawmakers could “enact laws to make it harder to vote in federal elections without review from state courts. Legislatures could shorten the early voting period, restrict mail-in balloting to certain counties and require voter ID, among other measures.”
Legislatures — including the supermajority GOP one foisted upon Kansas — could have their way with election law. State courts couldn’t stop them.
Griffith writes further that “administration of the presidential election is under a different clause, so at stake is solely the administration of congressional elections.” Given the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent track record, however, that hardly reassures.
Now, keep that scary scenario in mind while I pivot to the second story.
The New York Times noted last week that more than 370 Republican candidates running this year have voiced doubts about the 2020 election. That’s a majority of those running from the party.
Kansas has eight GOP candidates for U.S. Congress, governor, secretary of state and state attorney general. Five of them have expressed such doubts about election integrity. (Let’s not forget the role of current attorney general and gubernatorial hopeful Derek Schmidt in challenging President Biden’s election.)
The outer limits
Consider all of this for a moment.
An entire party has fallen in thrall to the Big Lie of a stolen election. Simultaneously, the U.S. Supreme Court may hand the keys to statewide elections to Republican-dominated legislatures. What could possibly go wrong?
If past is prologue, you can expect a bunch of conspiracy theories and terrible laws.
Just this last session, GOP Secretary of State Scott Schwab has had to press back repeatedly against out-of-state hucksters. Lawmakers showed themselves as all to willing to play along. Current attorney general candidate Kris Kobach’s fought an epic five-year battle against the ACLU, defending unconstitutional voter registration limits. Meanwhile, public trust in our institutions continues to erode.
With a background like that, we can expect the Kansas Legislature to press the outer boundaries of the independent state legislature theory if given the go-ahead. The mind boggles at the misshapen districts they might draw or the towering obstacles they might erect to dissuade voters. They might decide that only land-owning men who sign patriot pledges and carry firearms can cast ballots.
The canyon we face in Kansas appears particularly treacherous to me because of Republican dominance.
Even if the U.S. Supreme Court clears the way for troubling doctrine, purple and blue states will surely see stiff resistance to bad policy. But the number of Kansas Republicans who would vote against the leaders of their party on election matters could well be vanishingly small. And once the laws are passed, without court review, Democrats could be shut out of winning congressional elections in the Sunflower State ever again.
Hyperbole? Perhaps. But I would feel more comfortable if I saw more in the party standing up for our system of shared governance.
