How to Crack Down on Election Deniers? Make Them Pay. Literally – By Burton D. Sheppard (The New Republic) / May 24, 2024
Not only is election denialism antidemocratic. It’s expensive—it cost at least half a billion dollars after 2020. The solution? Make the denialists pay. Here’s how.
America faces unhinged autocracy if Donald Trump wins. But it could face consequences as bad or worse if he loses.
If Trump were to win, he would be at least hypothetically obliged to adhere to constitutional principles such as the separation of powers, Congress’s numerous independent functions, and the rule of law. Courts would still be more than alleged instruments of “election interference” unjustly perpetrated against Trump. There is good reason to think he won’t respect any law except that which he personally makes, which is pretty much the definition of “unhinged autocracy.”
If he loses, the threats to the republic are different, but no less real. If Trump is defeated again, he will claim that he won—again. He will refuse to accept defeat because he will know that there are still no contemporaneous, adverse legal consequences for election deniers (as he has showcased from 2020 to the present). Even if he has been convicted of one or more crimes, Trump will cite his asserted (and imaginary) victory as cause for his refusing to be bound by the courts. Quisling Republicans in Congress—which is to say, nearly all of them—will fall in line. Trump will hint at the prospect of violence via barely veiled messaging. He will be a loser with nothing more to lose.
Might we be sleepwalking into civil strife, social upheaval, and dire constitutional consequences?
CONTINUE > https://newrepublic.com/article/181828/trump-election-deniers-punishment-pay-literally
