David Perdue, the Trump-backed GOP candidate started off his debate with Governor Kemp of Georgia by lying to the people of his state. “First off, let me be very clear tonight, the election in 2020 was rigged and stolen.” It was neither.
Republican Senate candidate in Pennsylvania Carla Sands told the audience in a late April debate, “As a matter of fact, we know that the election of 2020 was stolen”. There is no factual basis at all in that statement.
J.D. Vance, candidate for the Ohio Senate seat election this fall, who recently secured Trump’s endorsement and shortly there after won the Republican primary said in a 2021 interview, “There were certainly people voting illegally on a large-scale basis”. Untrue. Incredibly, Vance is now favored to win the Senate seat being vacated by Rob Portman.
About a week after the 2020 election The Department of Homeland Security put out a statement: “The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result. There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised”.
Immediately following the Presidential election, from November through December and into January of 2021, there were dozens of legal challenges filed in courts across the country challenging results in the six or so battleground states that decided the election. Many of these proceedings occurred in front of conservative Republican appointed judges. They were all rejected due to the flimsy nature of the assertions and the lack of any real evidence. Investigations were conducted in several state election offices, many run by GOP Secretaries of State. In the end nothing significant turned up and all of the results were certified. An Associated Press review found fewer than 475 instances of potential voter fraud in the six states disputed by Trump — a number that would have made no difference in the outcome of the election.
But, nonetheless, here we are. GOP candidates across the country have been tripping over themselves to repeat the destructive and dangerous lie Donald Trump has continued to peddle that the election was stolen from him, in a cynical and grotesque attempt to curry favor and secure his endorsement. There has not been in modern American politics a more wide-scale collective display of fealty to one Party boss like what we are seeing play out in real time. There may never have been in this country a larger buy-in to so big of a lie as to the belief in a “stolen” 2020 election.
The most stunning aspect to all of this is that Donald Trump is a certified loser. It makes sense that he lost, he was never popular with the country as a whole. Trump was a one term President who managed to lose both the House of Representatives and the Senate while in office, then go on to lose the general election by nearly 7 million votes and the Electoral College 306 to 232, effectively a landslide. How someone like that, a sore loser of the most epic proportions can still control the will of an overwhelming majority of a political party may be one of the biggest mysteries in the history of human civilization. Witnessing all of this is sort of like living inside Alfred Hitchcock’s Twilight Zone. But as the famous saying goes, “May you live in interesting times”. We can all go ahead and check that box.
Back to these genuflecting 2022 Trumpian candidates: Just because you claim to believe something is true doesn’t give you cover from the reality that it may actually be a lie, a lie with the potential to inflict a fatal blow to the Republic. If you are repeating completely unsubstantiated falsehoods regarding the most important function of our democracy, an act so sacred and critical to our national security and the fabric of who we are as a democratic nation you should probably be disqualified and prevented by state officials from getting on the ballot. This should be seriously considered by members from both parties, because if one side can make the false claim one election cycle, then members from the other party could make that same bogus claim in a future election. And if you as a candidate are making demonstrably false claims about the validity of a process that you yourself are participating in, then reason would have it that we should also be able to question the veracity of your own victory on election day; and deny it without a shred of evidence. Fair, right? Any joking aside, you either believe in the integrity of the system or you don’t. If there was evidence of voter fraud, produce it and prove it. And by prove it I don’t mean circulate a link around to the latest QAnon fictional conspiracy and quackery. And if you can’t actually prove anything nefarious regarding your’s or your favorite candidate’s election then suck it up and try to craft a more compelling campaign message next time.
It is not free speech to publicly and vociferously undermine voters’ faith in the very electoral system that represents the clearest dividing line distinguishing us from countries ruled by dictatorships and authoritarian regimes. You should not be allowed to make such dangerous claims about widespread voter fraud when there has never been any example ever produced to back it up. You can not yell fire in a crowded theatre when there is none. Similarly, elected officials and candidates should not be allowed to make such grave statements that could lead directly to violence and even civil war between citizens of the United States of America. There should be ramifications. Absent any federal or state laws banning such reckless and inciteful candidates from running, these very public individuals may be, in a plain sense, guilty of committing sedition against our government and intentionally attempting to destabilize democratic institutions enshrined in the Constitution.
A critical mass of cowardly acquiescence from GOP leadership fed The Big Lie helping it to grow into the menacing hydra it is today, a monster that threatens to consume us all. What will the consequences be for aspiring politicians and those that have already sworn a sacred oath yet are actively undermining our democratic institutions? For those running for office, a stinging defeat is in order, at least. For those who have already taken the oath, talk of sedition should be mentioned regularly in conjunction with their names. If a solid center of the citizenry – Democrats, Republicans, and Independents alike – do not hold politicians accountable for the lies undermining the very foundations of our country we may not have a country very soon.
The Congressional Oath of Office:
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.