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Why Republicans Are Still Holding Onto the Big Lie

Rogue Valley

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Why Republicans Are Still Holding Onto the Big Lie

2/26/21
Why can’t Republicans quit the provably false claim that Donald Trump won the 2020 election? It’s a bold-faced fabrication, easy to leave behind, and yet they refuse to let it go. I understand why the ex-president clings to it—everything about him demands that he be seen as a powerful awesome winner for all time. But what about people like Rep. Steve Scalise, who refused to concede the election results were valid just last weekend on ABC’s This Week, or Justice Clarence Thomas, who devoted a lone unhinged dissent to that possibility in a Pennsylvania elections case on Monday? CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, is meeting—in person, in Florida—this week, and it is devoting seven different panels to stolen elections, with titles like “Other Culprits: Why Judges and Media Refused to Look at the Evidence” or “The Left Pulled Strings, Covered It Up, and Even Admits It” or “Protecting Elections Part VI: Failed States (PA, GA, NV, Oh My!)” Why is the lie so sticky for so many? Marc Ambinder reminds us of one big reason to persist in the fiction: The lie serves the party’s ultimate goal of suppressing the votes of likely Democrats. It’s clear that while even Trump’s own agencies determined that this election was “the most secure in history,” the sustainability of the GOP as a political party now lies in constricting the franchise, including placing needless limits on mail-in voting.

Ari Berman reported this week[/URL] on a new analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice, showing that in the two months that constitute 2021 so far, 253 bills to restrict voting access have been introduced in 43 states, with Georgia serving as ground zero for experiments in restricting voting by mail, Sunday voting, and tweaking the Georgia runoff rules. Despite the fact that three recounts turned up no evidence of fraud in Georgia, the big lie with its reliance on false claims of rampant voter fraud remains the best way to ensure that the kind of people who vote for Democrats will be ever more challenged in their efforts to vote going forward. But it doesn’t stop at justifying vote suppression. The big lie does more than just work to preserve the hope of minority rule in future election cycles. And it does more than just tether the GOP to Donald Trump, which is clearly the path most of them have already chosen. The big lie also serves to cast doubt about the legitimacy of the Biden presidency, and the incredibly popular initiatives that are quickly being rolled out. And finally, the big lie is useful to Republicans who no longer wish to govern at all. So long as they can say, as Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and Clarence Thomas and Steve Scalise all claim to be doing, that while they themselves have no idea whether the election was stolen, the voters are worried and that’s all that matters


Although Trump Republicans such as Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, etc. do not actually believe Trump's Big Lie - the 2020 election was stolen - they recognize that it has utility with their rabid and not-so-bright base. It allows Republican state legislatures to write new laws suppressing voting that would make Putin's United Russia Party proud. It does this by mainly restricting the votes of people of color, which pleases the many white-supremacists in the MAGA base. Both demographics and morality are shrinking the MAGA tent, so limiting voting is essential for party survival. Casting aspersions on the election of Joe Biden also provides Republicans in Congress with cover to oppose all legislation favored by Biden. It doesn't matter if their constituents desire Biden initiatives such as raising the minimum wage, the GOP will oppose this until they have a majority in Congress and can then get the credit themselves for passing such legislation.

The Republican mantra today is "Unless Democrats pass bills that only Republicans favor, the Democrats are fighting against Unity."

 
Why Republicans Are Still Holding Onto the Big Lie




Although Trump Republicans such as Josh Hawley, Kevin McCarthy, Ted Cruz, etc. do not actually believe Trump's Big Lie - the 2020 election was stolen - they recognize that it has utility with their rabid and not-so-bright base. It allows Republican state legislatures to write new laws suppressing voting that would make Putin's United Russia Party proud. It does this by mainly restricting the votes of people of color, which pleases the many white-supremacists in the MAGA base. Both demographics and morality are shrinking the MAGA tent, so limiting voting is essential for party survival. Casting aspersions on the election of Joe Biden also provides Republicans in Congress with cover to oppose all legislation favored by Biden. It doesn't matter if their constituents desire Biden initiatives such as raising the minimum wage, the GOP will oppose this until they have a majority in Congress and can then get the credit themselves for passing such legislation.

The Republican mantra today is "Unless Democrats pass bills that only Republicans favor, the Democrats are fighting against Unity."

Because they have not yet been bitch slapped for the lie. So, of course, they will now double down on it.
 
The GOP's Big Lie just keeps getting bigger. It's like the parable of house built on sand.
 
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