"We’re in a new landscape these days with election denial prominently featured on the menu. (Karl Rove is actually getting booed as a RINO sellout at GOP rallies.) The bandwagon effect is still in play but they now have a back-up: the Big Lie. It’s not overly cynical to suspect that a whole lot of the happy talk coming from Republican strategists whispering in reporters’ ears about how great their private polling looks is just a set-up for the possibility that they won’t do as well as they would like. As we already know, their voters are fully indoctrinated to believe that Democrats can only win if they cheat, and Republicans have created a full-scale election denial operation to challenge any negative results they don’t like. In some instances, they have challenged election systems in counties Trump won by double digits! Election denial has become the party’s primary organizing principle. [snip]
"None of this is accident or coincidence. The strategy is clear: In a
close race, pretend you’re winning in hopes of enticing voters to jump
on board. If that doesn’t work, claim the election was stolen and deny
the legitimacy of your opponent’s victory. This is just what they do.
Why the press allows itself to be manipulated this way, year after year,
is another question. Media folks can’t possibly fail to understand
what’s going on, after all this time. On some level, they fall for it
because they like it." -- Heather Digby Parton, on the way Republicans manipulate the polls and the media in order to get maximum turnout and maximum excuses for claiming "election fraud." Ignore them and, if you haven't already, vote. (our emphasis)
