The cornerstone of a functioning democracy is 1 person, 1 vote – it’s one of the key things that distinguishes the United States from monarchies, plutocracies, oligarchies, anarchies and dictatorships, yes?

If a cornerstone of democracy is 1 person, 1 vote, why has Republican leadership supported voter intimidation all over the country – ranging from gross misinformation to threats of violence – to deter voters from showing up and participating in the democratic process?

If a cornerstone of democracy is 1 person, 1 vote, why has Republican leadership supported re-zoning, in which voter bases and communities are segregated and otherwise undermined?

If a cornerstone of democracy is 1 person, 1 vote, why have conservatives on the Supreme Court voted to allow corporations to function as people and flood local, state and federal elections with money?

Is it a coincidence that felons can’t vote while incarcerated, on parole or probation and that since the 1980s black men have been disproportionately targeted for felonies and incarcerated, undermining their lives in inestimable ways, including their ability to vote?

If 1 person, 1 vote is a cornerstone of democracy, why does Republican leadership continue to support President Trump, who has openly expressed his admiration not of democratic leaders, institutions and processes (including the election process), but of brutal dictators around the world, including Duterte and Putin?

If Republican leadership is actively engaging in efforts to thwart 1 person, 1 vote and supporting a president who lacks more than a basic understanding of and little if any respect for rule of law, don’t we at some point have to question whether or not Republican leadership really still supports and represents a democracy?

And if the answer is a resounding no (and I think it is) don’t we also have to ask what it is that Republican leadership DOES want?

Is it possible that Republicans and others, in response to projections that the country will be more black and brown than white by 2050, are quietly moving to disenfranchise black and brown voters and to consolidate power among wealthy white elites?

Is it possible that the militarization of police departments may be part of this move toward a white-minority-ruled apartheid-esque state, along with unmistakable efforts to erode trust in the justice department and other democratic institutions, the corporatization of the prison system, and refusal to implement sane gun laws?

Can it hurt that as a result of the 2008 economic crisis many have lost homes, savings, equity, jobs, can’t afford skyrocketing rents and so are primed to be relocated to shanties on the outskirts of major U.S. cities while wealthy whites return to them?

Does anyone worry that we’re being treated like frogs in that famous experiment – that rather than being placed in boiling water (which frogs register as dangerous and jump out of immediately), we’ve been placed in lukewarm water that Republican leaders are heating up so slowly and incrementally (with one strategically fascist policy after another) that we aren’t going to know just how badly we’re being burned until it’s too late to hop out of the pot?

If these are all random coincidences, what IS the explanation for their occurrences –

if not a concerted effort to move the country toward a white-minority-ruled apartheid-ish state, then what?

What other explanation exists for this clearly undemocratic and clearly intentional direction Republican leaders are moving in/toward?

And at what point does it become too late for us to push back and make a stand for democracy?