It's based on the belief- I'm sure firmly held- that everyone would act as they do and therefore they'd be suckers not to cheat. The claim that Democrats wouldn't do the exact same thing in that situation is treated as an obvious lie because they can't imagine a state of mind that would respond differently. I'm sure if I knew more philosophy or social science I'd have some term for it, but alas my STEM education is limiting me.
This is bad, but the lame-duck power-stripping moves are way more dangerous, I think.
Yes. They can destroy the ability of the majority to govern and then run against them as having failed.
1: The fundamental attribution error. But only kind of.
2: I almost went back and tacked on a link about those. Absolutely.
Citing it in this context puts the Republicans in a better light than they deserve, but I've often had occasion to look back at this comic, "We assume of others what we know of ourselves."
The outright "I'm a lying sack of shit" behavior of the people involved is part of what's so galling. They don't care what people think because there are no consequences.
RepShankland: "If Walker had been reelected, would we be here tonight?
Chairman Nygren: "Well, we wouldn't necessarily be HERE tonight..."
Room bursts into laughter
Nygren: "...but we'd be negotiating these things! We really would have."
And they're still shamelessly working on it. The NC GOP is trying to pass this bill (ht Dan Jacobson on Twitter), which sets up how county boards of elections should be run. How much you want to bet this lasts until precisely the GOP is back in power there?
At the first meeting in July annually, the county boards shall organize by electing one of its members chair and one of its members vice-chair, each to serve a one-year term as such. In the odd-numbered year, the chair shall be a member of the political party with the highest number of registered affiliates, as reflected by the latest registration statistics published by the State Board, and the vice-chair a member of the political party with the second highest number of registered affiliates. In the even-numbered year, the chair shall be a member of the political party with the second highest number of registered affiliates, as reflected by the latest registration statistics published by the State Board, and the vice-chair a member of the political party with the highest number of registered affiliates.
(Democrats outnumber Republicans by registration, about 2.7 million to 2.1 million.)
Similar to Jim Crow where you couldn't just say, "No black voting" so you have a coded way of doing the same. "If the party in power starts with a D, the opposing party shall have a multiplier of 3 applied to all their votes in federal elections occurring in even years."
In the even-numbered year, the chair shall be a member of the political party with the second highest number of registered affiliates,
WOW.
Is that one at least challengable in court?
9: Classically you multiply by 5/3rds... threefold is clearly irregular.
So two Republicans voted correctly
Huh. If they can find eight more righteous Republicans, I think the Bible says the Republican Party won't have to be destroyed.
Still, Trent Lott's wife would probably be wise to walk away from the party without looking back.
Very little time remaining to masturbate to The Weekly Standard, if that's something that appeals to you. I feel that's on topic.
You can't just be a total shit to be a Republican. You have to be the right kind of total shit for the given moment. Like Stalinism without bothering with doctored photos.
So two Republicans voted correctly, at least.
This may be due in part to the suspicion patterns have now been shown to have occurred during the somewhat close Republican primary (and also the 2016* primary apparently). I have no idea how the specific evils of the various Republican candidates align or not with the overall state GOP*.
*There has to be some some pithy term to describe the phenomenon of the "liberal" fundraising efforts to help the NC GOP after the vandalized GOP HQ in 2016.
I suspect the reason the unanimity of Republican and Democratic commissioners refusing to certify the election is connected to the establishment incumbent losing the also-suspicious primary.
A friend who knows NC politics also says that if the Republican primary had not gone (barely, with the apparent help of shenanigans) to this particular Republican kook, the more mainstream Republican incumbent would have won the general election in a walk. So the uncharitable interpretation of Republican commissioners refusing to certify the general is that if they can unwind the thing back to the primary, they are serving Republican goals. Not sure if I added anything to what unimaginative said, except the weakness of the upstart who benefitted from all this fraud.
Let me be the first to suggest that the Republican's behavior is best explained by their amoral power-seeking.
See also their sporadic expressions of concern about Georgia's election.
Is there a good explainer somewhere of exactly what powers the Republican legislatures are taking away from the governors and AGs in Wisconsin and Michigan and wherever else these fucks are still in power?
The Atlantic has a good Wisconsin one.
The Times has gone over the edge on this story: original digital headline and updated head line from their most recent story:
Wisconsin Republicans Approve Bills Stripping Power From Incoming Democratic Governor
to
Wisconsin Republicans Defiantly 'Stand Like Bedrock' in Face of Democratic Wins
The thing is, Both Sides Do It: ascribe to one's opponents one's own motivations. Liberals do it when we (see, frex the NYT headlines) try to find noble, public-spirited reasons for republican actions, because those are the reasons we have for our engagement in public life.
"Stand like bedrock" doesn't even make sense. Bedrock is horizontal.
That's not bedrock its a fucking mountain.
And there are none of those in Wisconsin.
MOUNTAINS ARE MADE OF BEDROCK, ASSHOLE.
No they aren't they are made of mountain and I'll have you know I almost majored in Science.
IT'S, LIKE, THE DEFINITION OF A MOUNTAIN. BEDROCK, STANDING.
You can mine mountains with an ordinary pick axe, but you can't mine bedrock with even a diamond one.
