Are you tired of election denial? I’m tired of election denial. (And so are a few other people.)

benfell

Gilead

Donald Trump

Coup attempt


Fig. 1. Original: The White House. Derivative work: J. J. Messerly, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Voters in the six major battlegrounds where Donald Trump tried to reverse his defeat in 2020 rejected election-denying candidates seeking to control their states’ election systems this year, a resounding signal that Americans have grown weary of the former president’s unfounded claims of widespread fraud.

Candidates for secretary of state in Michigan, Arizona and Nevada who had echoed Trump’s false accusations lost their contests on Tuesday, with the latter race called Saturday night. A fourth candidate never made it out of his May primary in Georgia. In Pennsylvania, one of the nation’s most prominent election deniers lost his bid for governor, a job that would have given him the power to appoint the secretary of state. And in Wisconsin, an election-denying contender’s loss in the governor’s race effectively blocked a move to put election administration under partisan control.[1]

But,

Although many candidates denying the outcome of the 2020 vote came up short in their bids for state office, the U.S. House was a different matter. At least 150 election deniers were projected to win their House races as of Saturday — an increase over the 139 Republicans who voted against the electoral college count following the assault on the U.S. Capitol by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021.

Overall, more than 170 election deniers on the ballot for the U.S. House, Senate and key statewide offices were projected to win their elections as of Saturday, according to a Washington Post analysis.[2]

Which is to say that we are not, by a very long shot, done hearing about Donald Trump’s grievances.[3]

Even as many election-denying candidates have accepted their defeats quietly, [Donald] Trump has continued to try to stir up his supporters with unsubstantiated claims that fraud is occurring in Nevada and Arizona as ballot counting continues in both states.

“Clark County, Nevada, has a corrupt voting system (be careful Adam!), as do many places in our soon to be Third World Country,” Trump wrote Thursday on his social media site, Truth Social, referring to the Senate candidate, [Adam] Laxalt. “Arizona even said ‘by the end of the week!’ — They want more time to cheat!”[4]

What’s significant here is that such claims are often not a winning campaign argument.

The electorate demands at least the semblance of a candidate who will help them where they live, not just punish the other side. But Republicans can’t just run away from these people [election deniers]. The big donors will think twice about writing checks for yahoos now—but the base demands them.[5]

I think even if I had a better view into Republican politics than I do, it’d still be awfully hard to see how all this shakes out. Abortion rights are another factor, principal for many voters, and even among white Christian nationalists, we’re seeing the possible re-emergence of a split between religious and libertarian conservatives,[6] which overlaps with a split between those Republicans who insist on re-litigating the 2020 election, those like Ron DeSantis who want to actually win elections so they even have the opportunity to advance their competitive authoritarian regime project, and those who think that all of this simply loses elections.[7] And the question of what desperate white Christian nationalists, facing more clearly than ever before an existential loss of the Amerikkka they perceive essential to their own survival, do now[8] remains.

Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/

Richard M. Nixon [Justin Sherin], “The Field Takes Shape,&rdqo; Patreon, November 13, 2022, https://www.patreon.com/posts/field-takes-74601639

Nicholas Riccardi and Ken Ritter, “Cortez Masto wins in Nevada, giving Democrats Senate control,” Associated Press, November 13, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/nevada-senate-race-live-updates-c8edd4399c9766e1a184a24928fc7edf

Competitive authoritarian regime project


Fig. 2. President Lyndon B. Johnson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Clarence Mitchell during signing ceremony of the voting rights act. Yoichi Okamoto, August 6, 1965, via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/

Ukraine


Fig. 1. “Destroyed Russian military vehicles located on the main street Khreshchatyk are seen as part of the celebration of the Independence Day of Ukraine in Kyiv, August 24.” Photograph by Gleb Garanich for Reuters, August 24, 2022,[9] fair use.

You might recall that Yevgeny Prigozhin, who organized the Wagner Group, a mercenary organization fighting for Russia in Ukraine, had admitted to interfering in U.S. elections and declared his intention to continue doing so, with the aim of altering U.S. policy backing Ukraine.[10] Robert Mueller had indeed filed charges against him and, as it turns out, a “red notice” was filed with Interpol so Prigozhin might be arrested and turned over to the U.S. for trial if he showed his face outside Russia.[11]

It turns out that an appeals committee within Interpol overturned that “red notice,” really covering its ass, because Prigozhin claimed the charges were politically motivated.[12] We might presume that Donald Trump, who labels every investigation against him as a politically motivated “witch hunt,” and the Russian government, with whom Trump seems uncommonly chummy (the trick here is to follow the money[13]), would agree with this claim. The finding does not in fact establish that the U.S. was abusing the Interpol system, only that it looks like it might be, and, stung by accusations that Interpol’s “red notices” had been abused by authoritarian regimes chasing dissidents, well, appearances matter.[14]

Still, Bill Browder, a British businessman and fierce Putin critic who successfully appealed for the removal of a red notice issued against him at the request of Russian officials, said that Interpol continues to be weaponized by authoritarian regimes. “Everybody accuses them of political motivation all the time, but they’re busy chasing Uyghurs all over the world and they don’t drop those cases,” Browder said, referring to an oft-cited abuse of Interpol’s notice system by Chinese authorities. “It’s something more sinister … that Russia somehow has its claws into Interpol.”[15]

Just between all of you and little ol’ me, I think Interpol is run by “tankies.”[16]

Jared Malsin and Ann M. Simmons, “Ukrainian Forces Enter Kherson as Russia Completes Retreat,” Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukrainian-forces-gain-on-kherson-as-russia-retreats-11668158517

Alice Speri, “Leaked Document Reveals Why Interpol Overturned U.S. ‘Red Notice’ Against Putin Associate Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Intercept, November 11, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/11/russia-yevgeny-prigozhin-interpol/

Ishaan Tharoor, “After midterms, U.S. and European support for Ukraine endures,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/11/ukraine-aid-midterms-bipartisan-support/

Gilead

Donald Trump

Russia investigation


Fig. 1. Photograph by Presidential Press and Information Office (Russia, Kremlin.ru), June 28, 2019,, via Wikimedia Commons Kremlin.ru, CC BY 4.0

Alice Speri, “Leaked Document Reveals Why Interpol Overturned U.S. ‘Red Notice’ Against Putin Associate Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Intercept, November 11, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/11/russia-yevgeny-prigozhin-interpol/

  1. [1]Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/↩
  2. [2]Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/↩
  3. [3]Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/↩
  4. [4]Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/↩
  5. [5]Richard M. Nixon [Justin Sherrin], “The Field Takes Shape,&rdqo; Patreon, November 13, 2022, https://www.patreon.com/posts/field-takes-74601639↩
  6. [6]David Benfell, “My 2024 forecast,” Not Housebroken, November 13, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/03/10/my-2024-forecast/↩
  7. [7]Natalie Andrews, Siobhan Hughes, and Lindsay Wise, “Frustrated Republicans Try to Explain Lack of Midterm ‘Red Wave,’” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/frustrated-republicans-try-to-explain-lack-of-midterm-red-wave-11668036382; Isaac Arnsdorf and Josh Dawsey, “One likely 2024 GOP contender triumphed on election night. It wasn’t Donald Trump,” Washington Post, November 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/09/desantis-trump-2024-presidential-election/; Dan Balz, “The vaunted red wave never hit the shore in midterm elections,” Washington Post, November 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/08/midterms-dissatisfied-voters-render-judgments-biden-republicans/; Jonathan Freedland, “The winner of the midterms is not yet clear – but the loser is Donald Trump,” Guardian, November 9, 2022, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/09/the-winner-of-the-midterms-is-not-yet-clear-but-the-loser-is-donald-trump; Amy Gardner, Reis Thebault, and Robert Klemko, “Election deniers lose races for key state offices in every 2020 battleground,” Washington Post, November 13, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/elections/2022/11/13/election-deniers-defeated-state-races/; Liz Goodwin, “A red wave of criticism crashes into Donald Trump after midterm losses,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/11/trump-criticism-midterms-republicans/; David Lauter, “The midterm’s big loser: Trump suffers multiple defeats,” Los Angeles Times, November 9, 2022, https://www.latimes.com/politics/newsletter/2022-11-09/the-midterms-big-loser-trump-suffers-multiple-defeats-essential-politics; Greg Sargent, “Republicans want Trump to take the blame. Good luck with that,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/11/trump-midterm-elections-gop-abortion-rights-2024/; Marianna Sotomayor et al., “Congressional Republicans panic as they watch their lead dwindle,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/11/senate-republicans-mcconnell-midterms/; Brian Slodysko, “Election takeaways: No sweep for the Republicans after all,” Associated Press, November 9, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-takeaways-9381d3aaff26d19da95506e045fcd6e1; Jonathan Tamari and William Bender, “‘It’s time for him to retire’: Some Pa. Republicans want to push Trump aside after their election losses,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 10, 2022, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/pa-republicans-blame-trump-2022-losses-20221110.html; Adam Taylor, “Is the world ready for President DeSantis and a Floridian foreign policy?” Washington Post, November 10, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com//world/2022/11/10/desanntis-foreign-policy-florida/; Chris Walker, “Trump Is Blaming Everyone But Himself for Midterm Losses — Including His Wife,” Truthout, November 10, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/trump-is-blaming-everyone-but-himself-for-midterm-losses-including-his-wife/↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “The conundrum for white Christian nationalism,” Not Housebroken, November 10, 2022, https://disunitedstates.org/2022/11/10/the-conundrum-for-white-christian-nationalism/↩
  9. [9]Reuters, “Ukraine puts destroyed Russian tanks on display in Kyiv,” August 25, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/news/picture/ukraine-puts-destroyed-russian-tanks-on-idUSRTSALV9Q↩
  10. [10]Reuters, “Russia’s Prigozhin admits interfering in U.S. elections,” November 7, 2022, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/russias-prigozhin-admits-interfering-us-elections-2022-11-07/↩
  11. [11]Alice Speri, “Leaked Document Reveals Why Interpol Overturned U.S. ‘Red Notice’ Against Putin Associate Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Intercept, November 11, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/11/russia-yevgeny-prigozhin-interpol/↩
  12. [12]Alice Speri, “Leaked Document Reveals Why Interpol Overturned U.S. ‘Red Notice’ Against Putin Associate Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Intercept, November 11, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/11/russia-yevgeny-prigozhin-interpol/↩
  13. [13]Masha Gessen, “The Trump-Russia Investigation and the Mafia State,” New Yorker, January 31, 2019, https://www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/the-trump-russia-investigation-and-the-mafia-state; Michael Hirsh, “How Russian Money Helped Save Trump’s Business,” Foreign Policy, December 21, 2018, https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/12/21/how-russian-money-helped-save-trumps-business/; Craig Unger, “Trump’s Russian Laundromat,” New Republic, July 13, 2017, https://newrepublic.com/article/143586/trumps-russian-laundromat-trump-tower-luxury-high-rises-dirty-money-international-crime-syndicate; Craig Unger, “Trump’s businesses are full of dirty Russian money. The scandal is that it’s legal,” Washington Post, March 29, 2019, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/trumps-businesses-are-full-of-dirty-russian-money-the-scandal-is-thats-legal/2019/03/29/11b812da-5171-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html↩
  14. [14]Alice Speri, “Leaked Document Reveals Why Interpol Overturned U.S. ‘Red Notice’ Against Putin Associate Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Intercept, November 11, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/11/russia-yevgeny-prigozhin-interpol/↩
  15. [15]Alice Speri, “Leaked Document Reveals Why Interpol Overturned U.S. ‘Red Notice’ Against Putin Associate Yevgeny Prigozhin,” Intercept, November 11, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/11/11/russia-yevgeny-prigozhin-interpol/↩
  16. [16]Roane Carey, “Don’t Be a Tankie: How the Left Should Respond to Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine,” Intercept, March 1, 2022, https://theintercept.com/2022/03/01/ukraine-russia-leftists-tankie/↩

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