Steve Scalise on Fox News Sunday repeatedly refuses to acknowledge that the 2020 election was not stolen from Donald Trump. Liz Cheney responds.
The man probably rationalizes that he isn't lying (just artfully dodging), but he sure isn't acknowledging the truth. Instead, he's going along with the Big Lie that Donald Trump continues to promote.
"The Unselect Committee of partisan Democrats, and two very weak and pathetic RINOs, should come to the conclusion after spending many millions of dollars, that the real insurrection happened on November 3rd, the Presidential Election, not on January 6th—which was a day of protesting the Fake Election results." (Donald J. Trump, September 6, 2021)
To return to the Louisiana congressman serving as minority whip: going along with a lie, especially the Big Lie about the 2020 election, and especially if you're in the leadership of the party of Trump, has consequences.
"Among Republicans, 78% say that Biden did not win and 54% believe there is solid evidence of that, despite the fact that no such evidence exists."
CNN Poll, September 15, 2021
You read that right. More than three-quarters (78%) of Republicans say that Biden did not win and more than half -- 54% -- believe there is solid evidence for that. Since there is no solid evidence for that, what's going on? Well, Donald Trump, the leader at the top of their party; virtually all the leadership of the GOP at the next level, and the next level, and the next level all the way down; and -- of course -- the biggest prime time stars on Fox News Channel, along with the rest of the conservative media apparatus, have convinced them that this is so.
Republicans (in growing numbers) believe the lie that Joe Biden did not win the November 2020 election, while nearly half (48%) are convinced that folks in the mob on January 6 (aka the "day of protesting") are being treated too harshly:
With voting Americans on both sides of the Democratic/Republican divide disagreeing so starkly on what's what, and folks on both sides convinced that the other side couldn't be more wrong about what, and who, threatens our democracy, this result can hardly be surprising:
Clear and present danger. Eighty percent of Biden voters and 84% of Trump voters view the elected officials of the other party as presenting a clear and present danger to American democracy, while 75% of Biden voters and 78% of Trump voters, regard members of the other party as a clear and present danger to the American way of life.
Three decades ago, Newt Gingrich taught Republicans the vile language to sling at the opposition party, language which we now take for granted. Language that has turned into conviction that (I would wager) partisans believe there is strong evidence for. Gingrich taught Republican leaders. Republican leaders -- including those star personalities who appear on FNC in prime time -- taught the Republican base. And as the hate and the lies multiplied and took root, the leaders are now afraid to contradict what the followers believe.
Even in his most heady dreams, Gingrich could hardly have foreseen how devastatingly effective that tactic would be in sowing division, as he intended. He might find occasion to acknowledge this -- “I could never quite have imagined our political structure being as chaotic as it currently is … I could never quite have imagined the kind of political gridlock that we’ve gotten into,” as he did in 2018 -- but only to set up an attack line targeting Democrats.
Gingrich was the innovator. Republicans were first on board with turning politics into a blood sport. With Trump, the party found a president who never hesitated to deliberately divide Americans; an authoritarian, unconstrained by truth, the rule of law, or even a modicum of respect for democratic institutions (such as free and fair elections and peaceful transitions of power).
Democrats have been less susceptible to affective polarization than Republicans; that is, we haven't hated and feared Republicans as much as Republicans have hated and feared us. But with the ascent of Trump, an increasingly authoritarian Republican Party has gotten our attention. We've seen too much not to be scared of the other side. Finally, the numbers in those survey findings are comparable for members of both parties.
Clear and present danger indeed.