I’m a poor excuse for political blogger. I didn’t watch the Fetterman/Ox debate. I wonder if the last remaining “undecided” voter on PA finally decided?
Trump and Obama both won with a populist massage attacking corrupt DC insiders. It is strange to me that Democrats cede the populist terrain to the GOP. I hope Fetterman didn’t cede that to the Foppish Oz.
The New York Times reports: “More than 370 people—a vast majority of Republicans running for these offices in November—have questioned and, at times, outright denied the results of the 2020 election—despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.”
The Washington Post reports similar findings: More than half of all Republicans running for congressional and state office this midterm cycle are 2020 election deniers.
Forty-eight out of 50 states have Big Lie supporters running for some kind of office, from governor on down.
Since former President Trump took control of the Republican Party, the party’s platform has evolved into a bizarre hodgepodge of election denialism and owning the libs. The owning-the-libs part is annoying but probably not terminal. However, the election denialism could, if left unchecked, end American democracy.
That isn’t hyperbole. The stakes boil down to a single basic question: If one of two major political parties no longer believes in free and fair elections, how can democracy still function?
It feels like we’re on the precipice of a disaster. And yet, the tone of most mainstream political coverage rarely reflects the terrifying possibilities implicit in the very news they’re covering. As the former New York Times public editor Margaret Sullivan told me, “The mainstream press doesn’t seem to quite get that American democracy is on the brink, or be willing to clearly state who’s driving that movement.”
The full article is behind a paywall: https://tinyurl.com/yc5yttpw