Florida Senators Marco Rubio, Rick Scott on wrong side of voting rights issue | Editorial

Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott take offense when called out for dishonesty, particularly over voters' rights. And yet they obligate us to do so. 

Not only did our Florida senators join their 48 GOP colleagues in lockstep against the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act this week but they actively railed against the bills, whose only goals were to advance democracy for all, regardless of skin color or political party.

Rubio took to the lectern to decry Democrats as both, in his words, caramel macchiato-sipping, avocado toast-eating elites and Castro-like dictators, who seek only to strengthen their grip on power.

Junior Sen. Scott, barely a week after the anniversary of the Jan. 6 Capitol takeover attempt, took occasion to call Democrats proposed filibuster tweaks, to allow discussion of voters rights, an attempt at "a hostile federal takeover of American elections."

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Republican pols complain that Democrats dismiss GOP efforts to legislate safeguards that are as innocuous as voter ID requirements. But when a restriction is proposed absent even a whiff of the fraud it's meant to fight, its intent can only be to whittle away at their opponents' voter rolls, not to enhance election integrity.

Coupled with proposals to limit use of drop boxes, restrict early voting hours, stop groups from delivering absentee ballots, and gerrymander districts for political gain — as Gov. DeSantis attempted this week (along with his disingenuous call for an elections police force) — then it's clear you intend not to protect democracy but to shape outcomes to your party's liking. 

So, the problem is not one or two Democratic senators who don't side with their party on all issues. The problem is the 50 Republican senators who do, leaning far right and never wrong, with Scott and Rubio pushing themselves as close to the front of the pack as they can get. 

They insist Americans only really care about inflation, crime and breached borders. What's more, Rubio said, Democrats only care about election law as pretext. 

"It's about the power to tell you what you’re allowed to say," the lawmaker asserted, recalling the Cuba that his Miami relatives and neighbors fled. "It’s about the power to tell you where you’re allowed to go. It’s about the power to tell you what you’re allowed to do. It's about the power to intimidate, to destroy, to smear, to call a bigot, a racist, a hater, anyone who dares disagree with you."

As his words betray, for Rubio it's about stirring insecurities and resentments to manipulate public opinion, to benefit a political party that reads its future in the tea leaves of changing demographics, and that would rather suppress Black votes than win hearts and minds by reconsidering policies so obviously tilted against them.

Ditto, Sen. Scott, who chairs GOP Senate fundraising. "It's not about voting rights. That’s just a lie," Scott bristled with disdain. "The right to vote is more readily accessible and easily exercised by eligible voters across our country than ever before. This is really about federalizing our elections and enacting policies they think will give radical Democrats an advantage in future elections."

Espouse this kind of propaganda long enough, demonize your opponents so remorselessly and it becomes impossible to believe the sincerity of their mission for social justice. Either that or Scott and Rubio just don't care, which is far more evident, as they accuse Democrats of the cold power plays to which they devote their own careers, to the detriment of people of color.

The voting rights bills the GOP stymied this week wouldn't usurp states' rights to supervise elections but would counter state laws that limit Black or Latino votes, of the kind enacted in many GOP-majority state legislatures in recent months.

The loss insulted the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the very week when the nation paused to celebrate him.

Our senators' words and votes showed them to be duplicitous and mean-spirited and, figuratively speaking, headed into history the wrong way on the Edmund Pettus Bridge. If they resent being considered racist, they should turn around.