Posted by “War is peace
freedom is slavery
ignorance is strength.”
George Orwell, 1984
According to a new Reuters-Ipsos poll, “Six in 10 Republicans…believe the false claim put out by Trump that November’s presidential election “was stolen” from him due to widespread voter fraud…” The poll also found “Three months after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to try to overturn his November election loss, about half of Republicans believe the siege was largely a non-violent protest or was the handiwork of left-wing activists “trying to make Trump look bad.”
This is not going away. On May 3, Trump said, “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” This is truly Orwellian. Most people (perhaps not including Republicans) believe that the 2020 election was fair and fraud-free, and that the “Big Lie” is believing it was fraudulent. Trump has turned this on its head asserting that it is the election itself that is the “Big Lie,” not the belief that it was fraudulent.
The consequences of the “Big Lie” are still playing themselves out. But some are obvious even now:
- For Republicans, fealty to the “Big Lie” is a defining loyalty test; thus only a few brave politicians (Liz Cheney chief among them) are willing to proclaim that the Emperor is naked. The “Big Lie’ is being buttressed and spread with thousands of little lies, told by Republican politicians and right-wing media. There is no sign that truth is going to be a hallmark of our politics any time soon.
- The belief that the 2020 election was fraudulent has led Republicans at the state level to try and make elections fairer. As we shall see, one man’s election reform is another man’s voter suppression.
- The pervasive belief that the 2020 election was stolen has undermined trust in the election process, culminating in the January 6 insurrection at the Capitol.
- This declining trust threatens the future of American democracy.
Let’s look at each of these consequences is greater detail.
The “Big Lie” as a Republican Loyalty Test.
As Michael Gerson wrote, “Nothing about this is normal. The GOP is increasingly defined not by its shared beliefs, but by its shared delusions. To be a loyal Republican, one must be either a sucker or a liar.” He goes on to characterize Republican leaders as “liars” and the Republican mainstream (i.e., the MAGA crowd) as “suckers.” In recent days Utah Republicans have booed Mitt Romney, reminiscent of the 1964 Republican Convention when Goldwater delegates booed the liberal Nelson Rockefeller. But Romney is no liberal. As he told the Utah delegates, “You can boo all you like, but I’ve been a Republican all my life. My dad was a governor of Michigan, my dad worked for Republican candidates that he believed in … and if you don’t recall, I was the Republican nominee for president in 2012.”
Romney went on to say, ““Aren’t you embarrassed? I’ve expressed my mind as I believe is right and I’ve followed my conscience as I believe is right. If we divide our party, we’re going to be a losing party. The only way we’re going to win is by coming together.”
What was Romney’s sin? According to the Desert News, “Mitt Romney’s votes to impeach President Trump and remove him from office hurt our party,” said Davis County delegate Don Guymon, who wrote the resolution. He said Romney’s actions “emboldened” Democrats to continue to harass Trump throughout his presidency. The resolution, however, narrowly failed on 798 to 711 vote. “If the point of this censure is to let Romney know we’re displeased, I promise you, he knows,” Utah County delegate Emilie de Azevedo Brown told the crowd.
Legislating election protection or suppressing the vote?
Since the 2020 election, several Republican controlled states have introduced or enacted new voting laws. Let us examine the most important up to now –Georgia. In the 2020 election Georgians not only chose Joe Biden over Donald Trump, but also elected two Democratic senators, enabling the Democrats to gain tenuous control over the Senate.
Georgia. According to a New York Times analysis, the new Georgia law makes the following significant changes:
- Curtails absentee ballots by reducing the time available to ask for absentee ballots and requires IDs. In the last presidential election, 1.3 million Georgians — about 26 percent of the state’s electorate — voted with absentee ballots. Of those who returned absentee ballots in 2020, 65 percent voted for Joseph R. Biden Jr. and 34 percent chose Donald J. Trump.
- Reduces access to drop boxes, especially in Democratic-controlled areas. According to the Times, “For the 2020 election, there were 94 drop boxes across the four counties that make up the core of metropolitan Atlanta: Fulton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett. The new law limits the same four counties to a total of, at most, 23 drop boxes, based on the latest voter registration data. The number could be lower depending on how many early-voting sites the counties provide. And there won’t just be fewer drop boxes. Instead of 24-hour access outdoors, the boxes must be placed indoors at government buildings and early-voting sites and will thus be unavailable for voters to drop off their ballots during evenings and other nonbusiness hours.”
- Bans mobile voting centers. Last year, Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, had two recreational vehicles that traversed the county during the early voting periods, effectively bringing polling sites to people at churches, parks and public libraries. In the November election, more than 11,200 people voted at the two vehicles in Fulton County.
- Offering food or water to voters waiting in line now risks misdemeanor charges. This is the most widely-reported on provision of the new law. Georgia is hot; long lines for voting in Georgia are an unfortunate reality, and are often found in the poorer, densely populated communities that tend to vote Democratic. It is impossible to read this in any other way than voter suppression of black and poor voters. Organizations, such as Chefs for the Polls are now forbidden to pass out food or water to voters in line. According to the organization’s CEO, Nate Mook, “People told us, right off the bat, like ‘This is amazing, I can stay in line now. I don’t need to go get food or feed my kids who are with me.”
- The Republican-controlled legislature has more control over the State Election Board; The secretary of state is removed as a voting member of the State Election Board; The G.O.P.-led legislature is empowered to suspend county election officials. Taken together all these measures close the barn door after the 2020 election has left the barn. Republican members of the Georgia legislature were angry with Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who despite pressure from Trump and other Republicans certified the 2020 Georgia elections results. The legislature is asserting its supremacy over elections, presumably not to reduce fraud but to ensure Republican victories. Raffensperger is supporting the new Georgia election laws this year.
The next blog post will examine what all this means for American democracy.