Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive. I think that quote is either from Rush Limbaugh or Sir Walter Scott—it’s hard to know. The Republican Party has a problem. After promoting fake voter fraud for over a decade, while working diligently to suppress the vote, they’ve finally created one of their most popular candidates: Donald Trump. Unfortunately for Republicans, the reason why Donald Trump was so successful is precisely because he’s taken all of the bullshit, fearmongering, and lies and not only told the base that it is all true, he has acted like these lies are true.
On Saturday, Republican National Committee chair Ronna McDaniel was down in Marietta, Georgia, trying to wrangle the suckers Republican base to get out and vote in the upcoming runoff. In a videotaped, press conference-style meet and greet, McDaniel faced some tough questions from the GOP base. The base that’s been told this election is fixed and sort of want to know why GOP candidates and the Republican Party keep asking them for money and to vote if it’s all … rigged anyway. Want to see someone do the Georgia two-step while standing in a big pile of hypocrisy?
In the clips below, you get to watch Ronna McDaniel field the conspiracy theories being promoted by Trump and other Republicans, and attempt to pretend that both a rigged election and voting in a rigged election make sense. A person in the crowd matter-of-factly states that since “the machines are switching the votes,” and therefore “we should go there in crazy numbers, and they should have won but … they steal the votes.” It’s hard to understand what he’s talking about because he clearly doesn’t exactly know what he’s talking about because the Republican Party doesn’t exactly know how to logically talk about their big con.
McDaniel’s explains that “We did not see that in the audits,” and that she hasn’t seen any “evidence” that says that happened, but “we will wait and see on that.” Yup. Then another potential voter asked a logical follow-up: “How are we going to use money and work when it’s already decided?” Good question. McDaniel—doing a lot of hand waving—explained that “It’s not decided. This is the key.” Okaaaaay. Then she gave this pep talk: “If you lose your faith and you don’t vote, and people walk away, that will decide it.” And most importantly, McDaniel explained that “we” are “fighting” and “looking at every legal avenue.” So GOP voters should trust them.
So far, getting out the vote for this January has not been as big a problem for Democrats as it has been for Republicans, because Democratic voters believe that their vote can matter if we can come out in force on Election Day. The problem the Republican Party faces is that it is hard to both say that only people of color’s votes don’t matter and that the whole system has been rigged for people of color to be allowed to vote fraudulently. After being told for years that there’s tons of evidence-free voter fraud on the part of Democratic candidates, and after weeks of Donald Trump calling his loss to Joe Biden “rigged,” those Republicans for Trump voters seem to sort of believe that voting doesn’t matter. I mean, that’s what the Republican Party has been telling them, right?
