Republican 'audit' in Arizona is a disaster, now comes a repeat in Pennsylvania and ... Texas? [View all]

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/7/23/2041512/-Republican-audit-in-Arizona-is-a-disaster-now-comes-a-repeat-in-Pennsylvania-and-Texas

In the immediate aftermath of the January 6 assault on the Capitol, a number of Republicans felt … not shame, exactly, but some measure of concern that even their base might not hold with the idea of conducting a violent insurgency to overturn an election. Those concerns were not strong enough to prevent 8 senators from voting to refuse to accept the results of the Electoral College even after the Senate filed back into place after the National Guard arrived on scene. Or to stop Josh Hawley, It certainly didn’t bother some of the 147 Republicans in the House how voted for the same thing. That included Rep. Mo Brooks, whose speech the rally stage included repeatedly encouraging those present to take violent action, and who claimed he had “discerned soon after the November 3rd election that honest American citizens have been victims of the largest voter fraud and election theft scheme in American history.”

Still, on Jan. 6 overturning the election was a minority position in the Republican Party. Even most of those like Kevin McCarthy, who defended casting their vote to please TFG, did so while making clear that "The debate and votes were not about overturning an election or federalizing elections. Last night Congress fulfilled its constitutional duty, and Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States,” There were only four representatives on record — Paul Gosar, Louie Gohmert, Ronny Jackson, and Marjorie Taylor Greene — who were willing to stand up and say they felt that the election was decided by voter fraud.

Then a funny thing happened. Republicans did the same prairie dog act that followed every moment of extremism over the last four years. They cautiously sniffed around, issuing statements of concern. They braced to bolt should this prove to be a step too far. Then, when it became clear that nothing is too far for the Q-loving base, they rushed back in to adopt the extremism as if they had never had a doubt about the justice of … calling Mexicans rapists, scorning Gold Star families, sneering at NATO, embracing Russia, calling veterans losers, openly cheering on Nazis, and, yup, attempting to overturn the election.

And over time, the Big Lie moved from something that was the particular madness of one man, to an ever more central tenet of the Republican Party.

*snip*