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This is obviously part of a much broader, Republican-led nationwide effort to restrict and suppress voting, disenfranchise Americans, sow distrust, and grant Republicans more control over our election system, all in the name of "election integrity."
By leveraging Trump's "big lie" and the stream of election fraud propaganda, conspiracies, and misinformation that followed to promote unnecessary solutions to fabricated problems. They've convinced millions of disgruntled supporters that Democrats have compromised our election system.
This is the claim now: undocumented immigrants are voting, and that Democrats, particularly Biden, are encouraging it, even though some of these places are VA centers.
There's a narrative in conservative circles that immigrants are being pushed to register to vote when they sign up for any benefits. Trump's allies allege this is happening.
The reality is, anyone applying for benefits is asked if they want to register to vote. However, if you are not a citizen, you cannot use that application to register, because you have to prove U.S. citizenship.
It's election fraud, interference, and subversion to combat conspiracies of election fraud... period.
There's a pattern where Republicans jump to conclusions about a stolen election, and when facts contradict these conclusions, they create conspiracies and rationalizations to double down. This is the conservative modus operandi.
Facts don't matter to them; their prejudices and delusions guide their thinking. In their minds, anything is justified because they believe the election was stolen. They won't be convinced otherwise, so it's up to Republicans, who have been pandering to these grievances, to act. Unfortunately, this action often results in widespread voter suppression under the guise of protecting elections from fabricated threats.
Aaand moreover, propaganda and rhetoric from Trump and prominent Republicans who have embraced the stolen election conspiracy are empowering right-wing zealots to intimidate voters at polling places. Some even consider becoming election or poll workers to "stop the steal."
This is happening nationwide, particularly in densely populated, Democrat-leaning areas.
This effort gained momentum after the election and has continued, with few Republicans or conservatives acknowledging it. Most believe that these Trump loyalists are justified in passing sweeping "election integrity" laws that undermine, rather than uphold, the integrity of our elections.
History will compare this era in American politics to the years before Nazi Germany.
The one thing I disagree with is the generalization of Republicans "believing" what they say. Numerous times, they've let the veil slip and showed they don't believe the shit they're saying: they have very specific goals and fill in the logic or "research" later.
It's like the term "globalists." Some very naive people repeat conspiracies thinking that there's some secret cabal of globalists, but most people know that anyone talking about "globalists" means "Jews."
"Election fraud" isn't something they actually believe; they know the election wasn't stolen. "Election fraud" is a hurdle or stumbling block meant to trap Democrats into trying to reason with someone who isn't being reasonable. It's an opportunity to troll people. But most importantly, it's an empty set of words used as a shield behind which they can commit actual election fraud.
Sure some people actually believe the election was stolen, but they're only going to listen to their select group of talking heads. We need to quit giving politicians and grifters the benefit of the doubt and call them out for lying, obfuscating, conspiring, and trying to instill fascism. There need to be repercussions for disenfranchising the people for power and profits under the guise of "No u."
And just to be clear, there isn't a secret cabal of those, either!
That's one of the really insidious things about their tactics: their lies are like ogres, with layers. It makes it such a huge chore to debunk each and every aspect that some of them slip through the cracks and go unrefuted. Then they point to those in order to shore up the rest of the shit they're spewing!
Oh geeze, I didn't even get around to cleaning that up... I'm a bad globalist...
This line of thinking makes me realize that a really good tool for dialogue with these fence-sitters, if we may call them that, would be to reasonably ask them "how has this belief worked out for you?", in response to some usual garbage conspiracy theory projection.
And Americans are still wondering what motivation the nearly assassin had. Mhhhhm
Honestly no one is wondering.
Law enforcement is looking for some one to blame. Media conglomerates are looking to sell ads.
Trump brought that on himself.
Damn right he did. He told his people during the last cycle that if you don't like what a candidate might do if elected, you should shoot them. He said this, regarding Hillary Clinton:
This is actually what I'm most worried about going into this election, because of how easy it would be, how few people are needed to do it, and how few resources are necessary to pull it off.
Throw a couple of "poll watchers" into majority-minority districts to intimidate voters. Maybe call in a bomb threat or two to a couple of key polling places in swing states. Or just one or two lone wolves committing acts of violence.
Remember, they don't need to actually win the popular vote, and winning the popular vote by millions of people doesn't matter. They only need to skew a few thousand votes in key swing states. An attack, or even just the threat of an attack, could easily be enough to swing the state if not the entire election. You don't need some elaborate international conspiracy that comes straight out of a James Bond movie. All you need is one idiot calling in a bomb threat, "poll watching", or outright committing a mass shooting and you could do just as much damage with no significant resources spent and no way for law enforcement to stop you before it's too late.