October 26, 2022 - 7:00am
Democrats are very worried about Arizona. Next month, the swing state will elect a new governor, and it looks increasingly likely that voters will choose Kari Lake — a Trump loyalist and an up-and-coming star of the Republican Party’s MAGA wing. Whatever your opinion of her politics, Lake’s 22 years as a television news anchor have turned her into a charismatic communicator and a compelling politician. Indeed, she has been earmarked for a future White House campaign, either as Trump’s running mate in 2024 or even as a presidential candidate herself.
Democrats contend that if Lake wins, she will imperil the integrity of future presidential elections, given the governor’s role in certifying electoral college votes. While this is true, Democrats should not be allowed to forget that they wanted Lake to be the Republican nominee, believing that her extremism would make her a weak general election candidate. The Arizona Democratic Party went so far as to send out emails in an effort to hurt Lake’s more moderate opponent in the Republican primary. Now, election day is approaching and, to the Democrats’ dismay, Lake is turning out to be a formidable competitor.
The Lake debacle is even more disheartening because it was part of a broader strategy deployed by Democrats. Throughout the primary season, Democrats repeatedly boosted extremist candidates who they thought would be easier to beat. While their support for Lake was limited to emails, they spent millions of dollars on commercials and digital advertising in these other races. In total, Democratic groups spent over $53 million helping 12 Republican extremists — six of whom ended up winning their primaries and will be on the ballot next month.
Among this cohort are figures even more unsavoury than Lake. In Pennsylvania, for instance, Democrats boosted Doug Mastriano, an avowed Christian nationalist who chartered buses to Washington D.C. on the day of the January 6 Capitol riot. Next door in New Hampshire, they helped out Don Bolduc, the Senate nominee who has spoken of the need for potential military action in the case of another “stolen” election. Perhaps most irksome was the successful Democratic effort to oust Representative Peter Meijer — one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump for his role in the Capitol attack— from his Michigan seat in favour of his Trump-endorsed opponent.
It’s not yet clear if the gambit will prove to be successful or if it will backfire. Some of the races look competitive; others not so much. Regardless, voters who care about democratic norms and political accountability are left with a depressing choice: vote for the Republican Party, where a significant portion of members still don’t accept the 2020 election result, or the Democratic Party, an institution willing to roll the dice on American democracy for partisan electoral gain.
While it may feel like Democrats deserve to learn their lesson by losing the elections where they meddled in Republican primaries, the stakes are too high for that kind of vindictive thinking. This is especially true in the gubernatorial races, where the integrity of the 2024 presidential election is potentially on the line.
But Democrats can only play these cynical tricks for so long. Eventually, voters will catch on to the hypocrisy of helping extremists win Republican primaries and then calling these same candidates “a threat to democracy” in the general election. If Democrats truly believe radical Republicans are putting democracy in peril, they need to act like it. Otherwise, they’ll expose themselves as being no different from their Republican adversaries: just another group of politicians doing whatever it takes to get hold of power.
Seth Moskowitz is an editor at Persuasion. He blogs at Brain Candy and tweets at @skmoskowitz.
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Subscribe“…the Republican Party, where a significant portion of members still don’t accept the 2020 election result….”
Gee, Seth, how is this relevant? Reasonable people of all stripes understand that said election was rife with shenanigans. Do you get better social credit scores for including such pablum in your essays?
And why not judge Kari Lake on her own rhetoric in her own campaign? Do you honestly believe that your attaching “Trump” and “MAGA” to her name is valid criticism?
Your intent in this article was clearly not to inform UnHerd readers, but rather to signal to whomever you look up to that you’re of the proper hivemind.
Don’t look now, but Hillary is back in the news again saying the Republicans will steal the 2024 presidential election.
So she’s undermining democracy
From which I conclude that Democrats will attempt to steal the 2024 presidential election. Marc Elias, like Satan, never sleeps.
She also claims they stole the 2016 election from her – but I guess it is OK when Democrats criticize election fairness.
As an Arizona Republican of the Goldwater-Reagan mainstream, I see two problems with Kari Lake. Her campaign has really emphasized the election integrity issue and treats this Trump talking point as her central issue, even though an expensive audit of the 2020 general in populous Maricopa County found nothing.
And be warned: although I have seen no campaign coverage of the issue, Lake also supports civil forfeiture. It’s right there on her website, tucked away in the border security section. Any candidate who supports this particular evil is automatically dead to me.
Every election is rife with shenanigans, which means that all *close* elections will be subject to doubt about the result. Nothing new here.
“.. the Republican Party, where a significant portion of members still don’t accept the 2020 election result”
One has to wonder just what planet some of these people posing as journalists live on! In this case the author has clearly swallowed hook line and sinker the Democrat & corporate media line that anyone who questions the 2020 election is a wild conspiracy theorist and a dangerous “threat to democracy”. Kari Lake was wonderfully articulate at a recent campaign event in pointing out to a journalist that a large number of Democrats questioned not only the 2016 election but several earlier ones too, and by no means always peacefully. In fact, some two thirds of Democrats believe the 2016 election was stolen & Trump to be an illegitimate president. Conspiratorial nonsense? Unfortunately not. Take a look at Matt Orfalea’s “Stolen” 2016 Election mash up and decide for yourself.
Or just watch the free movie ‘2000 Mules’ on how they stole the election https://rumble.com/search/video?q=2000%20mules&duration=long
That movie came and went, not even the Daily Wire folks are referencing it anymore…. has it not been debunked?
I think you may be right – I hate to say it but I never watched it.
HaHa, The Guardian want their writer back….
”Among this cohort are figures even more unsavoury than Lake. ”
”extremists win Republican primaries ”
and so on,
”Republican Party, where a significant portion of members still don’t accept the 2020 election result,”
The thing is the Democrats did steal the election. – FACT. And Lake and Mastriano are Patriots who are going to help save America from the Extreme Left Biden administration out to destroy it.
“ … a significant portion of members …”
What does that actually mean? Significant to who?
I think ‘significant’ here means ‘significant to the position I’m trying to push’. If he had used the word ‘majority’ instead then he could have been proven wrong (or right!) I’m afraid that journalism nowadays isn’t worth the pixels it’s displayed on.
You forgot:
“Otherwise, they’ll expose themselves as being no different from their Republican adversaries: just another group of politicians doing whatever it takes to get hold of power.”
Dem journos missing the point- Dems have a senile President, implausible VP and are in thrall to identity politics. Normal people don’t want their “trans” children mutilated by Big Pharma and want a sensible compromise on the abortion question (ie 12-24 weeks aligned with most of the civilised world rather than up to or even beyond birth). They see abortion as a sometimes necessary but always desperate choice rather than a lifestyle one. They want truth, not a cult of victimhood. Dems need to row back into Normal, as they are the weirdo extremists eschewing moral norms for ideology and normal people see it and hate it.
Partisans, beware of what you wish for…
Yeah, assuming Europe can still make its own popcorn after this winter we’ll have a lot of fun getting it out as we watch the Americans over the next few years.
Considering how well the Biden Administration is doing (sarcasm) you might reasonably assume that the Democrats have already been exposed as being willing to do whatever it takes to retain power. Sure there are Democrat (and Republican) supporters who will back their party no matter what… but the Independents are a different story.
“Otherwise, they’ll expose themselves as being no different from their Republican adversaries: just another group of politicians doing whatever it takes to get hold of power.” Unfortunate that partisans of both parties don’t truly understand this dynamic.
This article is clearly written by a Democrat extremist. See how that works? We can all call each other nonsensical names.
“While it may feel like Democrats deserve to learn their lesson by losing the elections where they meddled in Republican primaries, the stakes are too high for that kind of vindictive thinking. “
I subscribe to UnHerd to get independent thinking. Too many of their writers assume we are the type of dimwits that consume mainstream media. If I wanted articles that assume Democrats are noble and Trump supporters are evil I would just go to CNN.com.
Too much stress on abortion without controlling oil prices, much talk about human rights without doing anything for lives in wombs, talking about freedom without stressing on family values are dangerous signs of dismantling real democracy. You can’t talk of democracy without values, without responsibility, without accountability.
In their minds, Democracy merely means whatever they believe in. If you don’t agree, you are anti-Democratic.
The tone of the article is interesting. OMG, the inmates are about to take over the asylum.
Is there no MSM? Is there no FBI? What’s the matter with you guys?
“Otherwise, they’ll expose themselves as being no different from their Republican adversaries: just another group of politicians doing whatever it takes to get hold of power.”
Guffaw, Guffaw, Guffaw!!!!
This reads like it was written with the help of talking points from the Democratic National Committee.