• by Fern Siegel , March 3, 2016

Republicans talk about liberty and freedom. Too often, that’s translated as conformity and suppression. I give you the party’s response to protests and climate change. Or, witness the current hysteria over Donald Trump’s presidential run. More specifically, the elite’s reaction to his Super Tuesday victories.

Apparently, liberty doesn’t extend to counting all the votes.

True, the conservative members of the Supreme Court eviscerated the Voting Rights Act, a milestone in the civil-rights struggle to franchise African Americans. Now, Republicans are trying to obliterate white voters at the upcoming GOP convention.

To sideline The Donald — and ignore the democratic process — the party wants to kick-start back-room machinations that ignore the will of primary voters.

At issue is the fear that Trump, who has racked up 10 primary victories, and isn’t owned by lobbyists and big donors, will be uncontrollable.

That is, unlike Sens. Ted Cruz (who repeatedly kissed up to Trump last year) or Marco Rubio. Both are Tea Party creations indebted to the Koch Bros. and Sheldon Adelson, among others. Cruz is despised on Capitol Hill, while calling Rubio an “establishment” candidate to net suburbanites is a stretch. The Tea Party is to the establishment what Sarah Palin is to Mensa. 

Still, they and their supporters have rights. And at caucuses and primaries nationwide, they exercised them.

So why are traditional GOPers so panicked? They claim to worry about the bigotry Trump is stoking. That’s a fair point, but let’s get real: The KKK also endorsed Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It always endorses the Republican.

As for racist concerns, consider past GOP presidential candidates.

As recently as 2012, Newt Gingrich implied that African Americans would rather have food stamps than a paycheck, while Rick Santorum said "I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money." We won’t even discuss Michelle Bachmann. On anything.

Never mind the birthers' frenzy over the claim that President Obama was born in Kenya. MSNBC's Chris Matthews quoted a recent CNN poll that found 47% of Republicans still believe Obama is a Muslim. Where do they get these ideas? Remember when they slammed him as a socialist? The so-call socialist didn’t prosecute anyone for the 2007 “too big too fail” banking debacle, to the anger of many Democrats!

Now, the GOP is hyperventilating over the prospect of a Trump nomination. (Democrats are equally horrified at the idea of a Trump presidency. Finally, the parties find commonality!) However, love him or hate him, his supporters are Americans who legally voted.

In 2000, the Supreme Court, in a controversial 5-4 decision, stopped a legal recount in Florida in the Gore v. Bush presidential race. That time, Democrats were disenfranchised. Now, some Republicans want to disenfranchise members of their own party. They can devise any hypocrisy to justify it, but it won’t wash.

This is America, where “land of liberty” is touted on election stumps. Intimidating voters or committing voter fraud should be anathema to the last superpower on earth. Note to Mitt Romney, Lindsay Graham and the rest of the GOP establishment: To do otherwise, is un-American.