Another debunking years later
Attribution 2.0 Generic)
One of the most infuriating aspects of the right-wing Contract On America is how obvious the cons are. No, that’s not it, either. It’s that we, the reality-based community, dumbly play along as if there’s some factual basis behind them. The collective We give “the miners, and sappers–of returning despotism” the benefit of the doubt.
Like parents with a toddler still trying to grasp object permanence, we play along when the child acts as though the red ball we’ve palmed has ceased to exist. So, too, with the right’s allegations of election fraud that time and again prove to be the actual fraud. Why? Because it would be bad form to call out the infant-like credulity of diner-dwelling Real Americans™? Or impolite to brand them liars and cheats and unAmerican, even if justly deserved?
The tactic: Lob a “voter fraud” smoke grenade into the news cycle and shout fire. The “news” compliantly plays along, front-paging the false story. By the time the smoke clears and we discover, yet again, there was never a fire, all the public remembers is they saw smoke and heard someone yelling, “Fire!” The official debunking months later gets buried. Mission accomplished, again. Everyone not a dupe or a villain knew the allegations were bunk, yet played along. Wouldn’t want to hurt America’s saboteurs’ feelings.
And here we go again. Behold (Associated Press):
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A conservative group has told a Georgia judge that it doesn’t have evidence to support its claims of illegal ballot stuffing during the the 2020 general election and a runoff two months later.
Texas-based True the Vote filed complaints with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in 2021, including one in which it said it had obtained “a detailed account of coordinated efforts to collect and deposit ballots in drop boxes across metro Atlanta” during the November 2020 election and a January 2021 runoff.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge in Atlanta signed an order last year requiring True the Vote to provide evidence it had collected, including the names of people who were sources of information, to state elections officials who were frustrated by the group’s refusal to share evidence with investigators.
In their written response, attorneys for True the Vote said the group had no names or other documentary evidence to share.
[…]
True the Vote’s complaint said its investigators “spoke with several individuals regarding personal knowledge, methods, and organizations involved in ballot trafficking in Georgia.” It said one person, referred to in the complaint only as John Doe, “admitted to personally participating and provided specific information about the ballot trafficking process.”
A Georgia judge demanded that True the Vote produce evidence to support its claims: “names and contact information for anyone who had provided information, as well as any recordings, transcripts, witness statements or other documents supporting its allegations.” Including any confidentiality agreements.
The group’s attorneys replied: “TTV has no such documents in its possession, custody, or control.”
Pressed to put up or shut up, True the Vote will do neither. There was no “detailed account.” There was no John Doe they could produce. The allegations were bullshit. True the Vote and founder and president, Catherine Engelbrecht, will not be fined. They will just reset and run the same con again and again so long as they get away with being a public nuisance.
To my knowledge, Rudy Giouliani has produced none of the voluminous “proof” he claimed to have from 2020 of election wrongdoing, and for which several of his collaborators have faced charges and/or disbarment. But he got lots of headlines and TV coverage of his unsupported allegations.
Bill Clinton nailed the right’s approach to sabotaging the country 20 years ago in an interview with Jon Stewart:
Stewart: Do you believe that politics has gotten so dirty … that these kinds of tactics become so prevalent that this is the reason half the country doesn’t vote? Or this is the reason that we don’t get, maybe, the officials that we deserve?
Clinton: No, I think people do it because they think it works.
Stewart: That’s it? Simply a strategy?
Clinton: Absolutely. And as soon as it doesn’t work, they’ll stop doing it.
Twenty years later, it’s still working. We know what that says about them. What does it say about us?
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