Where do local candidates stand on The Big Lie?
In the pantheon of “Star Wars” lore, nothing is more ridiculed, more despised than “The Star Wars Holiday Special.” Airing once on television in 1978, the special was referred to as dumb, pointless, or as one reviewer put it, “a ’70s train wreck, combining the worst of ‘Star Wars’ with the utter worst of variety television.” Knowing this, it was hilarious to hear Luke Skywalker himself, actor Mark Hamill, troll the January insurrectionist traitors when he said, “Yesterday’s socalled ‘Justice for January 6th’ rally was a complete flop. I’ve seen bigger crowds at meetings of the Star Wars Holiday Special Fan Club.”
This came on the heels of the California gubernatorial recall where nearly $300 million in taxpayer money was spent in what amounted to a parliamentary attempt to subvert an election just because the rules say you can. It made no difference that Golden Staters were by and large happy with the job the governor they elected three years ago was doing. There was a chance Republicans could overthrow the will of the people so they took it. Thankfully, Californians overwhelmingly rejected the attempt, but the anti-democratic culprits remains, and to paraphrase one of California’s more famous previous governors, “They’ll be back.”
Because if you think Trumpism and the Republican love affair with anti-democratic authoritarianism has somehow faded away just because California soundly rejected it, and a misguided march on the Capitol in Washington fizzled into little more than a punchline, think again. Coast to coast, the Big Lie of “stolen” elections, America drowning in voter fraud, and that “rigged” elections are the only way Democrats can win, is the dogma Republican politicians must adhere to. Because when more people see what the GOP actually stands for and vote, Republicans lose, fair and square.
That’s where the Very Big Lie comes in. The one that says that Republican obstruction, obedience to the wealthy, voter suppression, anti-science, anti-education, class warfare and an unwillingness to cooperate for the public good started with Trump in 2016, and has now gone away like a bad rash. Ha. Mitt Romney’s chief presidential campaign strategist Stuart Stevens once correctly said, “The Republican Party is not about governing, it’s a party that exists to elect Republicans for the sake of power for power’s sake.” The Party of Trump was incubated in the Republican Party, and its perverse anti-Americanism still remains.
Republicans just don’t want Democrats, or anyone who could be a Democrat, to vote.
Just look at voter suppression and voting rights. Sure, the headlines coming out of certain states are horrifying, but they’re nothing new, just more blatant and out in the open. No more code words, no more vague rationalizations. Republicans just don’t want Democrats, or anyone who could be a Democrat, to vote, and if they can’t legislate them away they’ll make the process unnecessarily difficult. And if you think it can’t happen here, meet Connecticut’s own Fight Voter Fraud. A shadow organization funded and organized by god knows who, FVF has wasted the state’s time, manpower and money chasing down frivolous and baseless election fraud complaints, and just like traditional conspiracy theorists, they’ve determined that finding no evidence of fraud is the actual evidence of fraud they claim.
It’s election season again (I know. Again?), and Greenwich Republican candidates are going to spend the next six weeks telling us that these are local elections and that national politics has no place in the discussion. Phooey. Every candidate for every office this fall must be asked where he or she stands on the Big Lie and even as it seems insane to say this, each must answer questions such as: Despite all evidence to the contrary, do you believe President Joe Biden won because of voter fraud? Are you prepared to say the presidential election wasn’t stolen? Do you support federal legislation that expands voting rights and ballot access for eligible voters? Do you support the investigation and prosecution of those involved in the January attack on the Capitol?
During previous elections we didn’t ask questions like these of our state legislature candidates, and now we’ve sent a trio of right-wing ideologues to Hartford simply because they were Republicans. Let’s not make the same mistakes this fall when it comes to our children, taxes and town.