An angry mob of far-right protesters has stormed the seat of government in order to reverse a democratic election and restore a disgraced and defeated president to power. This time, the country is Brazil and the would-be strong man is Jair Bolsonaro. Bolsonaro was a one-term, right-wing president who was defeated fair and square in October 2022 by now-President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
Bolsonaro is currently exiled in Florida. Back in November, it was reported that his son was playing a role as a go-between with Trump, visiting Mar-a-lago and coordinating by phone with Steve Bannon. Bannon at the time was out in Arizona trying to undermine confidence in the electoral process there on behalf of failed Gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake.
In all three elections - Trump, Bolsonaro, and Lake - reactionary candidates who had been defeated at the polls sought to instill among their more gullible followers the idea that such a loss could only have come as a result of a stolen election. They attack public confidence in voting as a means of attacking the institutional strength of democracy itself.
By now, the establishment of stolen election mythology has become a well-established strategy in the playbook for aspiring fascists. We can also now recognize it as a potential precursor to mob violence against governing institutions.
Meanwhile, not long ago, the GOP nominated General Don Bolduc as a candidate for US Senate. This is a guy who for months and months was undermining public confidence in our democratic process by saying things like “I think there was a tremendous amount of fraud across this country and in every state... I do know in the state of New Hampshire we have big problems with election integrity.” Of course, he never provided any evidence of this.
Don Bolduc was spewing the same kind of voter-confidence-undermining election denialism that got far-right extremists rioting in Brasilia and in Washington. What does it say about the rest of New Hampshire's Republicans that they were willing to go along with it?