Photo: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
For: Editorial Posted Jan 24, 2023, 20:09 pm EST
We are living through the third year of Joe Biden’s presidency, after the defeat of Donald Trump in the 2020 elections, and his attempts to invalidate the results and retain power.
In last November’s midterm elections, the “electoral conspiracy movement” was defeated at the polls. Contrary to many predictions, the Democrats retained a majority in the Senate. The candidates who based their campaign on the fable of electoral fraud lost.
However, the myth of fraud, invented by Trump already in 2016 in case he was defeated by Hillary Clinton (he was not) not only survives. It expands.
Election deniers have reshaped the country’s political landscape. We cannot ignore it, because they conspire against the state itself.
One small example: Last week, rural Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, did a recount of the 2020 ballots. Under pressure from conspiracy theorists, 28 clerks handcounted 60,000 ballots. It took 560 hours of work. The results did not change.
Wes Allen, Alabama’s secretary of state, has just removed his state from the bipartisan Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which successfully updates voter rolls. In July, his Louisiana colleague, Kyle Ardoin, did.
Why? According to them ERIC is a “leftist group financed by George Soros” (a liberal donor), although in reality it is completely financed and controlled by the member states. they lie.
In 17 states, where a third of the population lives, there is a denialist governor, attorney general or secretary of state.
And in a recent poll, ⅔ of Republicans said the 2020 election was “stolen from Trump.”
But the most worrying example is the awarding of the presidency of important committees to the most recalcitrant opponents of democracy by the president of the Lower House, Kevin McCarthy.
Among others, Jim Jordan today chairs the Judicial Affairs committee, Mike Roger the Armed Forces; Mark Green, from Homeland Security.
There they are dedicated to turmoil and chaos and not to legislate or supervise. The day after the scandal of the classified documents that Biden should have returned was published in the media, they announced an investigation of the president and his entire team.
With relish they anticipate, among others, the investigation of the president’s son. They now have the power to subpoena (subpoena) to obtain testimony and documentation.
They will be spurious, far-fetched, invented investigations.
The Republicans in power are trying to destabilize the country, plunge it into chaos and promote, once again, an authoritarian government. The press, defender of democracy, must be aware of this and denounce them.
Because by their nature, they no longer admit defeat at the polls. For them, losing at the polls is just confirmation of fraud. They don’t need evidence. They seek power, through lies, conspiracy and incitement.