Let's Talk About Election Denialism

Let's talk about election denialism.

One of President Trump’s signature "principles" is that if elections don't go his way, they were *ipso facto* "stolen" or rigged. Most famously, he claimed this about the 2020 election, which led to the January 6 riot at the Capitol and to Trump's disgraced exit from DC and subsequent rehabilitation in 2024.

At its core, this serves as the ultimate example of Trump's relationship to facts and his willingness to bend those facts to suit his political purposes--but not only that, the eagerness of many of his *supporters* to suspend their incredulity and cede their own principles to justify their support of Trump, who singlehandedly grabbed the reins of the GOP. This has led many of us who know and love traditional conservatives to our *own* disbelief that these formerly principled people are *themselves* willing to ignore facts (or science, or expertise) if it's politically expedient.

To me, this is the most significant and disheartening aspect of the so-called "Trump era." How can so many seemingly intelligent and otherwise moral Americans shift from their principles simply because an unprincipled charlatan wants them to do so?! Aren't we better than this? (Aren't our *schools* better than this?!) The apparent correlation of this is that so many people have seemed willing to accept the Stephen-Miller-esque view that only *power*--not truth or the Good--matters in the affairs of the world.

I can understand (but not agree with!) the view that Democrats are too liberal in general or that the world as a whole has gone too far towards "wokeness", but I'll never understand the willingness of so many to abandon reality itself to justify the replacement of individual reason and discernment with *Groupthink*. It's almost as if *fascism* has reawakened among a large portion of the American people. (Please don't react to my use of that particularly scary word here. I'm using it to refer to a worldview, not a set of historical atrocities.)

But now I believe that Trumpism (and, I hope, Millerism) have run their course. The midterm elections show that the American people have largely realized they have been collectively duped, "bigly." In so many (different!) places across this land, GOP politicians were roundly rejected and voted out. The crop of new representatives now ascending in DC seem educated, diverse, principled, and hopeful that America might just have stepped back from a descent into barbarism and be ready to reassume our place among the civilized world. Huzzah!

And yet, the Trumpist impulse is not yet willing to concede. Not only has Miller been promoted to Chief of Staff, but now Trump is reverting to his playbook of election denialism? (See his latest TruthSocial post.) 

Really?!

Fortunately, it seems obviously absurd to claim that elections in 35 states and hundreds of counties across America were "rigged" (by hacked voting machines?!), despite our decentralized election system. Even Trump voters aren't so drunk with their taste of power as to believe*that* ridiculous claim--are they?!

Well...we'll see. The next few weeks will show the world the true state of our collective mind(s). I'll be on the edge of my chair until January 3.