Why do Americans vote? Explaining the story of R.B. Klain and her old friend, R. DeSantis, MD, U.K. McGowan
It is impossible to explain why so many Americans no longer trust US elections since they reside in an information universe. Bad-faith television hosts, radio personalities, podcasters, and websites that now unquestionably dominate the right-wing media landscape have poisoned the information well with lies and conspiracy theories about the elections process.
The White House’s chief of staff Ron Klain was in attendance at the meeting. An old friend, says Klain in an email. Heading to the meeting, she tells me she sees President Biden clinging to an old model, where to break through with the public he just needs to win over a handful of national reporters at traditional big-name institutions. He still lives in a world that is not as good as it used to be. Why can’t we do that again? she says.
I offhandedly mention to her that just that morning, Florida governor Ron DeSantis had said, “The thing people need to understand about these legacy DC, New York outlets is: We don’t care what you think anymore.” It seemed like Republican bluster about the irrelevance of the mainstream press. DeSantis gets what he wants from Fox News, and the like, as long as he reads the landscape. She thinks she will be able to tell if Courier has failed if her newsrooms do not occupy the same space around the time of the 2024 elections.
The stakes are a bit higher. Future of journalism is not the same as future of cynicism. In her own, fraught way, McGowan is testing whether it’s still possible to combat the noise ceaselessly filling Americans’ heads and hammering the message that apathy is a reasonable response to the state of the world. The alternative—that citizens are fated to only grow more disconnected from the news of the day and less invested in the country’s fate—is almost too distressing an outcome to contemplate.
What’s the third or fourth thing on my radar for November? Forrest K. Lehman was the county’s director of elections and registration. “It should be number one.”
Perhaps the most pressing problem nationwide is a barrage of requests for election records, from photocopies of ballots to images of absentee ballot envelopes and applications.
Sue Ertmer, the county clerk in Wisconsin’s Winnebago County, said she received about 120 requests for records in a couple of weeks. When you get those types of requests, it’s hard to get a lot of other things done. It is a little overwhelming.
The requests come from a variety of sources, but a number of election officials noted that Mike Lindell, the pillow salesman and purveyor of conspiracy theories about the 2020 vote, has encouraged supporters to submit them. At a seminar hosted in Springfield, Mo. in August, election deniers showed how to file records requests.
In a telephone interview, Mr. Lindell said providing information to the public was an important part of the job of election workers. Digital recreations of every voter’s cast vote records were sent to him by local supporters, he said. Mr. Lindell said the records support his theory that balloting has been manipulated nationwide, although election experts repeatedly have debunked such claims.
In a stark warning to Americans, President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that next week’s congressional elections will decide the future of the nation’s democracy, and it’s only six days before final ballots are cast.
The president, who was in Washington to certify the 2020 election, spoke from the Union Station where a mob tried to disrupt the certification.
Candidates for governor, Congress, attorney general and Secretary of State are not agreeing to accept the result of the elections they are running in, Biden said. This is a path to chaos in America. It’s unprecedented. It is against the law. And it’s un-American.”
“This intimidation, this violence against Democrats, Republicans and non-partisan officials just doing their jobs, is the consequence of lies told for power and profit, lies of conspiracy and malice, lies repeated over and over to generate a cycle of anger, hate, vitriol and even violence,” Biden said. “In this moment, we have to confront those lies with the truth, the very future of our nation depends on it.”
The speech was hosted by the Democratic National Committee, not the White House, and highlighted the points that Biden has been making for weeks. Yet it diverged from the central focus of Democrats’ closing midterm message, which has been a brighter portrait of economic recovery.
Biden’s message Wednesday was anything but optimistic, even as he remained hopeful that Americans would reject the menacing forces he described. The aide said Biden was compelled to deliver the address after an attack on Pelosi’s husband by a right-wing nutjob on his social media.
Biden wanted to assure everyone that most Americans wouldn’t resort to violence. But he said those who would have outsized influence.
Biden said that there are a minority of voices calling for violence in America. “But they’re loud and they are determined.”
Biden and his team had been contemplating giving a speech on the topic of democracy for some time, but their decision-making in recent days had been shaped by what they’ve viewed as a surge in anti-democratic rhetoric and threats of violence. The home intrusion and attack on Pelosi caused Biden and his top advisers to be alarmed as the elderly woman was admitted to the hospital with a skull broken and was recovering from other injuries.
It is questionable as to whether you care about democracy when you deny the existence of a win. The only way you could win is either you win or the other guy cheated,” he said at the event, held in an oceanfront backyard of a mansion in Golden Beach, Florida.
Free Speech and the Civil War: When the American Revolution Meets the Black Hole, and Every One Is Going to Win, How Will It Be Done? And What Will We Say About It?
Biden’s Civil War reference hardly appeared coincidental; he was seen this week carrying a copy of historian Jon Meacham’s new book, “And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle,” which explores how America’s 16th president confronted secession and threats to democracy.
Mr. Biden expressed concern about the tactics of the Republican Party that might intimidate voters. A judge in Arizona has restricted a group from operating near polling places from taking pictures of voters and posting information about them on the internet.
During his campaign speeches the president talked about the threat posed by Mr. Trump, but just six days before Election Day he gave a televised address about it to let the world know about it.
This will be “the first election since the events of Jan. 6, when the armed, angry mob stormed the U.S. Capitol,” he said. “I wish, I wish I could say the assault on our democracy ended that day. I cannot.
He said this is not an ordinary year. I want you to think about the moment we are in. Sometimes, we don’t have to ask if the vote we cast will preserve democracy or put us at risk. We are this year.
Only 42% of Republicans have faith that the will of the people is reflected in US elections, according to a CNN poll. A staggering 66% of Republicans continue to say that they do not believe Biden was the legitimate winner of the 2020 elections.
It’s not a matter of opinion, there’s a line in the speech, which is televised by cable news but snubbed by the more-watched broadcast networks. There is no political spin in it. It is a tragic fact.
A version of this article first appeared in the “Reliable Sources” newsletter. You can subscribe to the daily digest for updates on the evolving media landscape.
“There is no such thing as election denying in a free society. It is called free speech. Carlson said that if you think it, you can say it. The media is trying to shut it down, despite its duty to defend free speech. How dare you raise any questions regarding the upcoming exams? Why are they telling you that? It is very alarming.
It’s easy to dismiss Carlson’s rhetoric as fringe. To say that he is a radical cable news talker that does not reflect the larger right wing media universe, which more often than not is dominated by Republicans.
And it is understandable why some people choose to ignore it. It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that so many Americans — neighbors, friends, family members — are being radicalized by extreme voices who are wrestling for control of the Republican Party.
But doing so would be to ignore the forces allowing a cancer to grow in our society. The toxicity that defines the right-wing media universe leaves readers and viewers without a full picture of what is happening in the country.