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With one of our political parties trying to overturn the results of a free and fair election, we are way farther down that road now than we were before the election, or a year ago, she told me. Republicans have been going down that road all through Trumps term, but this is the parting gift, which is more extreme than what has happened before.

Adam Serwer: If you didnt vote for Trump, your vote is fraudulent

Republicans widespread enlistment in Trumps efforts follows years in which officials have advanced hundreds of state-level measures making it more difficult to vote; engaged in extraordinary legislative maneuvering to deny former President Barack Obama the opportunity to fill a vacant U.S. Supreme Court seat; and have either looked the other way or abetted Trump in a series of actions shredding democratic norms, including attempting to weaponize the Postal Service, tilt the results of the census, and pressure the Justice Department to investigate his opponents.

Polling has consistently found that the majority of Republican voters believe, without evidence, that the election was stolen. One academic study, based on a national survey conducted early this year, found that a stunningly large share of self-identified Republicans endorsed antidemocratic propositions such as The traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it. GOP behavior during this postelection period suggests that these are not abstract sentiments: The secretaries of state in Georgia and Arizona, who have rejected Trumps claims of fraud, have faced death threats, and a mob of armed protesters gathered last weekend outside the home of Michigans secretary of state, whos also stood by her states results.

Geoffrey Kabaservice, the director of political studies at the libertarian Niskanen Center, told me he sees a fateful watershed in the partys postelection deference to Trump. Once the Republican Party got into this idea that voter suppression was the way to go, once it stopped believing it was the majority partyand the entire American project was at stake, and Democrats would ruin the country if they hold powerthen anything would be permitted, including antidemocratic means, said Kabaservice, who is also the author of Rule and Ruin, a history of moderate Republicans. This was all before Trump came on the scene, so Trump simply furthered what was there.

The Republican Party, without acknowledging or realizing it, has become an antidemocratic force, he added.

Some key local Republican officials have conspicuously resisted Trumps pressure, including Doug Ducey and Brian Kemp, the Republican governors of Arizona and Georgia, respectively. In Michigan, a young GOP member of the states canvassing board voted to uphold the states results recording a decisive Biden win there. And many Republican-appointed federal judges, as well as some elected at the state level, have joined in rejecting Trump lawyers unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud.

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The GOP's Antidemocratic Bid to Overturn the Election - The Atlantic