“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984.
While the GOP is steaming away from election denialism, Trump and his diminishing band of groupies will not let the big lie go. Perhaps the most fierce defender of the fantasy that the one-term loser was denied reelection by the deep state, or some other shadowy group, is his fellow loser, Kari Lake. The long-time Arizona news personality insisted, despite the evidence, that the voters had reelected Trump. And that she, regardless of her opponent Katie Hobbes's official swearing-in, is the rightful Governor of Arizona.
In Lake’s fantastical estimation, a judge, looking at the scads of new evidence she has, would toss Hobbes and usher Lake into the governorship. And in doing so would prevent America from becoming Venezuela. Because, as Lake told Charlie Kirk,
"We have a lot of new evidence coming our way ... there's a boatload of evidence in our favor. And we just need a judge to wake up and realize what's on the line here. And if we don't restore honest elections right now our country will turn into a Venezuela."
That sounds terrifying. What does the new evidence say? Nobody outside the people in Lake’s head knows. She has yet to reveal it.
We should not be surprised. The unsupported assertion is a standard conservative dodge. Joe “Red Scare” McCarthy had lists of supposed communists in the State Department — he never named one. Trump presented folders full of papers he called his “business plan” to hand over control of his business interests to his sons — they were blank. Kellyanne “alternative facts” Conway complained the press did not cover the Bowling Green massacre — there was no massacre. And conservatives have warned about socialist gun grabbers since 2008 — yet no lefty has grabbed a gun.
The unfounded claim is a recurring feature of Republican fabulism. In their fantasy land, money given to the wealthy makes the poor richer — why not just give the money to the needy in the first place? It is where tax cuts to businesses stimulate job growth — rubbish, increased demand (say by poor people with more money) increases jobs. And it is where a longer wall will prevent drug trafficking — when most drugs from Mexico already go through the road crossings in the existing barrier.
Back to Lake. The irony of her situation is that if she had only ditched the rhetoric about a stolen election — after she secured Trump’s blessing in the primary — she might have won the governorship. She looked sane. And she was articulate and TV savvy. Her fixation on the past — and an attack on a legendary Arizona politician — did her in.
After she won the GOP nomination, she said: "We drove a stake through the heart of the McCain machine.” Later, during a campaign event, she told "McCain Republicans" to "get the hell out!" And she attacked the traditional Republican party as "the party of McCain" before stating: "Boy, Arizona has delivered some losers, haven't they?"
This self-immolation was predictable after she turn to nuttiness in her final years in journalism. Something changed in her and she got sloppy. In one instance, she confused the hashtags #RedForEd and #GreenForEd — which led her to claim that a measure to increase funding for teachers was a push to legalize pot. Oops.
As early as 2018, she had started beating the rigged election drum. She retweeted, with no verification, a tweet by Twitter user @fern009 that claimed the tweeter had received an unsolicited mail-in ballot pre-filled with votes for the Democratic candidate. It was a fake. And Lake received wide criticism for her unprofessionalism.
By July 2019, she had opened an account on the far-right social media conspiracy site Parler. In April 2020, she relayed fake COVID information by sharing a video of two doctors claiming that the fatal pandemic was no worse than the flu. A video that YouTube later removed for spreading disinformation.
It all got too much for her. She expressed frustration at what she perceived to be the changing circumstances of journalism. And she explained why she quit the business.
“I found myself reading news copy that I didn’t believe was fully truthful or only told part of the story, and I began to feel that I was contributing to the fear and division in this country by continuing on in this profession.”
She must be blind to irony. All she has done since quitting the “news” business is contribute to fear and division by entering politics. A trade that prospers by scaring the voter and stoking tribalism.
If she wants to know the cause of her failure, she should look in the mirror. Not that it will do any good. There are none so blind as those who will not see. And there is no bigger loser than someone who shoots themselves in the foot.
What is her goal? If she thinks that some judge will install her as Governor, she is blind to history and reason. And if she, as some speculate, is lobbying to be Trump’s running mate, she is essentially angling to be the second-in-command of the GOP's potential 2024 presidential Titanic.
The working theory was that Trump had enough base to win the nomination. After which, he was destined to fail in 2024 as he had in 2018, 2020, and 2022. A feat he accomplished in the last of those years by backing candidates like Kari Lake. It is cyclical self-sabotage. Now, as Lake continues to tie her political future to the repeated loser, there are increasing doubts that Trump will even win the primary.
And Lake will lose her bet — bigly.