Massive voter fraud, I’ve heard this over 1000 times since Nov 3, 2020 usually screamed by President Trump or one of his minions. Know what the problem with this narrative is, it’s a big lie! Republicans have used gerrymandering and this voter fraud narrative to strip away voting rights and I suspect they will continue their push this year.
I did some research to try and figure out what the catalyst was for this and it would appear it ramped up in 2008 with the election of Barack Obama. A black man being elected President, there’s no way white Americans would elect this man, right? Shortly thereafter, the Tea Party was borne, conservative politicians and media outlets started claiming that our elections were tainted. They told vague stories of dead people voting, of undocumented immigrants voting, and of people voting multiple times in multiple states, all with no evidence. As with everything in today’s world, say it enough and it must be true. Evidence, or truth, no longer mattered. The big lie, spread widely through conservative traditional and social media outlets, had taken root in the conspiracy-addled minds of the GOP base.
Donald Trump started using this tact in 2015 after losing the Iowa caucus, his response via twitter was: “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified,” You have to love the irony of this, Cruz who became one of Trump’s stepford children over his presidency being accused of “voter fraud”. Sound familiar? Trump spent the entire 2016 election cycle telling everyone that if he lost, it was because of massive voter fraud. Of course, he won, and it wasn’t anymore, that’s the way things function in Trump world but being the petulant child he is, Trump claimed he would have won the popular vote if it wasn’t for all the illegal votes that were cast. One of his first actions as President was to commission a Voter Fraud Task Force, headed by a fellow named Kris Kobach, another Trump sycophant. Care to guess what it found after its extensive investigation, NOTHING!
Let’s fast forward to 2020, President Trump started early in the campaign laying the seeds of doubt about the election, there’s going to massive fraud, all about the land. Election night came, Trump had a lead, as time passed and more legally cast votes were counted, he didn’t anymore and by Saturday, Joe Biden was the newly elected President. President Trump living in that alternate reality decided now was the time to double down on the big lie. When Republicans were challenged on what Trump was doing, their response was, “What is the downside in humoring him for this little bit of time?” In other words, what’s wrong with lying to the American people for a little longer? How does that strategy look after Wednesday’s turn of events?
Over fifty cases have been filed by the Trump minions, all the way up to the Supreme Court, one victory and a slew of losses, all leading up to Wednesday January 6, 2021, where they big lie boiled over. MAGA folks laid siege to our capitol all based on the BIG LIE! There are so many Trump folks who were complicit in this lie: Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani and Donald Trump Jr should all be in jail for inciting that riot. Sidney Powell, Lin Wood are going to be locked in defamation lawsuits and I hope they lose everything! Kayleigh McEnany, on TV every night lying her ass off about how well the election lawsuits were going, it’s a sickness in this clan! Jim Jordan, Louie Gohmert, Matt Gaetz, these three nitwits who are always out pushing the Trump BS and of course Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Josh Hawley. The three from the house, they are just plain morons, but Hawley and Cruz are both educated lawyers who knew their objections to the electoral college were bullshit but pressed on anyway just so they could play to an audience of one, Donald Trump. Five people died in that riot on Wednesday, all these folks had a hand in it!
There were some heroes who came out of this mess though, Chris Krebs, Brad Raffensperger and this one is tough for me to acknowledge but he deserves it, Mike Pence. All three would not back down to this President and stood up for our Constitution and nation! We all owe them a debt of gratitude for what they stood for! I’m thinking that the other good thing that will come from this is that the Four Season Landscaping business is going to have a banner year!