Groups backed by millions from dark money special interests continue to push lies and misleading attacks on the For the People Act (S. 1, H.R. 1), a sweeping package of voting, ethics, and money-in-politics reforms that will end the dominance of big money in politics and ensure everyone has a voice and vote in our democracy.
In two op-eds released this week by the Washington Times and Fox News, the president of the Heritage Foundation and Grover Norquist each went after Democrats’ sweeping reform bill with desperate, false and purposely misleading attacks.
As a dark money group that goes out of its way to hide its GOP billionaire mega donors from the public, the Heritage Foundation has long tried to spread falsehoods about voting fraud that even its own data cannot prove. The head of their Election Reform program, Hans Von Spakovsky, has repeatedly been laughed out of court for his spurious voter fraud claims, with even federal judges questioning his credibility and intentional efforts to suppress the vote.
After Fox News and its commentators like conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson spent months spreading lies and misinformation about the 2020 election, they’ve now turned to doing the same with H.R. 1/S. 1. In their latest attack, the only thing accurate about Grover Norquist’s op-ed on FoxNews.com is the subhead: “the fact that these bills are the first filed shows how high a priority they are.” From refusing to disclose the “wealthy individuals, foundations and corporate interests” that secretly fund his dark money group to using that dark money group to help the convicted Jack Abramoff secretly launder funds as part of a bribery scheme, “Norquist’s Culture of Corruption” is exactly what H.R. 1/S. 1 will help clean up and remove from our politics.
Here’s the truth: The For the People Act is a transformative package of pro-democracy reforms that would protect the right to vote, address many of the challenges voters faced in casting their ballots last year, end the dominance of big money in politics, and restore ethics and accountability in government. The recent violent attacks on the U.S. Capitol makes it clear we must shore up our democracy for the long term, and that’s what the For the People Act will do.
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