As we head towards Labor Day, and the final sprint of the 2024 campaign, the dominant trends of the election seem set. Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party are running a hopeful and joyous campaign focused on expanding individual freedoms and improving the lives of all Americans. Donald Trump and the Republicans, on the other hand, continue to peddle a dystopian view of the country that is, well, weird.
Election denialism fits into the GOP’s theme because it relies on dark conspiracy theories and unnamed “others” who are trying to steal the election. But it is more than that. It represents a strategy to win an election in which millions more citizens will vote for Harris than for Trump.
Part of their plan is to normalize the abnormal. In their telling, harassing election officials is free speech, kicking voters off the rolls is election integrity and refusing to accurately certify elections is reasonable inquiry.
Another way of normalizing their anti-democratic approach is by using the courts as a filter for these claims. As Marshall McLuhan famously observed, “the medium is the message.” By filtering their extremist approach through court cases, Republicans aim to create an air of respectability to them.
That is why, in the last week of August, we again saw a raft of new court cases filed by the GOP asserting extraordinary things. They won’t win, but they hope that by filing these claims in a court, it will make their crackpot theories seem less so.
