April 19, 2022

"STOP ME, BEFORE I KILL AGAIN":

The sham at the heart of the GOP's Big Lie  (David Daley, April 19, 2022, Boston Globe)

It's been a tougher than usual few weeks for Republican "election integrity" claims. New voter fraud allegations have been leveled against -- that's right -- prominent Trump administration officials.

The cases have revealed, once more, the cynical sham at the heart of the GOP's Big Lie. But in addition to the glaring hypocrisy, these allegations and others reinforce our two unequal justice systems: One for white conservatives who plead guilty and get off easy, another for Black parolees who vote only after being assured they can, then receive harsh prison sentences.

Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that Matt Mowers, a Trump aide running for the US House from New Hampshire, voted twice during the 2016 primaries. He cast one ballot in New Hampshire's primary when he was working on Chris Christie's presidential campaign, then voted again that June when he re-registered at his parents' home in New Jersey. His actions may have violated several federal laws, though the statute of limitations has expired.

These reports followed news that former Donald Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and his wife, Debbie, registered and voted from a trailer home in rural North Carolina, where they never lived, while they actually resided in tony Virginia suburbs.

Yet the Big Lie's rot runs deeper still. It has been repeated so relentlessly that a majority of Republicans reject reality and believe that Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden, who "won" only because of rampant fraud perpetrated by Democrats. Republicans can't produce any evidence to substantiate this.

But the actual arrests for voter fraud? Much like Meadows and Mowers, they share things in common: In every example I could find of voter fraud in the 2020 election in the conservative Heritage Foundation's database, when the voters' politics are known, they turn out to be Republicans (or conservatives).

Posted by at April 19, 2022 6:41 AM

  

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