The Republican lies about election fraud are a ticking time bomb
In what must be the least surprising (but nonetheless demoralizing) story of the week, The New York Times reports that Republicans in California have begun to make accusations of voter fraud ahead of Tuesday's gubernatorial recall election. The story is unsurprising because all political observers are by now well aware that, thanks to the lies of Donald Trump and the self-serving gullibility of millions of Republican voters, the GOP has actively embraced the position that American elections are systematically and unfairly rigged against them.
This is hands down the most dangerous political development in recent American history — a civic time bomb placed smack dab at the center of American democracy.
It's more dangerous than a reality-show demagogue ascending to the presidency. Or partisan gridlock in Congress making governing and passing legislation extremely difficult. Or constitutional disagreement about the scope of women's reproductive rights. Or conflicts surrounding masking and vaccine mandates. Or disputes about what Joe Biden can accomplish for public health through executive branch rule-making.
All of those issues are important, and some of them contribute to the degradation of American democracy. But none of them degrade it more than spreading the lie that elections in the United States are systematically untrustworthy and rigged against one of the country's two parties. That's the kind of claim that could ultimately make American self-government impossible.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/republican-lies-election-fraud-ticking-093411018.html
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