It's remarkable the lack of surprise I felt by reading this recent headline:
McAuliffe claims Stacey Abrams should be governor of Georgia, furthering what some call her ‘Big Lie'
The tag of "Big Lie" is a reference to the phrase promoted by Democrats (like Abrams) in describing former President Donald Trump's continued contention that he was the rightful winner of the 2020 election. To this point, despite all the accusations, audits, lawsuits, ballot challenges, and online posturing, Trump and his legal allies have yet to provide any credible proof of that gigantic claim.
Attorney Sidney Powell's promised "Kraken" never materialized, L. Lin Wood's bravado about voter fraud failed to do anything beyond depressing Republican turnout in two pivotal Georgia runoff elections that handed control of the U.S. Senate to Chuck Schumer, and Rudy Giuliani's promised evidence of "rigged" Dominion Voting Systems turned out to be based on social media-driven conspiracy theories (an admission Giuliani himself was forced to make in legal depositions).
And though billed as an event that would reveal the truth, Trump's most outspoken defender, Mike Lindell, had a "Cyber Security" conference that left even the most ardent Trump-supporting attendees empty and frustrated.
So let's be clear: barring the existence of any concrete, reasonable evidence of voter fraud – remembering that it would have to involve thousands upon thousands of votes across multiple states in order to alter the electoral outcome – it is dangerous and irresponsible to continue peddling the "Trump won" claim.
Why?
For a republican form of government to endure, one built upon democratic principles, confidence in free elections, and the integrity of the voting process is paramount. That's why Republican efforts shouldn't be focused on spreading discredited claims of Dominion Systems changing votes from Trump to Biden – unsubstantiated assertions that undermine electoral confidence without justification – but rather, they should focus on enacting voter ID laws, as well as preventing illegal migrants from participating in our elections.
Both of those objectives are absolutely vital safeguards in protecting the sanctity of the vote, and the Left's condemnation that such efforts are racist is not only specious, but reveal progressive criticism of Trump's "Big Lie" isn't really about preserving election integrity.
Like everything with government-worshipping progressivism, it's about maintaining power.
For that to be considered an unfair accusation on my part, the Left would have to be free from mimicking Trump's objections in elections that they legitimately lost themselves. But over and over again, as the aforementioned headline revealed, progressives are perpetually the sorest losers in American politics.
Consider that they have turned failed gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams into a party spokeswoman. Guilty of spreading her own "Big Lie," she is promoted on talk shows, invited to deliver convention speeches, and was sought-after for a public endorsement by former DNC chairman and current candidate for Virginia governor, Terry McAuliffe.
McAuliffe himself ran with Abrams' made-up accusation that Georgia "disenfranchised" 1.4 million voters, despite that absurd claim having less evidence than the Trump Kraken.
Of course, this behavior is nothing new for McAuliffe. He remains a 2000 and 2004 truther, preposterously alleging that George W. Bush was never actually elected to the presidency. The former Democrat boss and Clinton acolyte says that Al Gore won in 2000 and John Kerry was the legitimate victor in 2004. Both allegations are laughably false, with even Gore himself conceding in 2001, "We are a nation of laws, and the presidential election of 2000 is over."
Much is made of America's bitterly divided extremes, with some speculating that the increasing polarization could rend the country apart. There's no quicker path to that disastrous outcome than a widespread belief that corruption in our voting systems exists, and therefore renders the votes of the people null and worthless.
If Donald Trump deserves censure for his role in this dangerous game, so be it. But let the reader understand that rebuke can't be taken seriously if it comes from those merrily defending the likes of Stacey Abrams and Terry McAuliffe.
