Helluva Way To Run A Political Party

The Mar-a-Lago crowd was so disenchanted with Donald Trump's announcement that he was running for president for a third time that they tried to leave. Trump's security team blocked the exits so they could not. Quite the metaphor for the GOP.
pic.twitter.com/Ff1WvBeT2H

— Victoria Brownworth (@VABVOX) November 16, 2022

The Republican Party in one tweet… https://t.co/SEqwFnaSaK

— YS (@ReallyActivist) November 16, 2022

This is the secret sauce. https://t.co/TJkQrKwrCE

— Rick Wilson (@TheRickWilson) November 16, 2022

He'll need a national infrastructure to get himself on the ballot in all 50 states, and he'll need to start building it now. Ross Perot built his company from scratch (and some very good government contracts). He knew how to build organizations. But he couldn't be bothered to do it in '92. His supporters did it, but even they didn't get him in all 50 states. Trump was handed his company by Daddy and, as has been noted more than once, would have been better off just living off the investments Daddy left behind. Trump couldn't organize a two-car funeral procession. Please, please, please let him declare himself an independent and knee-cap the GOP candidate. If he blows up the GOP in the process, it was a house of cards waiting for somebody to sneeze, anyway.

Fla already has voter ID requirements and uses paper ballots that are scanned.

— Gary Fineout (@fineout) November 16, 2022

There's a general assumption that mail in ballots are apparently accessed on the internet and the special envelopes one must use are bought in bulk on Amazon. The ID requirements for mail-in ballots in Texas are now so ridiculous officials are still teaching people how to comply and how to "cure" their ballots when they don't. The failures to comply are not nefarious, it's old people (over 65 can vote by mail, period, if they like) who don't understand the new rules or the tiny print (believe me!) on the envelopes. And when you face 4 pages of 8 x 20 inch paper covered in four columns per side of ballot.... Well, detailed instructions tend not to be read carefully, is all I'm sayin'.

Political parties only exist anymore to provide ballot access to candidates.  They always did that, but they provided structure and discipline and filtered out the completely insane (who ran on third-party tickets, like LaRouche). No wonder their focus is on who gets a ballot and what they do with it.

We aren't "protecting the vote." We're making it damned near impossible to vote. In the name of protecting democracy, we're undermining democracy. Sorta like those ants....