THE UNTHINKABLE IS ON US

On Friday, the Arizona “Fraudit” ended with the announcement that Joe Biden did, in fact, win Maricopa County, and thus Arizona. By 360 more votes than the official count gave him.

On Saturday night, Donald Trump stated that the Arizona audit proved he “won by a clear majority,” and the election was stolen from him, that “it must be decertified.” He also told the Georgia audience - all unmasked and sitting close together - that “it’s my opinion that the situation in Georgia is far worse.” The crowd cheered.

With that, we officially live in two countries. In one, up is up, down is down, left is left, right is right, in is in, out is out, day is day, night is night, and the sky is blue while the grass is green. In the other America, up is down, in is out, left is right, day is night, and the sky is green while the grass is blue.

The reason for doing what Trump supporters called an “audit” was to feed doubts about the election. Those doubts firmly now firmly taken root among Republicans - according to a CNN poll., 59 percent of Republican voters say believing Trump won in 2020 is very, or somewhat, important to what it means to be a Republican.

The best way to understand the aggressive Republican effort over the past eight months to do anything they can to cast doubt on the 2020 election results, allowing them to rewrite voting procedures in states controlled by Republicans, is not that they are re-litigating President Biden’s victory, though they certainly are using that as a tool with which to undermine his legitimacy as president..

What’s happening is they are pre-litigating the elections of 2022 and 2024. By laying the foundation of election fraud in order to challenge or even overturn Democratic victories of the lowercase “d” democratic variety in the future.

On the surface, the Democratic Party appears to have strategic advantages. Since 1992, the party has won the popular vote for president in every election except 2004. This is a line of dominance not seen since the Republican Party in the years after the Civil War.. The party commands a clear national majority with a strong electoral base in the states that have the most dynamic economies

In comparison, the Republican party is closer to a regional rump. Its support is concentrated among the old and the lesser-educated segments of the population and strongest in the parts of the country whose populations are shrinking and where growth and opportunity is the least. However, it is also cohesive where the Democrats are diverse: it is the party of rural white people, of conservative Christian evangelicals, the people who feel themselves most threatened by everything that contributes to Democratic strength.

Thus, the obvious lesson for Republicans is that chaos is their friend. Social and political disruption is more likely to help them because their coalition is more resistant to adverse outcomes and with their cohesion they need fewer votes to hold power.

The Republicans have no interest in governing. They are only interested in wielding power, and the power that gives them the greatest support from their voters is that which stymies the ability of the Democrats to achieve their governing goals.

Not only is this happening with political disruption, it is happening in the midst of a pandemic in which now all the problems presented are political problems, that are promoted and supported by one political party with the aim of harming the other party’s chances of successfully dealing with the crisis.

The majority of Republican officials treat vaccine denialism the way they do their base’s belief that the 2020 election was fraudulent, indulging it and giving a wink and a nod while finding ways to thunder at President Biden for being too aggressive in his public health decisions while they position themselves as defenders of “personal liberty.” All of which makes everything worse

The essence of Big Lie activism is to discredit democracy to lay the groundwork for its overthrow. The people who will steal the 2024 election will know what they’re doing and will do so because they’ve created a logic that justifies them so doing. If you let people stew long enough in the claim that the Democrats stole the 2020 election they’ll believe themselves justified in stealing it in 2024 because that’s just fair play. They;re just evening the score.

The unthinkable is here, and those charged with preventing it are either cooperating in the spread of the nightmare or tying themselves in knots to follow rules that are guaranteeing their ultimate failure.

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