In these days of the completely stage-managed national political convention, the
choice of host cities may no longer do much to move the needle in November. But if the right call may do little good, the wrong selection can do real harm. And with the Republican National Committee’s announcement Wednesday that it will choose between
Cleveland and
Dallas for its 2016 convention, the GOP may have shot itself in the foot. After all, viewers will either be reminded that Texas is the home of modern Republican extremism or that Ohio is the cradle of the GOP’s perpetual vote suppression campaign.
Of course, you’d never know that from the statement released by the RNC. As Politico reported:
“Cleveland and Dallas demonstrated their ability to host a phenomenal convention in 2016, and the RNC is excited about the prospect of hosting our convention in either of these great cities,” selection committee chairwoman Enid Mickelsen said in a statement. “After visiting both cities, I can say to my fellow Republicans that we should be excited for the 2016 convention. These world class cities know how to roll out the welcome mat, and more importantly they have the ability to provide our next presidential nominee a launching pad that will put a Republican in the White House in 2016.”
Each city pulled out all the stops, with new Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel greeting the Republicans at the art museum while Dallas brought out elephants to welcome the GOP selection committee to the American Airlines Center. And so far, Dallas has committed to raising $45 million to defray the GOP’s costs while the Best Location in the Nation offered $25 million.
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But while Ohio is the definitive battleground state, it is also the place where the Republican vote suppression machine has been most visible. After all, in 2004, limited polling places, machines and hours in Cleveland and other urban, highly Democratic districts helped guarantee both unbearably long lines and four more years in the White House for George W. Bush. But the GOP wasn’t content to rest there. As NBC News reported this week:
After Republicans took control of state government in January 2011, the push to pare back voting began and it hasn’t let up since.
That year, the House passed the nation’s tightest voter ID law (it stalled in the Senate). In 2012, Secretary of State Jon Husted ended weekend voting—threatening the “Souls to the Polls” drives that many black churches had run—before a federal court restored it. Last year, lawmakers passed measures that cut the minimum number of voting machines counties must have on hand, and made it easier to remove voters from the rolls. In February, they followed up by cutting the Golden Week of same-day registration, and making it harder to get an absentee ballot—measures that seemed designed to bring back the insanely long lines of 2004. For good measure, Husted again eliminated Sunday voting, before being reversed by a court once more. There’s even a new push by a conservative group for voter ID.
To put it another way, Republicans plan to thank the people of Cleveland who would host their convention in the summer of 2016 by keeping them away from the ballot box in November.
But Ohio isn’t the only place where past Republican performance is a guarantee of the future of results. Texas may be among the fastest growing states in the union, but its politics are another matter altogether. It won’t be the supposed Texas “economic miracle” that convention-watchers will remember, but the uniquely retrograde political environment that birthed George W. Bush, Rick Perry and Ted Cruz. The Lone Star State’s draconian restrictions on reproductive rights, newly xenophobic crusade against immigration reform, backlash platform targeting gay Americans and casual talk about secession and defaulting on the national debt are wildly out of step with the emerging electorate. The situation would only be worse if Perry or Cruz becomes the face of a 21st century Republican message straight out of the Middle Ages.
As Governor Perry might say, “Oops.”