Big Lie, Act II: MAGAs Rant About Fraud In California Recall

Here we go again. I didn’t think that the California recall would seriously be questioned by Larry Elder and his MAGA allies, after he got thrashed, losing by over twenty points, but then again Donald Trump lost by 7,000,000 votes as opposed to the 80,000 vote difference in the previous election and that resulted in a riot at the Capitol. So it appears clear that the new modus operandi of the GOP is question the election no matter what. Roy Cohn was born before his time. This is the era he was made for. Corruption is the order of the day and hang the facts.

I don’t know if this chapter of the Big Lie will grow legs. Here’s my analysis of it and it is bedrock simple.

1. No Republican not named Schwarzenegger has won a statewide office since 2003.
2. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans two to one.
3. Californians hate Donald Trump with a passion.
4. Tying yourself to Trump is box office poison to California Democrats.

So we may be off to the races again with more voter fraud lies and more stories in the press about those lies. Maybe Larry Elder will cobble together a California fraudit. Make no mistake: this is a subversion of democracy and should be treated as such. Press Watch:

But simply calling out a lie isn’t enough. Yes, it’s better than using a euphemism. But it’s still a disservice to the public if you don’t explain its purpose — if you don’t explain the motive.

And in the case of the Republican lies about elections, the motive is crystal clear: They are trying to subvert democracy. That’s not hyperbole. They are literally preparing to manipulate and, if necessary, disregard the voting process if they don’t win.

Calling blatantly fraudulent allegations about elections “baseless claims” or even “lies” is not nearly enough. They are calculated, democracy-killing lies. And that needs to be made very clear in every story about them — or journalists are not really telling their viewers and readers what they need to know.

Another thing to keep in mind: The best lies are often part of a compelling, if fictional, narrative. To effectively expose and rebut those lies, journalists need to tell the full, true story, which includes who is spreading the lie and what they are hoping that will achieve.

Most of our major newsrooms finally found the fortitude to call Trump’s assertion that he won the presidential election in 2020 the “Big Lie.” But they’ve backslid since then, describing littler lies claiming election rigging and fraud – most recently from Republicans in California — as “false claims” or “baseless allegations”.

Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan recently applauded the Philadelphia Inquirer’s refusal to us the word “audit” to describe the farcical, bad-faith attempt by state Republicans to gin up allegations of voter fraud.

The paper attaches a little box to stories now, explaining that it’s not an “audit” because “there’s no indication it would follow the best practices or the common understanding of an audit among nonpartisan experts.”

“Words matter,” Sullivan wrote, commending the paper for using the term “forensic investigation” in quotation marks instead.

Words do indeed matter. And “fraud” is going the way of “treason” as a favorite go to of the right-wing. media. Nobody has even proven a noteworthy discrepancy in the 2020 election, let alone any kind of widespread malfeasance but fraud is the watchword of the day when discussing election results.

As I’ve written here before, it’s a grift. There was a phenomenal amount of money spent in Arizona on the fraudit and now, having proved nothing, the last vestiges of it are dying a slow death by adjudication in the court system.

But the fraudit was successful nonetheless. It ginned up outrage, and outrage begat donations and donations lined pockets and the Republican grifters got a result. Not the result they wanted but a good result, that of fundraising and setting the stage for the next attack on election integrity and by extension, democracy. So whatever happens in California regarding an audit, laughable as it might be, it’s just more of what is done in this political climate, which is more about conning the rubes out of their last dollar than anything else. The Era of Trump is about the bottom line, nothing more, nothing less.