Nostalgia is defined as “a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past.” I rarely wax nostalgic. In many ways the “good ol’ days” weren’t all that good — especially if you were Black, or brown, or Asian, or female, or gay.

In ways, however, Americans seemed a better people way back when. For one thing, they were more honest — especially in the field of sports.

Grantland Rice was a famous sportswriter. I grew up hearing — and believing — Rice’s popular quote: “It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you play the game.”

In the golden days of yesteryear, athletes took great pride in their sportsmanship and fair play. “Winners never cheat, and cheaters never win,” was a popular aphorism.

Sadly, it’s not uncommon now to see an athlete “flop” to try to get a foul called when a foul was not committed. I see it happen often in college and pro sports. It’s legal, but I ask you: Is it honest and fair?

Usually (but not always) a player flop happens when their team is losing and desperate — two words that accurately describe the current state of the Republican Party.

Make no mistake, the Republican Party is the minority party. In December 2020, Gallup polling found that 31% of Americans identified as Democrats, 25% identified as Republican, and 41% as Independent.

Independents favored Biden over Trump by 13% in 2020. Overall, Biden won by 74 electoral college votes, and more than 7 million popular votes.

In red-state Georgia, Democrats flipped both U.S. Senate seats in 2020. And Democrat Mark Kelly claimed a U.S. Senate seat in red-state Arizona.

Six states have populations less than 1 million: Delaware, South Dakota, North Dakota, Alaska, Vermont, and Wyoming. Four are red states. There are 12 states with populations more than 8.5 million. Eight are blue states.

In short, the 50 Republicans in the U.S. Senate represent a minority of voters. (Washington D.C. has a population greater than Vermont, and Wyoming, but Republicans refuse to grant it statehood —and two senators — because it’s solidly Democrat.)

Gerrymandering — manipulating the boundaries of an electoral constituency to favor one’s party — is another way Republicans hang onto power that, according to the numbers, they really don’t deserve.

The Associated Press reported (6/25/2017): “Analysis: Partisan gerrymandering has benefited Republicans more than Democrats.”

“The AP scrutinized the outcomes of all 435 U.S. House races and about 4,700 state House and Assembly seats up for election last year using a new statistical method of calculating partisan advantage. It’s designed to detect cases in which one party may have won, widened or retained its grip on power through political gerrymandering.

“The analysis found four times as many states with Republican-skewed state House or Assembly districts than Democratic ones. Among the two dozen most populated states that determine the vast majority of Congress, there were nearly three times as many with Republican-tilted U.S. House districts.

“Traditional battlegrounds such as Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and Virginia were among those with significant Republican advantages in their U.S. or state House races. All had districts drawn by Republicans after the last Census in 2010.”

In short, Republican state legislators redraw districts to give themselves an advantage. It’s legal, but I ask you: Is it honest and fair?

In response to Republican losses in the 2020 elections, Republican state legislators are rewriting voting laws to give themselves an advantage. CNN’s Janie Boschman reports (5/28/2021), “Fourteen states have enacted 22 new laws making it harder to vote.”

“State lawmakers have introduced at least 389 bills in 48 states that would make it harder for their residents to vote in upcoming elections. The state legislatures with the highest number of restrictive bills were Texas, Georgia and Arizona. [Remember Republicans lost Senate seats in Georgia and Arizona?]

“The legislative push is part of a national Republican effort to restrict access to the ballot box following record turnout in the 2020 election. Republicans currently control both chambers of 30 state legislatures, including in Texas, Georgia and Arizona.”

Republicans are using the “Big Lie” (that the 2020 election was stolen) the same way athletes “flop” and unfairly call foul when a foul was not committed.

The AP’s Ben Nadler and Jeff Amy reported (3/25/2021): “Georgia Gov. Kemp signs GOP election bill amid an outcry.”

“Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp drew protests Thursday as he signed into law a sweeping Republican-sponsored overhaul of state elections that includes new restrictions on voting by mail and greater legislative control over how elections are run.

“ ‘After the November election last year, I knew, like so many of you, that significant reforms to our state elections were needed,’ said Kemp, who drew Trump’s ire after certifying Biden’s victory in Georgia.”

These “significant reforms”—READ: restrictive voting laws—are being paid for with dark money, (funds raised for the purpose of influencing elections by nonprofit organizations that aren’t required to disclose the identities of their donors). In Mother Jones (5/13/2021), “Leaked Video: Dark Money Group Brags About Writing GOP Voter Suppression Bills Across the Country,” Ari Berman and Nick Surgey report:

“In a private meeting last month with big-money donors, the head of a top conservative group boasted that her outfit had crafted the new voter suppression law in Georgia and was doing the same with similar bills for Republican state legislators across the country. ‘In some cases, we actually draft them for them,’ she said, ‘or we have a sentinel on our behalf give them the model legislation so it has that grassroots, from-the-bottom-up type of vibe.’

“The Georgia law had ‘eight key provisions that Heritage recommended,’ Jessica Anderson, the executive director of Heritage Action for America…told the foundation’s donors at an April 22 gathering in Tucson….

“Those included policies severely restricting mail ballot drop boxes, preventing election officials from sending absentee ballot request forms to voters, making it easier for partisan workers to monitor the polls, preventing the collection of mail ballots….

“Days before the Georgia legislature would pass its sweeping bill rolling back access to the ballot, Anderson said she met with Gov. Brian Kemp and urged him to quickly sign the bill when it reached his desk. ‘I had one message for him,’ said Anderson, a former Trump administration official in the Office of Management and Budget. ‘Do not wait to sign that bill. If you wait even an hour, you will look weak. This bill needs to be signed immediately.’ Kemp followed Anderson’s advice, signing the bill right [less than two hours] after its passage….”

Just days after the November 2020 election, Sen. (R-SC) Lindsey Graham warned that the U.S. will never again elect a Republican president unless lawmakers “do something” about mail-in voting. “We are going to lose the ability to elect a Republican in this country.”

Republicans can’t win honestly, so they rewrite the rules. It’s legal, but I ask you: Is it fair?

Mark Heinz lives at Nolin Lake. Visit his website at amazon.com/author/markheinzbooks.