The 2020 election wasn't stolen, but it will be.

Celebrating the death of American democracy

There are many factors that refute Trump's lie about the 2020 election being stolen from him.  The reasons why so many people, including legislators, support or choose to ignore the lie are much more difficult to determine.  They also are much more important to analyze because they indicate how our democracy is failing.  In casting their votes for Trump, 74 million voters indicated that they really don't care much for democracy.  Some may be ignorant about Trump and his shady history.  But those who are somewhat informed have registered an explicit message that democracy is not their choice as a form of government, and they do not care if the leader they choose is a lying, malevolent fraud.  They want someone who stands for their values.

Washington Post writer Catherine Rampell sums up the current state of political affairs:  Almost half of Republicans are now saying the quiet part out loud: They’d prefer to ditch this whole democracy thing.

Another Post writer, Paul Waldman  details how the GOP is systemically corrupting and perverting the electoral system to clear the way for a re-election of Trump in 2024.  However, there are ploys at play to put Trump in office before the election.  It evolves around the "Stop the Steal" slogan.  With his claim that the election was stolen, Trump is accusing others of doing exactly what he is trying to do.  And there is a large following of anti-democratic dolts out there willing to help him in the theft.

Despite the fact that more than 60 courts have dismissed suits claiming election fraud because there was no evidence of it and multiple recounts have also found no evidence of fraud, Trump and his horde of zombies keep shouting their mantra.  Some of his lackeys in the Arizona senate voted to audit the ballots in Maricopa County, the location of Phoenix, and hired a company with no history of ever having done an election audit.  After failing to follow the security procedures for the voting machines and tabulating equipment, the secretary of state was advised that they were disqualified from use in subsequent elections.  That puts in jeopardy the county's ability to even hold an election in a county that tallies 2.1 million votes.  The Republican officials in the county warn against the absurd incompetence of the recount.  But the Trump lickspittles in the Arizona senate persist n their effort to manufacture doubt.

The lickspittles in other places have taken up the crusade to steal the election while insisting it has been stolen.  Georgia is undergoing a recount of ballots that have already been counted three times.  But the Trumpists are not going to be deterred by facts, science, or honesty. 

The only reason South Dakota hasn't convened a mob of nitwits to shuffle the ballots is because it doesn't need to.  Sixty-two percent of the state's voters committed their lives to Trump in the 2020 election.  That fact and the governor's subversion of the initiated measure on marijuana indicate that democracy is not even a pretense in South Dakota.  

Paul Krugman lays out the prognosis:

America’s democratic experiment may well be nearing its end. That’s not hyperbole; it’s obvious to anyone following the political scene. Republicans might take power legitimately; they might win through pervasive voter suppression; G.O.P. legislators might simply refuse to certify Democratic electoral votes and declare Donald Trump or his political heir the winner. However it plays out, the G.O.P. will try to ensure a permanent lock on power and do all it can to suppress dissent.

When the electorate put Trump in office it infected the republic with a fatal disease.  Joe Biden won the 2020 election by 7 million votes, but that doesn't matter to the Trumpists.  They will keep denying it and will work on the projects Krugman outlines.  They are not interested in anything to do with preserving and building the republic.  The fact is that 74 million voters rejected democracy and have no scruples about how they will finish it off.