Commentary: Comparing Democrats' and Republicans' views on ethics, voting issues

Joni Ashbrook
Guest columnist
U.S. Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell recalled the work of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis as Democrats gather for a press conference to urge passage of H.R. 1, the For the People Act of 2021, at the Capitol in Washington, Wednesday, March 3, 2021.  (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

As an elementary school teacher, I taught oodles of lessons comparing things. The bill HR1, known as For the People Act, recently passed the U.S. House and is perfect for making comparisons.

Senate Republicans are screaming HR1 was “written in hell by the devil himself.” While Democrats see it making our democracy fairer and stronger.

HR1 covers three topics. Here are a few of the major points for each category.

Ethics

• Requires candidates for president and vice president to disclose 10 years of their tax returns.

• Stops members of Congress from using taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment or discrimination cases.

• Requires more oversight for lobbying.

Campaign finance

• Supports a constitutional amendment to end the Supreme Court's ruling known as Citizens United that opened the way for corporations, big donors, and secretive nonprofits to pour unlimited and often untraceable cash into our elections.

• Establishes public financing of campaigns, powered by small donations.

• Requires super PACs and “dark money” organizations to make donors public.

• Requires Facebook and Twitter to disclose the source of money for political ads.

• Prohibits any coordination between candidates and super PACs.

Voting rights

• Gives voters the option of requesting a mail-in-ballot without needing an excuse, much like 34 states and Washington, D.C., already have with their “no-excuse” absentee voting.

• Creates a national automatic voter registration system.

• Requires at least 15 days of early voting for federal elections.

• Requires early voting sites to be open at least 10 hours per day.

• Establishes an independent redistricting commission in states to end partisan gerrymandering.

• Restores voting rights to felons who have completed their sentences.

Republicans view these issues very differently from Democrats.

GOP ethics

In 2017, after Republicans gained unified party rule, they immediately voted to gut an independent ethics body that caused national outrage, forcing them to reverse course.

GOP lawmakers weren't bothered that former President Donald Trump fought all the way to the Supreme Court to keep his tax returns secret. They also didn't give a hoot that he owed an unknown entity $400 million, which could have risked our national security.

On his way out the door, Trump revoked his own executive order that banned corrupt lobbying practices.

Although Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” more than half of his Cabinet engaged in questionable or unethical conduct. Many Cabinet members were too slimy even for Trump's swamp and were forced to slither out.

Also, eight former Trump associates were arrested or convicted of crimes. Trump pardoned the ones most loyal or that covered for him.

This is just the tip of the corrupt iceberg, but many GOP lawmakers still support Trump.

GOP campaign finance = billionaires buying elections

In 2003, then Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., filed a suit to make it easier for corporations use their vast wealth to influence elections.

McConnell lost that case, but with billionaires' funding he helped get the case to end restraints on spending before the Supreme Court and won the Citizens United decision.

The GOP's back-scratching scheme with corporations has been successful. For example, McConnell helped pass massive corporate tax cuts, then in 2020 a super PAC allied with him took in $475 million from corporate donors.

Voting rights

Slews of corporations are speaking out against the tsunami of voter suppression bills pushed by GOP legislatures nationwide.

It's revealing that even corporations that are in this icky symbiotic relationship with the GOP can't stomach their anti-democratic bills making it harder to vote.

If the devil wrote HR1, looks like he's for democracy.

Ashbrooks is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. 

Joni Ashbrook