“By any indication, the Republican Party — upper level, midlevel and grass roots — is a party that can only be described as not committed to democracy,”
“Nearly 70 percent of Republican voters say that Mr. Biden did not win the 2020 election legitimately, according to polls”
The roots of the modern election-denier movement stretch back to 2008. When Mr. Obama was running for president and after he won, some of his critics falsely claimed that his victory was illegitimate because he was born in Kenya rather than Hawaii. This movement became known as birtherism, and Mr. Trump was among its proponents. By making the claims on Fox News and elsewhere, he helped transform himself from a reality television star into a political figure.
Mr. Trump’s promotion of falsehoods, turned them into a central part of the Republican Party’s message. About two-thirds of Republican voters say that Mr. Biden did not win the 2020 election legitimately, according to polls. Among Republican candidates running for statewide office this year, 47 percent have refused to accept the 2020 result, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.
“The growth of the election-denier movement has created a possibility that would have seemed unthinkable not so long ago. It remains unclear whether the loser of the next presidential election will concede or will instead try to overturn the outcome”
By David Leonhardt
David Leonhardt is a senior writer at The Times who won the Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the Great Recession.
Sept. 17, 2022
NYTIMES
