House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn warns that 'democracy will be ending' if Republicans win

07 November 2022

United States House of Representatives Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-South Carolina) warned in an appearance on Fox News Sunday that the survival of American democracy hinges on the outcome of the midterm elections on Tuesday. Democrats are hoping to hold or increase their five-seat majority in the House and gain seats in the evenly-split Senate. Republicans have turned the midterms into a referendum on President Joe Biden's handling of the economy. Inflation, driven largely by excessive corporate profiteering and lingering supply-chain disruptions leftover from the COVID-19 pandemic, has increased the costs of essential goods. The GOP is also running hundreds of candidates for Congress and governorships as well as state and local-level offices who are outspoken in their denial of the veracity of the 2020 election.

Next month, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in a case that would have profound impacts on how elections are conducted if the majority-conservative Court sides with the right-wing petitioners. Moore versus Harper is an effort to invoke the independent state legislature theory, which would "give state legislators near-exclusive authority to regulate federal elections, prohibiting any other state entity — like state courts or governors — from placing checks and balances on that power," per the Brennan Center for Justice.

"Adopting the independent state legislature theory would also mean that voters across the country have no judicial remedy — in state court or in federal court — to fight partisan gerrymandering," Brennan explains in its analysis. "The potential consequences could stretch still further. The theory would throw elections into chaos, nullifying hundreds of election rules put in place through ballot initiatives, state constitutions, and administrative regulations — including foundational state policies like the processes for voter registration and mail voting and basic guarantees like the secret ballot. State lawmakers would be able to adopt vote suppression legislation without any checks or balances from state courts or even gubernatorial veto. In other words, the theory would upend key aspects of our elections."

Furthermore, former President Donald Trump has maintained a stranglehold on the GOP's electoral base, whose embrace of his conspiracy theories, dismissal of his legal entanglements, and vocal Christian nationalistic trends could trigger political violence if one or more races are contested. These are the factors behind Clyburn's remarks, which began as a correction of a previous statement that he made last week.

"So, set aside the economy and worries about crime, which are at the top of all of voter polls about what they're worried about, and instead vote for you or the world is ending?" Bream asked Clyburn, who on Friday mistakenly said that the world would end under Republican rule. Clyburn has described the GOP's playbook as having unmistakable parallels to Adolf Hiter's Nazis in 1930s Germany.

"Nobody is saying the world is ending. The world did not end," Clyburn partially replied.

"You did say there, though, that it could be the end of the world," Bream reiterated.

Clyburn set the record straight.

"No, democracy will be ending. The world will continue to exist. The world was here before Hitler and the world was here after Hitler. That's what we're saying. No, the world will not end. The kind of world we have, the kind of country we have, we've got to decide how we want to exist in this world. And that's what we are talking about. This hyperbole is not a part of what we are saying here. We're talking about what kind of country we have and what kind of world we have," said Clyburn.

Bream would not let it go.

"Okay, congressman, just to be clear, though, I want to read your quote. It says 'but losing this democracy could very well be the end of the world. That's a direct quote from you," she pressed.

"End of the world, come on," Clyburn quipped.

"Well, a lot of voters feel that way, when you say that. They think -- they have the same reaction," noted Bream.

"Well, if that's a quote from me, it -- I misspoke. It won't end the world. No," Clyburn added.

Bream joked that Clyburn's reassurance was "good news for everyone heading to the ballot boxes on Tuesday." But Clyburn's words of caution were not quite finished.

"Having been one to teach history, we live in worlds that we do not like. My forbearers lived through slavery. They did not like that existence for two-hundred-and-fifty years. But it was not the end of the world," he said. "It may be the end of the world as they would have it, but it will not end the world."

Watch here via Axios.

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