Donald Trumps Shadowy power – The Boston Globe

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Yes, I’m talking about Donald Trump. (Who knows what weaseldom works with loads of men? The Trumpkin knows )

Why is Trump relevant just before a midterm election where he won’t be on the ballot? Because of his enduring success in making his Big Lie the fact-free dogma of the once Grand Old Party. According to The Washington Post, more than half of Republican Party nominees for US Congress and key statewide offices governor, lieutenant governor, secretary of state, and attorney general have either denied or questioned Joe Bidens victory in the 2020 election. Indeed, website FiveThirtyEight reports, some 60 percent of Americans will have at least one election-results denier on their ballot.

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Call that what it is: jaw-dropping. There was never a legitimate reason to believe widespread fraud plagued the November 2020 election. Almost two years later, with the various recounts and audits having confirmed Bidens victory and with Trumps many legal challenges having gone nowhere election denialism is sulky silliness or kooky conspiratorialism on circus stilts.

Thats all the more true given what we learned from the Houses Jan. 6 committee investigation. First, that Trump’s top Department of Justice officials and campaign aides told him the election was legitimate and that rumors of result-altering fraud were groundless.

Further, that Trump knew Biden had beaten him. Can you believe I lost to this f—ing guy? the then president lamented to Alyssa Farah Griffin, a strategic communications aide, about a week after the election, Griffin told the Jan. 6 committees.

Cassidy Hutchinson, an aide to then-chief of staff Mark Meadows, said that when she and Meadows bumped into Trump in the Rose Garden in December 2020, he said something to the effect of, I don’t want people to know we lost, Mark, this is embarrassing, figure it out, we need to figure it out, I don’t want people to know that we lost.

Despite the lack of any credible evidence that the election was stolen and understanding himself that that wasn’t true Trump has still been able to persuade more than half of the Republican Party of his baseless falsehood, according to a variety of polls. Its a testament to his persistence and skill as a liar.

To be sure, demanding that Republican political hopefuls embrace his Big Lie to curry favor with him or his followers has created some problems for those GOP candidates who now face a more discerning general election electorate.

Take, for example, Geoff Diehl, the GOP gubernatorial nominee in Massachusetts. Diehl originally said the presidential election was legitimate, then adopted the Trumpian untruth in pursuit of his endorsement, but now wants to appear like a candidate able to understand reality.

Obviously Joe Biden won the election, Diehl said in last weeks gubernatorial debate with Democratic opponent Maura Healey. Look at how bad the economy is right now. That was apparently intended to be witty, and in fairness, the gibe made it halfway there.

Even worse has been Don Bolduc, the GOPs Senate nominee in New Hampshire. Long insisting that the election was stolen, Bolduc executed a nakedly expedient political pirouette less than two days after the primary.

I have done a lot of research on this and I have come to the conclusion and I want to be definitive on this the election was not stolen, he declared. Sadly, that newfound definitiveness had the approximate lifespan of a mayfly, for in early October, Bolduc recalibrated yet again.

I can’t say that it was stolen or not, he vacillated. I don’t have enough information. Still, he continued, it is important to accept Biden’s victory as legitimate so Republicans can go about impeaching him. That kind of pretzel logic is the idiot offspring of denialism.

So be vigilant, MAGA voters. As we have seen, some seemingly trustworthy truth-twisters and toadies are in fact political players. They’ll be glad to hook up on election night but don’t count on them respecting you or their stolen-election vows in the morning.

As for Trumps ability to keep the GOPs grass-roots geese feeding on the Big Lie?

Well, one can certainly say this: The Shadow would respect his perception-warping hypnotic accomplishments.

Scot Lehigh is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeScotLehigh.

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