Thread by @Doc_0

We've been subjected to a lot of outrageous political double standards, but the one that says Democrats can deny - and even actively undermine - elections all they want, but Republicans go to jail for doing the same, might just be the one that tears the Republic apart.

It is very dangerous to teach a large number of people that elections are a joke and the political system is permanently rigged against them. The double standard on "election denial" is broadcasting that message with painful intensity. It's almost gleeful mockery of democracy.

There's basically nothing the Left can't do to question, challenge, and undermine elections. Much of what Trump just got indicted for was a matter of widespread and open discussion on the Left after 2016. No threat of criminalizing such talk was made.

And of course whatever criticism you might make of Trump's conduct after the 2020 election, he did nothing remotely comparable to the Russia Collusion Hoax, a stunning example of pure disinformation delivered by corrupt government officials in collusion with much of the media.

As if anyone really needed it, we're getting a nice sneak peek at what hyper-politicized government crusades against "disinformation" will look like. Trump gets indicted, but dozens of "national security experts" who spread disinfo about Hunter's laptop suffer no consequences.

Nothing Democrats could possibly do to undermine a GOP election win will be considered actionable "disinformation" or an indictable offense. They can leak confidential or classified information all day, endanger national security if they please, and then vanish into the mist.

Democrats can do anything to win, by hook or by crook, and when they manage to lose even with ballot harvesting and "fortified" elections, they can undermine the election or actively sabotage the incoming administration. None of it will ever be treated as a crime.

Dems are even branching out from denying and undermining elections to go after other branches of government, as in their recent breathless campaign to undermine the Supreme Court, and even physically endanger justices they don't like.

Our Republic has pulled itself off the mat after quite a few beatings, but this is the double standard we may not survive - turning elections into a "heads we win, tails you lose" joke. It fits neatly into the crisis of politicized and weaponized government agencies.

It's an existential crisis when the permanent State uses its vast power and money to thwart elections that might threaten its interests - or to silence people who complain about its incompetence and malfeasance, very much including our Third World election process.

Democrat denial of GOP election wins might be hysterical and insincere, but they have a free-speech right to level those accusations, and so does everyone else. The solution is to hold tight elections of unimpeachable honesty, not silence the critics from one party only.

Election integrity is incredibly important, especially as the power of the central government increases, raising the stakes for every congressional and White House race. Our elections have degenerated into an insane farce even as the power of the State increases.

Which is no coincidence, since the political elite of a growing State with a vast permanent bureaucracy will naturally grow less willing to allow its idiot hick citizens to threaten its interests by voting the wrong way.

Especially after the pandemic, we've been saddled with a delirious mishmash of loose election procedures - some of them known for years to be open doors for fraud, and denounced as such by every political party. It's almost designed to make every outcome look dubious at best.

Combine that with rules that say only one Party is ALLOWED to challenge election results, or sabotage the administration when they lose, and what do you have? A withered husk of "democracy" dying of terminal cancer. Single-party tyranny that barely pretends to tolerate voting.

We've been told the only real freedom we have left is voting for our rulers - a notion we should have fiercely rejected long ago, but now even THAT tiny scrap of freedom is worn and chewed.

Every major institution in America is suffering from a crisis of public confidence - and they EARNED that widespread skepticism. The loss of confidence in elections might be the wound that finally brings the American republic down - and that skepticism was also earned. /end