A funny thing has happened on the way to the election—the lies Republicans have been getting away with for years are finally being exposed. Donald Trump's extreme, outrageous, and conspiracy-tainted lies are all just longstanding Republican lies, but exaggerated to such a ridiculous degree, he's helping discredit them.
Voter fraud? How many times in the past two weeks have you seen traditional media report the statistic that there have been just 31 cases of proven in-person voter fraud in 14 years, out of 1 billion votes? Plenty of times, right? But what have we been hearing from Republicans for years? The threat of voter fraud is so great that they have to pass more and more restrictive voting laws to prevent it. That voter fraud exists has been taken as an article of faith by the traditional media and, as a result, the public believes that voter ID laws are necessary.
But Trump's blown the lid off that, forcing even one of the stalwarts of voter suppression—Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Jon Husted—to debunk voter fraud myths and to rebuke Trump.
"I can assure him, as a fellow Republican, that it is not rigged," said Husted, who intends to vote for Trump. "I hope Donald Trump will focus on issues people really care about and not on issues that are not based on fact and undermine confidence in our democracy."
Physician, heal thyself. Even Fox News—FOX!!!!—has debunked voter fraud, with reporter Peter Doocy quoting experts and a chyron reading "experts say voter fraud is rare." FOX!!!!
It's not just voter fraud, though. How many times in the past three years have you seen headlines about "skyrocketing" Obamacare premiums? Trump's crazy claim in last night's debate that they "are going to go up over 100 percent" gives us this from the AP; an actual fact check on premium hikes. "A study this summer by the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation looked at 14 metro areas with complete information and found premiums were rising in 12 of them. The average increase for a popular option called the 'lowest-cost silver plan' was 11 percent." Reporting! Facts! And the next time a Republican says premiums are skyrocketing, let's remember this.
This might be the best gift from Trump, though.
Well that and the civil war that's going to destroy the GOP. That's pretty good, too.
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