I agree that whether or not Republicans “actually believe” the election was stolen is not all that important. We must understand, however, that they absolutely believe the outcome of the election was *illegitimate* in a fundamental way.
Some thoughts on an important debate: 1/
Some thoughts on an important debate: 1/
https://twitter.com/theplumlinegs/status/1469647916994371586
There’s a lot more than just semantics at stake in the debate over how to frame and conceptualize Republican attempts to delegitimize the 2020 election and what’s actually animating the initiatives to subvert future elections. 2/
I think @ThePlumLineGS is making some important points here: Saying Republicans “actually believe” the election was stolen could be taken to suggest they’re all good-faith actors who just have sincere doubts (and maybe have a right to have their questions heard and examined?). 3/
https://twitter.com/theplumlinegs/status/1469648695230672899
However, let’s not let the pendulum swing all the way to the other extreme, suggesting that Republicans are all just power-hungry cynics who know there was nothing wrong with the election. I think the situation is actually more worrisome and dangerous than that. 4/
I think many Republicans are well aware that some of the specific conspiratorial claims emanating from the Right - Fake ballots? Lost ballots? “Illegals” voting? - are bogus. But they don’t care about the specifics. They just believe Joe Biden shouldn’t be president. 5/
What I find most alarming is that underlying worldview, that belief system, that ideological conviction that leads them to consider Democratic election victories fundamentally illegitimate *even if there was nothing technically wrong with how the election was conducted*. 6/
That’s the level at which I think these Republicans are true believers: We need to grapple with the ideological assumptions that, at the very least, provide the fertile ground for cynical, purely opportunistic use of bizarre conspiracy theories about “stolen elections.” 7/
Most people on the Right are operating from the assumption that Democratic governance is fundamentally illegitimate – therefore any election outcome that would lead to Democratic governance must be rejected as illegitimate as well. That’s how the rationalization works. 8/
Whether or not they “actually believe” the 2020 election was stolen, and in what specific ways, is beside the point: The outcome is considered illegitimate, and they go backwards from there, clinging to conspiratorial claims to delegitimize a result that must not stand. 9/
In other words, Republicans didn’t start from an assessment of how the 2020 election went down and came away from that exercise with sincerely held doubts; they looked at the outcome, decided it must not stand, and now use whatever opportunistic accusation to attack it. 10/
We see this most clearly in Republican candidates up and down the country pre-emptively declaring any and all future election losses as illegitimate. Do they truly believe there are widespread election conspiracies? Not necessarily. Why go along with such claims then? 11/
https://twitter.com/ThePlumLineGS/status/1436345303490256924
The answer is not *just* that they’re opportunistic cynics, but that many Republicans – most elected officials and at least half of the Republican voters – share the underlying ideology of these outrageous claims: that Democratic governance is fundamentally illegitimate. 12/
It has become a core tenet of the Republican worldview that Democratic governance is fundamentally illegitimate, to define the Democratic Party as not simply a political opponent, but a fundamentally “Un-American” enemy who must not be allowed to destroy “real America.” 13/
Many Republicans might be uncomfortable with the idea of undermining elections in such blatant fashion, and they may not subscribe to the outlandish claims of voter fraud propagated by the Trumpists. But fundamentally, they agree that Democratic governance is illegitimate. 14/
Republicans consider themselves the sole proponents of “real” (read: white Christian patriarchal) America – and they believe to be defending “real America” from the radically “Un-American” forces of leftism, liberalism, and wokeism that are out to destroy the country. 15/
In this noble war to defend “real America,” preserving democracy is irrelevant – as a matter of fact, if the choice is between saving the essence of what “real America” out to be and preserving democracy, democracy has got to go. The American Right has made its choice. 16/
On this basis, accusations of fraud and election “stealing” gain plausibility among conservatives not because of empirical evidence, but because they adhere to the “higher truth” of who is / is not legitimately representing – and therefore entitled to rule – “real” America. 17/
In this context, it’s really worth paying attention to how pro-Trumpian rightwing intellectual circles have been dealing with the 2020 election: Even if they’re not peddling conspiracy theories, they maintain that the result is illegitimate and must not be accepted. 18/
This, by Claremont Institute scholar Glenn Ellmers, is particularly instructive in this regard – I often bring it up as a significant window into the “higher truth” thinking behind the conspiracy theories that provides fertile ground for future election subversion. 19/ 
Ellmers makes no claim that the 2020 election was “stolen,” he doesn’t allege manipulation, voter fraud, or conspiracy. And he explicitly acknowledges that more people voted for Joe Biden than for Donald Trump.
And yet, he fundamentally rejects the outcome. 20/
And yet, he fundamentally rejects the outcome. 20/
Ellmers considers the outcome of the 2020 election illegitimate not because he necessarily subscribes to any specific conspiracy theory about how it was “stolen” – although he certainly aligns with the people who do; to him, the problem runs much, much deeper. 21/
According to Ellmers, Biden’s presidency represents an “Un-American” political project of multiracial pluralism – and therefore everyone who voted for Joe Biden, over half of the electorate, is also “Un-American” and not worthy of inclusion in the body politic. 22/
The idea that only Republicans represent the will of "real" (read: white Christian patriarchal) America, while Democrats are representing a coalition of people who don’t deserve their place in the body politic, is not fringe – it has become dogma on the Right. 23/
Reactionaries like Ellmers are *more* outraged, not less, when they accept the fact that a majority voted for Joe Biden: That is exactly the problem, in their worldview – that “real Americans” have become the minority in their own county which they are entitled to dominate. 24/
Ellmers, therefore, wants to redraw the boundaries of citizenship and exclude half of the population from the body politic precisely because he acknowledges that his “real America” has only minority support. 25/
This provides a striking window into the depth of despair, the pervasive siege mentality on the Right: What’s outrageous about the 2020 election, in this interpretation, is not that it was “stolen,” but that the “Un-American” forces have gained majority support. 26/
Reactionaries like Ellmers are no longer thinking in terms of the “silent majority” being cheated: They have internalized the idea that they represent a persecuted minority, fighting with their backs against the wall in a desperate war as the sole defenders of “real America.” 27/
They are disputing the legitimacy of the 2020 election not necessarily on the basis of claiming fraud and conspiracy – but because democracy itself subverted the will of “real America” by allowing the “wrong” people too much of an influence on the fate of the country. 28/
Trump’s “I won the election!” represents a vulgar, clumsy, narcissistic strand of conspiratorial thinking – it is shared by some, opportunistically used by many, and widely accepted on the Right because it adheres to the “higher truth”: “We” are entitled to rule in America. 29/
The widespread support for, or willingness to accept, any kind of suspicion, regardless of whether or not there is any shred of empirical evidence, stems from the fact that most people on the Right consider Democratic governance fundamentally illegitimate, “Un-American.” 30/
That’s what’s fundamentally wrong with the outcome of the election: If an election doesn’t result in “Us” being in power, it must be illegitimate, as we are “real America”; if an election puts “Them” in charge, it cannot be accepted, as they are out to destroy America. 31/
If that is the nature of the political conflict, then who cares on what grounds, specifically, the outcome of the election is challenged, who cares if the result should be reversed based on this or that conspiracy theory… The important part is: It must not stand. 32/
And so of course most people on the Right – whether or not they “actually believe” in specific conspiracy theories themselves – are on board with the idea of using allegations of fraud, of allying with conspiracy theorists, to prevent future “illegitimate” outcomes. 33/
Regardless of the topic: The specifics of this or that conspiracy theory don’t matter to rightwingers - what matters is what they see as the “higher truth”: That woke Democrats/Lefties/Libs are out to destroy “real” America, and that they must be stopped. By whatever means. 34/
This is why the focus on whether or not Republicans “actually believe” conspiracy theories about the 2020 election is somewhat misplaced, distracting us from the real issue, the big picture: that they absolutely believe the outcome of the election was *illegitimate*. 35/
It is precisely the mixture of deeply held ideological beliefs and convictions of white Christian patriarchal dominance, of what “real America” should be, and the cynical opportunism with which these beliefs are enforced that makes the assault on democracy so dangerous. /end
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