Elections Where Truth Has Left the Building

We’ve had well over a year and a half since the January 6th insurrection (which took place two months following the November 2020 election) to prove election fraud. We’ve had over 60 judicial rulings, many from Trump appointees, against the “stolen election” claim, even as a majority of Republicans still embrace that theory. Yet no one has produced any meaningful evidence to support the claim that the election was stolen. No one!!! All the recounts, voting audits, purported eyewitness testimony notwithstanding. With only 27% of Republicans confirming that they even have watched the House January 6th Committee’s televised hearings – with strong evidence of an attempt coup d’état – the majority of GOP voters stubbornly still believe in that thoroughly unsubstantiated “Big Lie” conspiracy theory.

According to the highly credible FiveThirtyEight.com (July 7th): “For elections through May 24, we’ve found that more than half of the Republican nominees who won their primary either denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election or raised doubts about its results.” Locally and nationally, truth appears to be unconvincing as many such candidates, particularly at the gubernatorial and secretary of state level, pledge to make sure that elections will follow a new set of rules: theirs.

Relying of the Big Lie for justification, gerrymandering and voter suppression are rampant in red and swing states. In the fall term, the US Supreme Court is rehearing a case (Moore vs Harper) that had previously halted the state legislature’s attempt to create a partisan redistricting map by usurping a more neutral map drawn by a voter-mandated commission. North Carolina’s GOP legislature claimed that voters could not take redistricting away from them under the Constitution. The 6-3 right-wing, lockstep partisan, Court could easily rule that how federal elections are decided, and electors selected, is entirely up to state legislatures, no matter how partisan they may be. It’s ugly.

Non-partisan election tracker, StatesUnitedDemocracy.org (as of June 6th), also reviewed the election landscape in terms of candidates currently running plus efforts to control the results: “Since 2020, lies and conspiracy theories have continued to fuel efforts to undermine our free and fair elections. The anti-democracy playbook is simple: Change the rules, change the referees, in order to change the results. Politicians who continue to deny the results of the 2020 election want the power to overturn the will of American voters in the future if they don’t like the results. In 2021, legislators introduced more than 260 bills that would interfere with the nonpartisan administration of elections. Today, Election Deniers are lining up to oversee voting at all levels of the system — from top state offices to precinct-level poll workers. It’s all connected.

“It’s critical to pay attention to this trend. Research suggests that hyper-partisan or poorly trained election administrators can negatively impact voter experience and affect outcomes. In 2021, some Election Deniers won their seats — and in 2022, certain candidates are running on election lies as a campaign issue and earning the endorsement of former President Donald Trump and others who promote the myth that the 2020 election was ‘stolen.’ In fact, there is a coalition of ‘America First’ Secretary of State candidates — a group of at least eight people running for the post this cycle — that all backed former President Trump’s efforts to undermine the will of the voters in 2020…

“As of June 6, 2022, at least 35 Election Deniers are running for Governor in 20 states [of 36 states with a gubernatorial election]… at least 15 Election Deniers are running for Attorney General in 13 states [out 30 states where is an AG election]… at least 23 Election Deniers are running for Secretary of State in 17 states [out of 27 states where that office is up for election].” This is what we have to look forward to. Add these numbers to the 147 congress people who voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election. Every single one of these election deniers is Republican. In many other countries, such political activists would be considered treasonous.

Of the roughly 700 GOP candidates running for state or federal office in 2022, CrooksandLiars.com (July 7th) tells us that fully one third are openly supporting the Big Lie. As late as last month, legal resistance to certifying the 2020 presidential election persists. In conservative Otero County, New Mexico, for example, the county Commissioners continued to refuse to issue that certification. After the New Mexico Secretary of State referred the matter to the New Mexico Attorney General's Office for a criminal investigation, citing the commissioners' dereliction of duties in office and a day after the New Mexico Supreme Court issued a court order to compel commissioners to approve the election results or face criminal sanctions, the majority (but not all) of those commissioners finally complied.

We have a litany of GOP climate change deniers, folks who truly believe racism is not an issue and shouldn’t be discussed in schools, growing legal gender-related restrictions (with abortion bans being a giant tip of a much, much bigger iceberg), replacement White nationalists smiling, plus gun zealots and evangelical extremists who are fighting to force their political ethos on everyone in the country. They are fighting to take over the election protocols to ensure their ability to impose their radical minority views on everyone… with help from a biased Senate (that gives South Dakota and California each an equal number of US Senators) and a Supreme Court has made 74% of their decisions based on evangelical values, NRA policies, and right-wing states’ rights. American democracy is under siege… and not faring very well.

I’m Peter Dekom, and as truth has left the building, democracy appears to be exiting with it.