# When even MAGA election deniers aren't crazy enough **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [January 13, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029 "2024-01-13T00:44:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029/1 "2024-01-13T00:44:56Z")
There’s a [story up on CNN](https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/12/politics/arizona-election-director-maga-invs/index.html) about Arizonan Bob Bartelsmeyer, who trumpeted denialism about the 2020 election, yet was run out of a county elections director job – why? For not being MAGAnuts enough: > When Bob Bartelsmeyer accepted the job as the elections director of a sprawling rural county in Arizona last [spring](https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/25/arizona-cochise-county-election-director-fraud-claims-trump), it seemed like the perfect move. It was a step up professionally in a place where the Trumpian values of the community matched his own. > > After all, Bartelsmeyer, 67, believed the falsehood subscribed to by millions of MAGA Republicans that the 2020 election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump. > > But instead of getting a warm reception, Bartelsmeyer got a wakeup call: Not even he – whose social media posts promoted Trump’s claims of election fraud, was equipped to handle the extreme level of distrust in elections felt by residents in this county, > [snip] > Bartelsmeyer’s tenure in Cochise County, Arizona, lasted all of five months > [snip] > Bartelsmeyer, who had previously been the election director in Arizona’s much smaller La Paz County, ran into a buzzsaw of opposition to his actions and proposals. > > These included measures such as holding mail-only elections for special districts and continuing a yearslong practice of replacing neighborhood polling places with vote centers that enable people to cast ballots from anywhere in the county. > [snip] > to the dozen or so vocal detractors who showed up to Cochise Board of Supervisor meetings, they smacked of the kind of voting policies that aroused their suspicion that Trump was robbed in 2020. > > In short, to them, their new MAGA elections director was not MAGA enough. > > “After hearing that nightmarish thing from Mr. Bartelsmeyer – I was appalled by it, actually,” said one resident at the September board meeting where Bartelsmeyer recommended the voting centers. “To claim that he’s a conservative – you don’t need to claim it, it’s by your actions. And your actions, sir, are not that of a conservative, otherwise you’d be listening to your constituents.” > > “Mr. Bartelsmeyer, if I had the authority, I’d fire you,” said another resident. And much more paranoid conspiracy-think from enraged citizens of the county. Not surprisingly, the board of supervisors for the county didn’t back him up. Election workers all over the country are being harassed and threatened by these loons, which is bad enough, but when even one of their own philosophically isn’t far enough off the deep end, one has to wonder just how screwed up the 2024 elections will be. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029/2 "2024-01-13T01:04:56Z")
No true ~~Scotsman~~ MAGA. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029/3 "2024-01-13T01:14:57Z")
This is echoed on the national level when even the Speaker of the House isn’t MAGA enough for the MAGA constituents. It’s just more evidence that MAGA Republicans have no interest in governing and would instead like to watch the world burn. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029/4 "2024-01-13T01:25:49Z")
It almost seems like there is an element of crab mentality among the group. > **[Crab mentality](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_mentality)** > > Crab mentality, also known as crab theory, crabs in a bucket\[a\] mentality, or the crab-bucket effect, is a way of thinking best described by the phrase "if I can't have it, neither can you". It is a term coined by Filipino journalist and writer Ninotchka Rosca in a 1987 interview published in the Philippine News; Rosca coined the term to describe how in her view the generally collectivist Filipino culture disapproves of individual success as arrogant and deplorable. > The metaphor is derived fro... Often when a MAGA person gets into an area of responsibility, other MAGA folks will tear that person down. The only exception seems to be Trump himself, but that’s because he’s the Annointed One. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029/5 "2024-01-13T01:46:41Z")
I know that the “dozen or so vocal detractors” weren’t the sum total of the pushback he received, but it still struck me as funny. All that masculine swagger, and that’s all he could take? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2024, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029/6 "2024-01-13T01:51:07Z")
His mistake was thinking that the reason he was in a government position was to do his job. Government is supposed to be dysfunctional, donchaknow. ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2024, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-even-maga-election-deniers-arent-crazy-enough/996029/7 "2024-01-15T22:52:17Z")
Few things sadder than a MAGAt with scruples.