Ahead of Election Day, Democrats are scrambling to lay the groundwork for the things on which they'll blame losses to the GOP — heaven knows they're incapable of taking responsibility for their policies or their consequences, especially when voters hold them accountable for those policies' disastrous effects.
The two main emerging scapegoats — rather than the economy and inflation, crime and fentanyl crises, et al. — are "voter intimidation" and "mis/disinformation."
On the latter, Georgia Democrat Stacey Abrams has done a lot of heavy lifting propping misinformation up as a reason for her seemingly looming defeat to incumbent GOP Governor Brian Kemp. As Guy noted in an earlier report, it "seems like she has some internal polling pointing to a surprising number of black men in Georgia voting Republican this year, so of course she has to point fingers at their supposed gullibility." Abrams' said that "black men have been a very targeted population for misinformation," which Guy rightly pointed out as "incredibly condescending."
Stacey Abrams explaining her poll numbers: "Unfortunately, this year, black men have been a very targeted population for misinformation. Not misinformation about what they want but about why they want what they deserve." pic.twitter.com/HhPxK0vVgj
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) November 6, 2022
Similarly insulting narratives are being spun about Hispanic voters, who are supposedly also "very susceptible" to mis/disinformation because they use Facebook, according to several stories like this one. Brookings went so far as to say that "Latinos are more likely to receive, consume, and share 'fake news' and misinformation online compared to the general population." The stories scapegoating minorities for being allegedly more likely to fall for mis/disinformation are thinly-veiled discrimination, but they're necessary for Democrats to have something to blame their losses among such voting blocs.
Politico also ran a story on Monday fretting about the apparently "real risks that hackers could tunnel into voting equipment and other election infrastructure to try to undermine Tuesday’s vote" — risks that were mocked and suppressed by the mainstream media, big tech, and Democrats in 2020 — along with "domestic sources of mis- and disinformation" that have become a "widespread and potent threat."
And, often loyal propagandists for Democrats, The New York Times ran a story citing researchers at "several cybersecurity firms" that "have discovered influence campaigns propelled by Russian bots and trolls that are targeting the upcoming 2022 midterms."
Meanwhile on the "intimidation" front — something Democrats know a lot about after their attempt to sway the Supreme Court's final opinion in this year's Dobbs abortion case — President Biden has been pushing that narrative on Twitter and in his meandering yet angrily divisive speeches.
We are facing a defining moment. An inflection point.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) November 2, 2022
We must with one overwhelming, unified voice speak as a country and say there is no place for voter intimidation or political violence in America, whether it’s directed at Democrats or Republicans.
In his retread of the incredibly divisive Philly speech about his alleged "battle for the soul of the nation" at Union State last week, Biden made voter intimidation out to be some sort of national plague, but such widespread violence aimed at voters does not exist. Ahead of election day, the number of absentee votes cast by mail or in-person is well above the 2018 midterms. The "voter intimidation" Democrats are trying to blame for their pending shellacking, if it exists as they say, is leading to more votes being cast.
What's more, Biden conflated election security laws — such as the one in Georgia he called "Jim Crow 2.0" with intimidating lawful voters out of casting a ballot.
Biden accuses "extreme MAGA Republicans" of trying to "suppress the right of voters and subvert the electoral system itself...and deciding whether your vote even counts. Instead of waiting until an election is over...they're starting now." pic.twitter.com/HGT1TLFwa2
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) November 2, 2022
On the other side of the aisle, and contrary to what Biden and Democrats have said about Republicans coordinating to harass Democrat voters and prevent their participation in the democratic process, RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said Sunday on CNN's State of the Union that "nobody should be intimidating or breaking the law...Do not break the law, do not attack or intimidate people who are trying to vote."
McDaniel noted that "poll watching is not intimidating," but that RNC poll watchers have had issues where they "are not being allowed to meaningfully observe," leading to several lawsuits including a winning one last week against election officials in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
While Democrats have been seemingly forced to finally make their peace with Tuesday's impending losses, they're still not ready to accept the fact that their policies — and the failures of those policies — are to blame. With a red wave will also come a wave of even more mis/disinformation and voter intimidation stories as they seek to excuse what seems set to be a disastrous electoral showing.