Skip to content

Spreading doubt

Bad faith is the only kind they have left

A partially burned American flag, Talent, Ore., in aftermath of Almeda Fire, September 2020. Photo: Brandon Swanson / Oregon Public Broadcasting.

Once upon a time, Republicans sought only to suppress the vote of black and brown people. From Operation Eagle Eye forward, they flogged the notion that those people were cheating. In numbers. Undetected.

See: Nice, decent white people wake up on Election Day, shower, dress, eat breakfast, then go the polls to do their patriotic duty by casting their votes. OTHERS — Poors numbering in the invisible millions — are not like US. They go instead to commit felonies punishable by five years in prison and a $10,000 fine for each offense just to add a single extra vote to their team’s total.

Republicans tried changing the voting rules to make it harder to vote. They shortchanged voting equipment in minority neighborhoods to lengthen voting lines. They promoted the notion that dead people were voting in droves. They passed photo ID laws knowing the people least likely to have proper credentials were not Republican voters. When they lost nonpartisan judicial races here in North Carolina, they changed them to partisan races. Whatever works. And when that stops working, they’ll try something else.

Then, Republicans tried bypassing voters to skew election outcomes. They manipulated representation in Congress and in state legislatures by gerrymandering. Then, they sought to undercount minority voters in congressional districts by attempting to rig the census and by not counting noncitizens at all.

Finally, MAGA Republicans gave up on democracy altogether except as window dressing. Heads, they win. Tails, you lose. No proof of election funny business required. It’s argument by unsupported assertions, by debunked ones, and by rumor, innuendo, urban legend and QAnon conpiracy. The only legitimate elections are those Republicans win. If they lose, they were cheated. By definition. Lack of faith in American institutions is now a cornerstone of faith among those cloaking themselves as true believers. Bad faith is the only kind they have left.

Election denial is “a giant grift,” Arizona’s Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich tells “60 Minutes.” All perpetrated by “clowns that throw stuff against the wall and see what sticks.” In essence, bullshit.

“Nationwide, 190 election deniers are running for the U.S. House and 14 for the U.S. Senate, according to the Brookings Institution,” Scott Pelley reports.

Published inUncategorized