With “The Big Lie,” The GOP Is Permanently Suppressing Their Own Voters

You know, when you look at the Trump era, it becomes harder to at least not to consider the fact that he may have been a true Manchurian Candidate.

Now look, let’s be clear, The Manchurian Candidate was a novel and movie of pure political paranoia. It deals with a foreign agent raised from childhood as an American, but groomed to become an Agent of the state when he is elected President. Spoiler Alert! He doesn’t make it.

It’s tantalizing to think of Trump as a Democratic Manchurian Candidate. After all, just look at his disastrous presidency. In 4 years, he managed to unite the majority of the country against him, and turned more than 50% of the population against the thought of the GOP ever holding the reins of power again. Not bad for a rank amateur, huh?

Of course Trump is not a Manchurian Candidate, Democratic or otherwise. What he is is an ordinary, garden variety, run of the mill dumbfuck, with an incredible talent for doing irreparable damage to his own alleged party. Which basically all comes down to the same damn thing, doesn’t it?

But far and above, the one thing that Trump did that will have the longest lasting damage to the Republican party was The Big Lie. Trump went into the election already knowing that the same day voting would heavily veer towards him, while absentee and mail in ballots in a Covid election cycle would heavily factor Biden. And so he went on a preemptive attack to claim that all absentee and mail in ballots were fraudulent!

But see, here’s the McGuffin. As any reputable GOP pollster or operative will tell you, in the modern era of elections, early, mail in, and absentee balloting has largely favored the GOP. After all, most GOP voters are older and less mobile, and they like being able to use convenient avenues to vote without leaving their homes. On the other hand, the African American and Latino base are largely suspicious of giving a state or county control over their ballots, and so they tend to show up to vote in person.

And Trump’s Big Lie fucked that up. In the post mortem of the 2020 GA Senate special elections, Democratic early and mail in balloting was heavy, but GOP early and mail in balloting went through the floor. Not only did Georgia GOP voters believe Trump that early and mail in balloting was rigged, they believed that the whole damn thing was rigged. Say hello, Senate Majority Leader Schumer.

And Trump continues to beat the drum of the illegitimacy of mail in balloting. And if older, more scared GOP voters believe Trump, then the GOP risks the simple fact that Trump’s crusade against early and mail in balloting may well make those older voters just stay home, negating any effect that they got from their new voter suppression laws. Don’t touch that dial.