One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy

by Carol Anderson

For example, in 2017, it was obvious that from the Affordable Care Act, to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), the majority of the American people have been on one side of the issue and Republicans in Congress on the other; and the Republicans have won.35 One of the most striking examples of this jarring phenomenon was the passage of the 2017 tax bill (H.R. 1). In many ways, its features are absolutely injurious to middle- and working-class Americans.36 Hence, a majority of the people were strongly opposed to the bill. A Gallup poll found that while 70 percent of those identifying as Republicans supported the measure, a mere 7 percent of Democrats and 25 percent of Independents supported the bill. Most important, only 29 percent overall approved of H.R. 1.37 The media continued to publish one stark poll after the next, astonished that the GOP leadership, as well as the rank and file, could and would ignore the clamor and outrage coming from the public.38 But with wealthy donors threatening to cut off campaign contributions unless the tax bill passed and transferred the lion’s share of the $1.5 trillion in resources to them, the GOP pressed forward.