OPINION: Aug. 8 could be a critical day for our democracy

This article was originally posted on Edwin’s Substack newsletter on July 27.

Aug. 8 may be the day Americans take back our democracy. That’s the day that voters in Ohio, responding to an illegal election called by a legislature itself created by unconstitutional maps, can tell the elite power brokers that they have gone too far.

“Take back our democracy,” is a strong claim. It evokes the gratitude we feel when contemplating the sacrifices Americans made at Valley Forge, or Little Round Top, or on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Showing up to vote on Aug. 8 is not as perilous, but it may be as impactful.

Across the nation, our democracy is under attack in state legislatures. Laws restricting voting, gerrymanders that make voting nearly irrelevant as outcomes are pre-ordained, even laws that allow partisan committees to declare results null and void have been passed in many states. Freed from accountability to voters, these legislatures instead have become mechanisms to impose policies written by and for wealthy interests.  That’s why, after gaining control, in state after state, unpopular laws are imposed on the people — from attacking reproductive choice to destroying public education; from subsidizing fossil fuels to ensuring that guns are everywhere. In some states, now, it’s easier to get a gun into a school than some books.

Few states have suffered the ill effects of lost democracy like Ohio. (For a full and painful account read David Pepper’s Laboratories of Autocracy.) And yet, the legislature is greedy for more power. For a century, voters in Ohio have held the right to amend their constitution. Now, that right is a risk the ruling autocrats cannot abide. The last time voters used this power, they outlawed gerrymandering. The legislature ignored it. Now Ohioans want to vote on whether to protect reproductive choice. This is an affront to the unaccountable legislature who would are used to making every decision without input from ordinary citizens.

After making August elections illegal — for good reason: They are expensive, and turnout is low — the legislature scheduled a referendum for Aug. 8. (Sounds crazy, but this is the kind of things that happen when there’s no accountability.) On the ballot is Issue 1, and a yes vote would effectively take from Ohioans the right to amend their Constitution. While timed to stave off a vote on reproductive choice, Issue 1 does more. It eliminates the last remaining check on autocratic power in the state.

Voting is already underway, and turnout is high. Polling shows strong opposition to this power grab. Good. Meanwhile, however, out-of-state dark money is funding dirty tricks, like sending out fake newspapers to confuse voters.

When voters show up in large numbers, as I expect they will, and if they soundly reject Issue 1, as I hope they do, it will be a major win for pro-democracy fighters against autocrats in Ohio. It will send a strong message to the ruling elite that they have gone too far. It will show everyone in the state that a legislature used to acting with impunity and contempt for the law is now vulnerable. Nothing will do more to buoy beaten down citizens across the state and give them new energy for the fights to come.

Across the country, all eyes will be on Ohio, as voters there carry the hopes of a great but fragile democracy on their shoulders. I predict that on Aug. 9, we will owe them our thanks.

Edwin Eisendrath hosts “The Big Picture” on WCPT 820 AM every Saturday at 1 p.m. CST. You can follow him on Twitter @eisendrath.