The risk of a "more formal and permanent despotism"

Conservatives warn that Griffin's case would prove that they've been wrong about the GOP's commitment to democracy.

Jefferson Griffin’s blatant attempt to steal a supreme court seat in North Carolina is finally getting the attention it deserves. National media outlets like NBC, Vox, PBS, and The Atlantic all have stories about it. Most importantly, though, conservatives are finally realizing that the lawsuit hurts their claims that the GOP is not an anti-democratic party.

Conservative writer Andrew Dunn, who worked with former Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, was the first to sound the alarm. As I wrote earlier, Dunn pointed out that following through with the lawsuit could damage the GOP’s credibility. Today, it has become the “national story about Republicans ‘stealing’ a Supreme Court seat” that he warned about.

Even the conservative Carolina Journal has realized the damage the lawsuit is causing. An opinion writer called the lawsuit “an unprecedented and undignified response to losing an election.” He notes that Griffin’s response runs contrary to conservative’s respect for rules and continuity.

In the News & Observer, the former general counsel for the North Carolina Republican Party co-authored an op-ed that read, “Griffin certainly appears to be appealing to court partisanship. If successful, he will have severely harmed both the election process and the judicial system. Everything he has done so far demonstrates that he does not belong on the court. This self-serving litigation can undermine confidence in the courts at the highest level. Every citizen should be wary of the potential damage.”

What’s most disturbing, though, are the Republicans who have remained silent, people like U.S. Senators Thom Tillis and Ted Budd, Republican Members of Congress, and Speaker of the House Destin Hall. While Republicans and conservatives criticizing the lawsuit imply that Griffin is an exception, he, in fact, is proving the rule. Republicans believe more in power than they do democracy. They want to win at any cost, including the credibility of the courts and the fairness of our electoral system.

I applaud the conservative voices urging Griffin to drop his lawsuit, but they need to recognize that Griffin’s lawsuit is not the only one trying to disenfranchise voters. The state Republican Party also is asking the court to throw out votes that have already been cast. Again, Griffin is not the exception. He’s following a playbook that’s been part of the GOP as it transformed from a pro-democratic party to an autocratic one. The official party line is now to disenfranchise voters in order to win the election.

The real test will come if the case is heard at the Supreme Court of North Carolina. With Justice Allison Riggs recused because she defeated Griffin, four of the five Republicans on the court will need to support Griffin’s claims for them to move forward. In the past, the court has sided with power over voters, voting along party lines to approve partisan gerrymandering. The decision allowed Republicans in the legislature the redraw Congressional maps, making them among the most biased in the country, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

If the Supreme Court sides with Griffin, they will strip away any veneer that the GOP is a pro-democracy party. They will validate the claims that Democrats have been making since the North Carolina GOP began passing laws to restrict access to the ballot box when they took power in 2011. They will also prove the checks and balances that the Founding Fathers hoped would prevent a concentration of power have failed and justify George Washington’s warning in his Farewell Address that political parties could lead “to a more formal and permanent despotism.”