Current Events > WaPo Opinion: GOP challenging losses as fraud, here to stay

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/10/dangerous-trend-among-gop-candidates-shows-trump-threat-is-here-stay/

So is this really how its going to be? Are more and more Republican candidates across our great land going to treat it as a requirement that they cast any and all election losses as dubious or illegitimate by definition?

Were now seeing numerous examples of GOP candidates running for office who are doing something very close to this. Which suggests the legacy of Donald Trump could prove worse for the health of democracy than it first appeared.

It isnt just that Republicans will be expected to pledge fealty to the lost cause of the stolen 2020 election. Its also that untold numbers of GOP candidates will see it as essential to the practice of Trumpist politics that they vow to actively subvert legitimate election losses by any means necessary.

One high-profile GOP candidate now playing this ugly Trumpist game is Larry Elder, who is running in a recall election against Californias Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom. This week, Elder told reporters that there might very well be shenanigans in the vote counting, just like in the 2020 election, and vowed that his voter integrity board of lawyers will file lawsuits.

The 2020 election, in my opinion, was full of shenanigans, Elder also told Fox News. My fear is theyre going to try that in this election right here and recall.

Its common for campaigns to prepare for post-election litigation. But Elder is going much further. Hes hinting at a concerted effort to steal the recall and linking that to the big lie that there were widespread problems in 2020. The goal is plainly to tap into the deep well of paranoia and conspiracy-mongering that Trump fed for years and to undermine in advance faith in any outcome but a win.

A worse example comes from the leading GOP candidate for Senate in Nevada, Adam Laxalt. The former state attorney generals effort to unseat Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto has Trumps endorsement in what will be a hard-fought contest.

This week, Laxalt flatly declared his campaign will file lawsuits early to secure this election, as if its a foregone conclusion that a loss would be dubious by definition. Worse, Laxalt vowed to avoid the supposed mistakes of 2020, in which the election was rigged and the only failure was that Trump campaign lawsuits came too late.

Laxalt, then, will begin contesting any eventual loss right now, because otherwise Democrats will succeed in stealing another election. This, too, is a declaration in advance not to accept a loss as a legitimate outcome.

And then, when the press covered his despicable threat, Laxalt rejoiced that he was triggering the media, smarmily insisting the press is attacking anyone who wants secure and fair elections.

In fact, Laxalt is the one threatening to undermine secure and fair elections. Indeed, as this demonstrates, for Trumpist politicians, the refusal to commit to respecting legitimate election losses is now a badge of honor.

Two other high-profile GOP candidates are brandishing this badge of honor, as one Democrat pointed out to me. They are running while citing their support for sham post-election audits ones designed to undermine faith in elections as a virtue.

In Pennsylvania, for instance, Trump just endorsed Army veteran Sean Parnell as the GOP candidate for an open Senate seat. Parnell has declared his support for a forensic audit of the 2020 results.

Parnell has piously claimed he wants to reinforce confidence in those results. But this is a smokescreen: This audit has been pushed by Trump allies who hope to duplicate the Arizona sham audit, which is a dry run at manufacturing fake ways to cast doubt on election outcomes.

And indeed, in Arizona, GOP senate candidate Jim Lamon has openly claimed credit for helping make that sham audit happen. Here again the willingness to undermine confidence in election results is held up as a point of honor.

Now over to Georgia. The Republican candidate running a primary challenge against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who rebuffed Trumps pressure to help steal the election is basing his candidacy on a vow to use his powers to overturn elections in a way Raffensperger wouldnt.

What this all adds up to is this. As it is, Trumps big lie about 2020 has been widely echoed among GOP senate candidates, as Cameron Joseph documented in July.

But its gotten worse. In the nationally watched recall election in the most populous state and in high-profile statewide campaigns in many key swing states were all but certain to see future legitimate election losses treated as illegitimate by definition.

An important feature of all this is that the lies about the majorities who win fair elections, and even the undermining of faith that our electoral system is fundamentally capable of rendering legitimate outcomes, are essential first steps toward overturning such outcomes later. The lies are the foundation, the starting point for potential future efforts to subvert our democratic order.
Its unclear what this will mean for the GOP as a whole over time. But its ominous that you rarely hear condemnation of any of this from the most senior figures in the party.
The willingness to abide by election losses as legitimate, on the understanding that our system is worth preserving and you can live to fight another day, is a hallmark of democratic stability. But its becoming a hallmark of GOP primary politics to publicly renounce that ethic, and to do so defiantly and proudly.

If you legally contest an election with little to no evidence and a court can dismiss it out of hand basically, you should be barred from running in future elections.

Respect the process and that you lived to run another day or go the fuck home.

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There should be harsh penalties for lawyers who file these kinds of lawsuits.

Simple as that.


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It's quite disturbing, because the entire goal of this is to either inevitably overturn an election or push for so much voter restrictions that you're clearly suppressing the vote
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The GOP is screwed long-term and they know it.



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Judges are going to get tired of it and eventually lawyers are not going to represent them because it's a career ender.

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Irony posted...

Judges are going to get tired of it and eventually lawyers are not going to represent them because it's a career ender.

Good thing they haven't recently appointed judges and bannon and pals aren't working to put sympathizers in election positions.
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wackyteen posted...

So is this really how its going to be?

Yes

Trump made this clear in 2016 when he claimed both the Republican primary and presidential vote were rigged before he won them

It's also a wonderful excuse for losing and distraction from their voter suppression and gerrymandering laws.

This their stratergy for the next 50 years. 70 million followers already deny reality. So... just milk them

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