Opinion: If you think that your leaders and everyone else is lying to you, you’re going to invent your own reasons for losing, no matter how outlandish.
By Jon Gabriel opinion contributor || The Arizona Republic
The votes have been counted, but the conspiracy theories live on. And some of the strangest allegations were pushed by prominent D.C. politicians.
“We are requesting an investigation into all the allegations of irregularities with respect to the electronic and other voting machines,” one congressman said. “So that people can have confidence in the result of this election, and so that any weaknesses are changed before the next election.”
To be fair, that was a crazy election year. No, not 2022. I’m talking about 2004.
When President George W. Bush defeated John Kerry, allegations of election conspiracies ran rampant. Floridians claimed votes were changed for Bush, Ohioans claimed their county website showed more votes than voters, and other Kerry backers claimed Diebold voting machines delivered false numbers.
The rumors were so prevalent that Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) demanded an immediate investigation, offering the quote above.
Politicians blame everything but themselves
Today, the conspiracy theories are coming from Arizona Republicans, who are just as bitter as Rep. Nadler was 18 years ago. The claims were nonsense then and nonsense today. Just as they were from the losing party in every election going back two decades.
Why hasn’t Kari Lake conceded two weeks on? For that matter, why hasn’t Donald Trump two years on?
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Whether running for office or running the country, some politicians aren’t big on accepting blame. It’s just easier to point fingers at some shadowy, unprovable conspiracy for their loss than to admit the obvious: they blew it.
