In the next three years, the United States will have elections to Congress and the Presidency.

Normally, at least two people would stand for election for a seat in either House of Congress or, the Office of President of the United States and, normally, when one person loses they concede the contest and step back from the spotlight to allow the winner to begin their term. 

Now, how many of you believe that any candidates for the modern Republican Party will do this in either 2022 or 2024?

This is a genuine and serious question, not just some thought experiment on something that probably will not happen. Consider that the Republican Party has fully aligned itself with Donald Trump and his lies about the 2020 election result and, at least two-thirds of Republican Party supporters believe the phrase, "Former President, Donald Trump" is a debatable fact. This means that two-thirds of supporters of a foundational American political party believe the last election was a fraud but they didn't get that idea on their own. 

To peddle this belief, Republicans and right-wing organisations fed their supporters a high-fat, high-sugar diet of lies and fear. To continue this lie,  Conservatives have conducted a sham "audit" of the Maricopa County 2020 election ballots claiming to look for "bamboo" in the paper because ballots from China may have been slipped into good and honest American ballots. The audit, which is now over, was quickly debunked and, the publishers of the audit never gave any proof of their findings but, that wasn't the important part. The purpose of this insidious political exercise was to continually undermine the belief that the American electoral system is safe and fair.

In just over a year, the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate come up for election. Among those running for office will be Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor-Greene and Kevin McCarthy. Now, it isn't likely that they'll lose their elections but, Republican candidates across the country WILL lose their races and, if January 6th taught us anything, it is that Republicans don't lose well. The resounding cry from the hordes charging the Capitol that day was to deliver a message to the American people.

That message?

Only Republicans can win elections; everything else is invalid. 

All across America, conservatives are working hard to rig the electoral system. In Georgia, a state that went to Biden by just 11,000 votes, 101,000 voters were purged from the electoral roll and, legislators in Republican-run state legislatures are creating a perfect authoritarian storm for upcoming elections as they attempt to legislate to allow themselves to overturn elections and for state legislatures to determine the "will of the people". This is all being done in the name of "electoral security" but they never bring any significant evidence of electoral fraud. If these changes go through state legislatures will place themselves above the electorate and "conservatives" around America are cheering this change. 

This is the current state of the modern Republican Party. They have spent their political capital trying to undermine, not just President Biden, but the integrity of the American democratic system. Even now, as California completes its recall election, Republicans and, their surrogates, are preparing to let this lie seep into the national conversation again to continue the degradation of trust in the system.

In 2024, a Republican will run for the Presidency and, that person may win but, they have just as good of a chance of losing. That is the nature of democracy. There are winners and losers but, Republicans have abandoned the idea that they can legitimately lose because they have abandoned the core beliefs of a legitimate democracy. Having spent so much time trying to re-instate Trump they are actively and purposefully undermining the very system they claim to protect. They are turning us into a vulnerable democracy where just a small push could send us over the cliff towards authoritarianism.

Just something to think about because we're not out of this yet.

UPDATE:

Just a few hours after I uploaded this post, Larry Elder's campaign published a website claiming the California recall election was rigged... a day before the election.

You can read about it here.