Democracy’s Fake Defenders
3rd November 2022
Do true defenders of the right of the people to choose who will govern them consistently oppose measures designed to ensure that ballots are cast only by legally qualified voters, that no one votes more than once, that how individuals vote is secret from everyone but themselves, and that ballots are secured against tampering after they are cast? The absence of those precautions is the hallmark of pseudo-democratic regimes – and the gospel of an array of Democratic office holders and seekers who profess to be defending “our democracy” against the menace of “election deniers” and “mega-MAGA Republicans”.
Nothing undermines the legitimacy of an ostensible democracy more swiftly and thoroughly than a widespread belief that “what counts isn’t who votes, but who counts the votes”. What gives heft to conspiratorial claims about the 2020 Presidential election is the sloppy way that it was conducted. If it weren’t for the ease with which non-citizens and ineligible felons can register to vote, the failure of many states to keep registration lists up to date, the widespread absence of ID requirements at the polls, the “black box” nature of electronic voting machines, and mail-in ballots’ inherent lack of secrecy and security, “stop the steal” would resonate only in the most paranoidly partisan corners of Internet.