OP-ED: Republicans Can Only Win by Cheating

 

By David Starr

 

Ever since the results of the 2024 U.S. elections came out, I’ve had this nagging feeling that it was too easy a win for the Republicans. Especially when considering how the campaign went with Trump going up against Kamala Harris. That latter seemed to be leading in several states and had momentum. That is contradictory to the election results. 

 

So, I remain suspicious about the GOP’s “landslide” victories. And keep in mind that Republicans over the years have practiced voter suppression. MSNBC host Joy Reid pointed this out.

 

Oddly, Trump and the Republicans have not commented on the election results as to whether any cheating was going on by the Democrats. Before that, they hysterically complained that there would be election fraud. And they still claim the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

 

Trump was ranting about election fraud before the results. According to Sarah Wire, writing in USA Today, “Donald Trump claimed without evidence that Democratic ‘cheating’ and voter fraud were occurring. When he was declared the winner, those claims abruptly ended.”

 

Other examples of Trump’s reactionary accusations repeated themselves. Wire quotes Trump, where he claimed on social media that there was “massive cheating” in Philadelphia. His claim in its entirety is also quoted by Wire: “A lot of talk about massive CHEATING in Philadelphia. Law Enforcement coming!!! Trump made a similar claim about Detroit, where he said law enforcement was responding.

 

There were reassurances that the elections were legitimate. For example, Joe Biden said, quoting from Wire’s article, “I hope we can lay to rest the integrity of the American electoral system. It is honest, it is fair and it is transparent. And it can be trusted, win or lose.” 

 

Biden’s reassurances do contradict reality. The U.S. electoral system is dominated by big money from corporate donors to virtually bribe politicians in order to realize their goals. Both parties are similar ideologically in that they are capitalist parties. (Despite the few Left/Progressives in the Democratic Party.) So, the electoral system is not really democratic when it comes down to it. Above all, it promotes the rule of capital, which is usually a consequence for the working class and poor.

 

But it’s the Republicans that game the system. They have cheated in the past and it looks like they may have cheated in these recent elections. Again, quoting Trump, “[The Democrats] are fighting so hard to steal this damn thing. [E]very day they’re talking about extending hours; whoever heard of this stuff?” Extending voting hours isn’t exactly a crime, and a criminal like Trump is in no position to judge. 

 

There are those on the right who still insist the 2020 presidential election was stolen by Democrats. They compared the vote count for Biden in 2020, where he received 80 million votes. Then they compared that with Harris’ vote tally: 60 million. So, they say it’s proof that the 2020 election was stolen because Harris received 20 million fewer votes than Biden. A ridiculous and baseless claim.

 

Of course, Trump made insane comments during the electoral campaign. From hysterically claiming that  Haitians in Springfield, Ohio were illegal and eating their neighbors pets (which are baseless claims), to saying he wouldn’t mind so much that a potential assassin would shoot through fake news to get to him, to claiming that millions of “illegals” are invading the USA and committing crimes. Trump added that migrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a Hitler-like accusation. 

 

The Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington published a research memo to look at rumors expressed after the election: “As counting winds down, post-election rumors and their dynamics are taking clearer shape. [E]lection fraud speculation – initially prompted by tabulator errors in Pennsylvania – more or less died down by the end of election day.” On the Republican side, it did get quiet in the aftermath of the elections. But not entirely. “Several right-wing ‘election fraud’ influencers on X [Twitter] have questioned if there is widespread fraud at play…”

 

Further, “Some [conspiracy theorists] referenced the ‘missing’ votes from 2020 (as mentioned above) as evidence of election fraud and malfeasance. There was a small effort to petition the White House to investigate election integrity citing various claims, including some that are misleadingly exaggerating the impact of specific election errors, turnout, and irregularities that would likely not have affected the presidential election result. Many of these rumors were vague and indirect.”

 

In all, right-wing fraud activists made claims that there was widespread fraud, which have no basis in reality.

 

There was some fight-back by Democrats to the attempts at voter suppression by the right. For example, on July 10, 2024 U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell spoke out on the House floor against a Republican bill, H.R. 8281 – the so-called SAVE Act, which in actuality would result in massive disqualifications to deny millions of voters their rights. Sewell, instead, recommended H.R. 14, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. 

 

Sewell asserted that “as a daughter of Selma and Representative of Alabama’s Civil Rights District, the fight for voting rights is very personal to me. It was in Selma where hundreds of Foot Soldiers like John Lewis shed blood on a bridge for the equal rights of all Americans to vote. They marched, they bled, they prayed, and some even died for the right to vote.

 

“…the legislation before us today makes a mockery of their legacy. House Republicans’ so-called SAVE Act is a dangerous, anti-democratic bill that would do nothing to protect our elections. Americans should see this bill for what it is, a cynical attempt to sow doubt in the minds of voters about the integrity of our elections. It is yet another attempt to fan the flames of election denial by the same extremists who brought us the January 6^th insurrection.”

 

Now, with Trump resurrecting his fascist regime, it looks like he will fill cabinet posts with individuals who are warmongers, scam artists and are wholly unqualified to hold office.

 

The Republicans will probably not give up their schemes to commit election fraud. After all, Susan Tracy writes in CounterPunch that “since 2016 Republican-led legislatures have gerrymandered their states, engaged in voter suppression, and have substantially changed election rules seeking partisan advantage.” 

 

I can thus conclude with the opinion that the Republicans committed electoral fraud in the 2024 elections. To reiterate, it was too easy a victory. It was too “good” to be true. 

 

Meanwhile, the corporate/neoliberal/Third Way Democrats continued with their strategy of “bi-partisanship” and it has failed more often than not. And they probably won’t change their strategy. It can be said that they are collaborating now with a fascist party.  

 

And fascism has to be fought to not only discredit Republicans, but to directly stop them to try and impose their right-wing agenda.