In its embrace of former President Donald Trump's bigotry and fascism, the Republican party has largely thrown values it once claimed to champion to the wind in devotion to the nation's 45th President.
The party that championed fiscal responsibility cheered when Trump's tax cuts added trillions of dollars to the deficit. The Republican nominees for President in the two elections preceding Trump's—Senators John McCain of Arizona and Mitt Romney of Utah—are now personae non gratae for having the audacity to criticize him.
And the party that once championed state autonomy over national cohesion has since canceled former Vice President Mike Pence for not unilaterally throwing out certified electoral votes in order to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.
Trump's constant lies about the validity of the 2020 election have now become a central tenet of the unwritten Republican party platform, and a new poll is showing just how pervasive that belief is among the party.
A CNN poll conducted last month found that, among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, a combined 59 percent felt that falsely believing Trump won ranged from a "somewhat" to "very" important aspect of being a Republican.
CNN POLL: 59% of self-identified Republicans say "believing that Donald Trump won the 2020 election" is important to what being a Republican means to them.\n\n(Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.)pic.twitter.com/l84z4Cop9V— Sahil Kapur (@Sahil Kapur) 1631465435
It reads, in part:
"About six in 10 say that supporting Trump, and that believing that he won in 2020, are at least a somewhat important part of what being a Republican means to them. More, though, point to more traditional partisan markers, with 69% saying it's at least somewhat important to oppose Democratic policies, 81% to support the Republicans in Congress, 85% to hold conservative values and positions and 86% to believe the federal government should have less power."
The poll confirmed what many already knew.
Only a quarter think it's "not at all important," which shows you how lost and completely nuts this party has become.https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1437096311522738180\u00a0\u2026— Tom Nichols (@Tom Nichols) 1631465519
I'm guessing most of these folks don't even care if it's true or not. It's a way to mark themselves as part of the tribe. A tribe that doesn't want democracy anymore because they favor Authoritarianism anyway.https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1437096311522738180\u00a0\u2026— Melissa Ryan (@Melissa Ryan) 1631465861
Gibbering. Barking. Madness.https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1437096311522738180\u00a0\u2026— Jeff Timmer (@Jeff Timmer) 1631494558
The inmates aren't running the asylum...\n\nThere were never any guards in the first place\n\nJust all inmateshttps://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1437096311522738180\u00a0\u2026— Dustin M. Czarny (@Dustin M. Czarny) 1631500009
they give the game away with the framing 'important to what being a republican means' \n\nits not just about if they believe it\n\nits the idea that to be a republican now.. you HAVE to. \n\nThat's ..just. it reveals how desperately fragile the party is. what a messhttps://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1437096311522738180\u00a0\u2026— \ud83c\udf27\ud83c\udf29\ufe0f (@\ud83c\udf27\ud83c\udf29\ufe0f) 1631496058
Some said the collective delusion is making democracy more and more untenable, regardless of party alignment.
~*~you cannot legislate in a bipartisan manner when one party\u2019s voters view the party in power as illegitimate~*~https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1437096311522738180\u00a0\u2026— Justin Walsh (@Justin Walsh) 1631467692
The US is not anything close to a democracy (or even a terribly democratic republic), but this is still very concerning. A majority of the people who self-identify with one of the major parties are consistently and openly opposed to accepting the results of elections.https://twitter.com/sahilkapur/status/1437096311522738180\u00a0\u2026— Stephen\ud83d\udd3aMolldrem\ud83c\udf39 (@Stephen\ud83d\udd3aMolldrem\ud83c\udf39) 1631474770
Trump continues to lie that the election was stolen.
