I was expecting a flood of crazies, screaming for recounts or screaming that the vote was rigged and should be ignored. …
I was expecting that from many districts in which a Republican lost, there would be cries of denial, and maybe a few gunshots towards the offices of Democrats.
Just a couple days ago, the press was full of warnings about death threats being sent to workers at the polls.
But none of this has happened.
Even Trump has been quiet. They say he was furious in private when his candidates lost. But he was pretty quiet publicly.
I expected him to try leading a whole national movement claiming that the vote was rigged. And I expected him to send his lawyers (like Giuliani) running to file court cases to stop the steal, etc.
I’m very,very,very glad to be wrong.
But I’m wondering why , after all the noise, it all just fizzled out so quietly
I think one reason is this mid-term has been such a round and sound ass kicking to Republicans.
Another is, I’ve noticed Arizona elections officials are refuting Teh Crazy™ in real time. Rather than ignore it – as they tried to do 2 years ago – they are now releasing almost instant push back to false claims. The refutations are both quick and very matter-of-fact.
I really applaud them doing this. Since Arizona is Ground Zero for political misinformation, I think this is a major factor.
One last factor is that Fox “News” no longer appears to be signing on to the false information as readily. This could be because they’re sick of supporting Trump, and they’re worried about further Dominion-type lawsuits.
It’s just not as fashionable to scream, “Rigged!” as it was in 2020.
Your comment ties into the the following NPR article I wanted to bring to the thread:
They often escorted news crews into a warehouse to see the ballots being dropped off by Democratic and Republican poll workers, and they live streamed and posted video of ballots being counted and processed.
So they got ahead of the curve, but… sadly, I think the very next sentence is just as telling…
One big difference compared to 2020 has been the overwhelming police presence outside, though.
So, the violent crazies are probably being deterred by the lack of soft targets, and the mutterings of the misled masses are being somewhat assured by good messaging.
Now how individual crazy candidates will respond? I suspect that the RNC is saying, on the quiet, that if they want to challenge results, they should be ready to pay for it all themselves - no more investment in major political or cash capitol in those efforts, after multiple legal defeats that didn’t look good to anyone not already part of the base.
It’s early. If the Senate somehow remains in Democrat’s hands, many Republicans will claim the election was rigged. They can’t do that until they officially lose the election since they might still win.
Kari Lake in AZ, who is trailing in the governor’s race but not by much, is already grimly hinting that if she loses it will be fraud. Lindsay Graham this morning suggested that a Laxalt win in Nevada for senator is mathematically guaranteed and if Cortez Masto (who is trailing, but has a good chance of over-taking him) wins it will be fraud. So knives are slowly starting to come out here and there.
Next week might be when the shit-shows really kick into gear.
@Marvin_the_Martian and @Tamerlane, all true. But I believe the real determining factor is whether Fox “News” picks up and amplifies the outcry.
If Fox continues to push Trumpers away on this issue, and if donors choose to not fund them, it will be hard for them to sustain the ongoing rage to carry out a protracted “fraud” narrative in the mainstream.
I was also heartened by the many Trumpers who lost their election bids and actually conceded their races. Not universally, but a substantial number did.
I do believe there will be violence in some places, especially if Trump expressly calls for it. But I think the Biden Administration has contingency plans for this.
Bingo. My hunch is that because so many of the election deniers lost, the Republican Party sent out a stern memo that candidates need to shut their yaps about fraud.
What do you mean she’s “already hinted”? She said very clearly long before the election that she will never accept losing. She was asked outright if she would contest a loss and she said multiple times (with a creepy grim reaper smile) that she will not lose.
Keep in mind the above article and tweet are 3 weeks old.
Perhaps it has finally caught on that election denial is a bad narrative for promoting one’s causes? It would be an admission that for the second election in a row, Democrats have cheated their way to victory so skillfully that they do not appear to be cheating at all. According to Trump and company, it was very easy to do. Just pull a truckload of ballots up to the door at midnight. Or hide them under the table in a suitcase. Or get dead people and illegal immigrants to vote. Or rig the voting machines. All these holes in the system ripe for exploitation and the Republicans haven’t figured out how to use a single one of these methods to their own advantage. Can’t win by winning and can’t win by cheating. What does that make them?
Am absolutely thrilled that the Republican 2024 path to the White House is utterly and completely fucked because of their losses in the Governor and State races, especially their losses in the Secretary of State positions. Their goal of “throw it to the legislators” is not going to work now.
Well, the republicans who ran on the platform of “we’ll steal the 2024 election if we can’t win it”, lost rather consistently across the nation. Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Pennsylvania, a couple of others that I cannot think of right now… all of them had vote thieves on the ballot, all of them had the vote thieves lose.
“Perdedor” is literally, say, the loser of a game; a habitual “loser” in the put-down sense is more often a “desgraciado” (disgrace) or “fracaso” (failure).
Any habitual status in Spanish generally doesn’t include the indefinite article. “I am a teacher” = “Soy profesor.”
So, in proper Spanish, Beck should have sung “soy…fracaso” or “soy…desgraciado.”