It's become an all-too-widespread delusion within the Republican party that Democrats rely on facilitating widespread election fraud in order to gain power.
In the days after the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump repeatedly peddled this conspiracy theory through pressure on officials in swing states he lost, lie-ridden tweets, failed lawsuits, bumbling press conferences, and sham state legislature hearings. Trump's deranged election fantasy—now known to his critics as "the Big Lie"—even led a mob of his extremist supporters to mount a deadly failed insurrection against the Capitol, hoping to upend the joint congressional session confirming Biden's victory.
Even after the calamity of that day, Trump continues to regularly release statements promoting the fantasy that the 2020 election was stolen, and calling for audits even in states he won.
Believing that victory was "stolen" from Trump is now a prerequisite for the MAGA-sphere—except when Republicans win, as GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Younkgin of Virginia did on Tuesday night.
Noting this, far-right evangelical blogger Erick Erickson urged his fellow Republicans to accept that Trump legitimately lost the election, now that they're accepting the results in Virginia.
Erickson said:
"You idiots have spent a year peddling the fiction the 2020 election was stolen because you were so busy humping Trump's leg that you never really even tried to convince persuadable voters to vote. Now you're all 'oh the Dems are too smart to steal anything other than the one election that requires figuring out the electoral college landscape and voter distribution across multiple swing states where just a popular vote doesn't matter.'
No, either admit the election wasn't stolen or STFU from here on out. The Democrats literally lost Virginia, a state they fully controlled. They lost the judiciary in PA, which they controlled. They lost down to freaking dog catcher across the nation."
He wasn't done:
"I know some of you are too in the cult to admit the truth that Trump lost, but get over yourselves now. Move on. Shut up about stolen elections that weren't stolen because I assure you the Democrats would have stolen some of the 2021 elections if they could have, but they could not so they did not. And if you really have clung to the 2020 was stolen mythology that lets you sleep well at night as a professional victim, please unfriend me and unfollow me because your presence is needed in Neverland and not here in reality."
The post angered some of the conservatives "too in the cult" to hear Trump lost.
But some praised Erickson for rejecting election lies.
It's yet to be seen if conservatives will listen to him.
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