California recall lesson: GOP believes in elections only when it wins
Category: News & Politics
Via: jbb • 4 years ago • 14 commentsBy: Elvia Diaz (The Arizona Republic)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Opinion: The California recall offers more proof that Republicans will accept elections as legit only if they win. That's a sure way to destroy democracy.
Elvia DiazArizona Republic
Republicans, like totalitarians, believe in elections. But only if they always win.
New case in point? California, where voters on Tuesday appeared inclined to keep Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom in a recall election.
Cue Larry Elder, the leading Republican to replace him, who started dropping unsubstantiated claims that the election was rigged against him.
The only proof Elder offered was the fact that California voters were poised to pick Newsom over him or anyone else on the long list of possible replacements.
How could that be? Republicans can only lose if they're cheated, right?
Rigged elections rile up MAGA support
Elder began setting the stage before the election to sow distrust in California's recall, just as Trump did with his 2020 loss - one that resulted in Maricopa County's bogus election recount that's still making a mockery out of our vote.
And don't think this will be over anytime soon in California, Arizona or any place where Republicans are busy spreading rigged elections conspiracies to rile up MAGA support.
"If you want to know why we need election integrity laws, just look at the California recall. It's a joke," Blake Masters, who's seeking the Arizona GOP nomination for U.S. Senate, said. "The total absence of election integrity in the California recall is an embarrassment."
Masters comes right out of Trump's back alley. He works for tech billionaire Peter Thiel, a huge Trump backer and who's already pledged $10 million to help his protege win the Senate seat.
Like Elder, we don't have to wait for votes to be cast to know what's likely to come next in Arizona and elsewhere during the 2022 midterms.
Republicans will accept elections as legit only if they win. That's sad - and a sure way to destroy democracy.
Elvia Diaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1.
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It is not getting better for the gop. They keep losing by larger and larger margins. Can its death be far off?
They're already a dead and bloating and fetid corpse but refuse to accept it.
Oh, we all saw where this silly recall was headed. They knew their goose was cooked, so they started crying "wolf" (fraud) early on. Have they all forgotten what happened to the boy who cried "wolf"?
Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Suck it Elder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There was no chance that Elder could have ever won a head-to-head race against Newsom.
Essentially, winning would have required the political equivalent of a royal flush.
Elder was a poor candidate
He was a lightning rod. The thing that stands out about this recall election is when the polls changed. There was a point when the race was close - it was just at that point when Elder became the leader among the many who were challenging Newsom. Once Elder became the obvious alternative, Newsom then changed the narrative to a clear choice between liberal policies and “Trumpism,” rather than a referendum on his performance as governor. I think that is what got the progressives motivated to vote. After that, Newsom had a double digit lead in every poll taken.
I guess CA. repudiated "Trumpism." I think most of the country (population wise) will also refuse it in the midterms.
California's progressive elite would rather eat shit and that's what the recall election came down to.
I think most of the country (population wise) will also refuse it in the midterms.
No, most of the country will hand over Congress to the GOP and they will do it in a big way.
Is it any wonder that the once Grand Old Party of Abraham Lincoln is now known merely as the gop?