Republicans are testing democracy in North Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.

In 2012, Republicans in North Carolina won a "trifecta" of legislative and executive power. They used their new power to aggressively analyze the electoral map and impose new voting restrictions. In 2016, Democrats overturned these gains, barely overthrowing the outgoing government, the Pat McCrory government, and the GOP legislature reacted by depriving the incoming executive of vital powers and privileges. Before the Democrats took their place, the Republicans ended the governor's control over the election commissions, prevented the bureau from making appointments to the public school board and the board of directors. University of North Carolina, reducing by 1,500 the total number of jobs appointed by the governor. 300, and Cabinet appointments were submitted to the approval of the State Senate.

Rather than accept the will of voters, who empowered the new governor to take the reins of state government, Republicans have strengthened their influence and undermined the authority of the government in the goal of avoiding and undermining democratic accountability.

At the time, this anti-democratic maneuver seemed exceptional in North Carolina. But as a result of the great democratic victories of the mid-term elections of 2018, it seems to be the canary of the coal mine.

Democrats won major victories in Republican-controlled Midwestern states, which supported Donald Trump as president, often overthrowing control of state legislatures. The Michigan Democrats won tight races for the governor, Attorney General and the Secretary of State, while the Wisconsin Democrats won the races of the governor, who resigned from his tenure, Scott Walker, and the Attorney General. Instead of allowing power to circulate unchallenged, Republicans in both states are now fighting against the rearguard to take away all power, using "lame duck" sessions to launch what is actually a coup d'etat legislative.

In Wisconsin, GOP lawmakers introduced legislation that severely limited the power of the new governor, Tony Evers. The measures will limit its ability to manage public benefit programs and limit its power to establish rules for the implementation of state laws. They also vetoed any legislative attempt to ban firearms from the state capital and ended the governor's control over the agency created by Walker that uses loans and loans. taxpayer-funded grants to attract outside firms.

To reject the result of a fair election is to undermine the entire democratic project .

Republicans also planned to attack the Attorney General's office. They removed the office of the Solicitor General (newly created) and established a new legislative power to intervene in any litigation challenging a state law (even allowing lawmakers to go to court). hire their own lawyers, at the expense of taxpayers, to undermine the Attorney General), since legislators control the money of the court rules and that the budget committee of the Legislative Assembly, rather than the Attorney General, has the right to decide to pursue legal action against the Affordable Care Act. The magnitude of these changes testifies to the confidence of the state government in its ability to hold the Legislative Assembly – a confidence that stems from the extreme partisanship hijacking of the party that created a firewall allowing Republicans to resist a opposition tsunami. To this end, Wisconsin Republicans also want new limits on early voting.

This is an almost identical situation in Michigan, where Democrats captured the three offices across the country – Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State – for the first time in 28 years. There, Republican lawmakers presented several lame proposals aimed at depriving the new Democratic leaders of power. The first is a bill that would allow the legislator to intervene in any court proceedings involving state laws that the governor and attorney general might be reluctant to defend. A separate proposal would be passed from the Secretary of State for Control of the Election Financing Act to a six-member commission appointed by the Republican and Democratic parties, which would create a stalemate in addressing these issues, thus strengthening the status quo. Republican officials.

Even the best defense of these movements – that it is simply an effort to protect the achievements and achievements of the previous majority – accepts the undemocratic reasoning that a outgoing majority is not bound by the results of an election, has the right to change the rules of the game to preserve its power .

The peaceful and undisputed transfer of power is the cornerstone of representative democracy – the critical moment when we see if political actors have embraced the spirit of cooperation and respect for the rules that make the world 's. self-government possible. There are laws on how we accomplish the orderly transfer of power, but the very moment the choice of a party or politician to honor the will of voters is an act of faith democratic – a statement of faith in the American idea. That's why Donald Trump was widely condemned when he suggested in the 2016 election that he would not give up the election in case of defeat against Hillary Clinton. Rejecting the result of a fair election, it is directly undermining the democratic project as a whole.

The Republicans of Michigan, Wisconsin and North Carolina did not go so far as to challenge the results of their respective elections, but their actions, which serve to hinder the new body duly elected representatives, are the movement in this direction. In national politics, Republican lawmakers openly question the legitimacy of the Democratic House of Representatives' victory by presenting ordinary acts – the counting of ballots – as potentially insidious. In fact, a large part of the Republican Party has already adopted voter repression, extreme gerrymandering and other methods to preserve legislative majorities in the face of popular opposition. The lame coup is a natural step.

Despite all the attention paid to Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy, it is these actions – much more disturbing – emanating from ordinary, almost anonymous Republican politicians, unchallenged by anyone with influence within the party. It's one thing to look for a partisan advantage, it's much more dangerous to treat democracy as a Calvinball match, where rules only matter if they meet your interests.