"The Big Lie" that the 2020 Election was stolen was never about Donald Trump or the election.
It was about establishing a weaponized reality to help an increasingly despised and isolated GOP destroy democracy and protect white supremacy.
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jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/the-intentio…
What we are seeing, already, with the "Stop The Steal" conspiracy theory is that the Right and white voters are now challenging every single election they lose, claiming there is a giant criminal conspiracy
This is about delusion and legitimizing the destruction of democracy
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Trump's desperate need to save his reputation, lie about the results of the election, and guide the Right deeper into dangerous delusions and conspiracy theories, has given the GOP a weapon to legitimize antidemocratic actions while their popularity craters.
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The sad truth is that January 6th wasn't the culmination of the conspiracy theory, but likely the beginning of a larger, even more dangerous battle
It was the dawning of an era where the GOP and its supporters will happily destroy every democratic institution to retain power
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But we should not make the mistake of believing the GOP's actions are aberrations.
The Right is carrying on a tradition of white supremacy and antidemocratic principles that were present and defining at the very founding of the United States of America.
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Framers like James Madison were terrified of democracy and believed power should lie in the hands of white, wealthy, slaveholding men like themselves.
The foundation of this country is on antidemocratic principles hidden behind the veneer of liberty and freedom.
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Our famous system of "checks and balances" was designed explicitly to contain democratic ideals, quarantine popular movements and reforms, all while handing power and domination, through the Senate and the Electoral College, to the white, wealthy aristocratic class.
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Though voices like Benjamin Franklin urged the Framers to consider common people in their construction of the government, they were shouted down by the majority, who believed the people were untrustworthy and even dangerous.
America was better served by an elite few.
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As Elbridge Gerry put it, the main danger to America was an "excess of democracy."
Common people, the Founders believed, were ignorant, untrustworthy, and should be protected from themselves.
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Of course, the Founders also made sure to protect slavery, grant the South outsized political power, and invented the 3/5th's Compromise, which hid the fact that a large part of the population was in chains and kept them in violent subjugation.
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At the same time, the Founders, despite the pleas from women like Abigail Adams, also neglected to consider women actual people worthy of voting, ensuring that the voices of wealthy, white men would win out and determine the direction of the nation.
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Though we like to pretend the Confederate States of America was an awful retreat from American principles, the CSA actually believed it was the true inheritor of them.
And, in truth, in their antidemocratic, white supremacy, they were. It was about upholding the prejudices.
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Because of the failures of the Founders, both in their imagination and in their disgusting prejudices, the Civil War was almost inevitable.
Our myths like to tell us this is where white supremacy died, but it's actually where it burrowed into our laws and culture.
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What the GOP is doing now is a reiteration of the conspiracy theories of Reconstruction, which undermined Black organizing and political successes, claiming they relied on crimes and illegal elections to gain power in the post-Civil War South.
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In this ludicrous and white supremacist conspiracy theory, Black citizens were engaging in massive, widespread voter fraud and criminal activities along with liberal conspirators.
It was seen as a pressing crisis that necessitated any and all actions by white supremacists.
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In order to "protect" both the South and Black citizens "from manipulation," Jim Crow and a whole litany of racist, oppressive laws were enacted.
It was the same lie that we now have, this "crisis" of criminal democracy and conspiracies needing "remedied."
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We're watching history repeat.
The GOP, as they lose their political ground, is claiming once more than elections are being stolen, that fraud is out of control, and so they are using this manufactured crisis to disenfranchise and pass restrictions to help their cause.
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By making it harder to vote, by disenfranchising people of color, by claiming voter fraud is widespread, the GOP is attempting to rig elections while telling its supporters they are the majority, that elections aren't real, that these racist actions are needed and just.
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The idea that Democrats cheat to win elections is a lie that feeds into delusion, it tells the Right and white supremacists that they're not being restrictive, cruel, or unfair, but that they're simply "protecting" themselves.
It legitimizes any and all actions.
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Electorally it validates recounts with the expressed purpose of finding election fraud, or fixing tallies in traditionally Red States so that they will remain, forever, in the GOP's favor.
It creates, in the country, a pervasive belief that every unfavorable result is a lie
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But the Big Lie also legitimizes violence and the overthrow of democratic institutions.
Coup attempts like January 6th are suddenly valid because the democratic process has failed and the only means of righting the wrong is to personally overtake the criminals.
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Meanwhile, weaponized lies like "The Great Replacement" use these conspiracy theories to legitimize violence and even genocide as a means of protecting white supremacy from those people who intend to unseat it.
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jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/replacement-…
The purpose is explicitly to undo the reforms of the past and defend white supremacy and aristocratic rule.
The Right has always opposed democracy. Now, it is willing to kill to unseat it, steal elections, and destroy reality as we know it.
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Unfortunately, none of this ended with Trump's defeat or January 6th. This is an ongoing crisis and, on the current trajectory, will attempt to dismantle democracy in totality, both through restrictions and organized violence.
This isn't over. It's only beginning.
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