This may sound like Trump's wackiest conspiracy theory. But it's actually true - Dana Millbank

[question everything]

It is a case of being hoisted by his own petard.

President Trump has convinced his own supporters of the false conspiracy theory that mail-in ballots are subject to rampant fraud — so much so that Republicans are, evidently, refusing to vote by mail. The Post’s Amy Gardner and Josh Dawsey report that Democratic voters have embraced mail ballots in far greater numbers than Republicans in primaries this year — alarming Republican strategists who say it could undercut their candidates, including Trump, particularly in states such as Florida and Arizona. In Michigan, Trump supporters actually burned absentee-ballot applications.

This is but one sign of the descent into madness that Trump has caused. Conspiracy theories, long a staple of the president’s, are spreading faster than covid-19 among his supporters, inducing mass delusion. In the most ominous manifestation, he has convinced his supporters that fears of the virus are overblown (a Democratic “hoax”), that mask-wearing is effete political correctness and that the pandemic’s spread merely proves that “our TESTING is much bigger and better.”

Now the pandemic is growing unchecked in Trump-backing states, and hospitals are running out of rooms. Tulsa, where Trump insisted on having an indoor rally, has seen a dramatic surge in cases “more than likely” spurred by the rally and protests, the local health department said.

Everywhere, it seems, reality is colliding with Trump’s fantasies. This week alone, the White House pushed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to revise its advice on reopening schools to fit Trump’s rosy claims; an inspector general accused the administration of undercutting public trust by forcing the National Weather Service to support Trump’s fanciful claim that a hurricane menaced Alabama last September; and a lopsided Supreme Court majority dismissed Trump’s claims of “absolute immunity” as inconsistent with “200 years of precedent.”

A Pew Research poll last month found that by nearly two to one, Republicans are finding it harder to identify “what is true and what is false about the outbreak.” A similar proportion of Republicans — 48 percent — found it definitely or probably true that “powerful people planned the coronavirus outbreak,” while 57 percent believed deaths had been intentionally overstated. Why the confusion? Seventy-five percent of Republicans believed the White House presents accurate information.

(snip)

It was all fun and games in 2015 and 2016, when three-fifths of his supporters (according to one Democratic poll) embraced his claim that Obama wasn’t born in the United States. But now he’s convincing his supporters not to mail in their ballots and not to protect themselves against the virus. A president disenfranchising his own supporters and jeopardizing their lives sounds like the wackiest conspiracy theory of all. But this one is true.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/10/trumps-gop-is-becoming-garish-opera-paranoia

[SWBTATTReg]

1. Idiot has lied so many times that he or his followers don't know what the truth is anymore and it's

literally killing them.

Kind of serves them right (sadly), as the difference between truth and fantasy have been blurred so badly, kind of like crying WOLF too many times.

[yankee87]

2. Cult

As has been stated many times, trumpaneeze are a cult.

[OMGWTF]

4. I refer to them as "MAGAts" and it's now a death cult.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Maggots eat dead bodies. Are MAGAts not far behind? Will they eat their young?

[Thekaspervote]

3. Fine!! If the gop doesn't vote all the better, up and down the ballot!!

[Lonestarblue]

6. This could backfire on Democrats.

If Republicans vote in person, their votes are unlikely to be challenged. If lots of Democrats vote by mail in states with Republican election officials (think Kemp and DeSantis), their ballots are more likely to get tossed for minor infractions. It’s just another way for Republicans to cheat.

[peggysue2]

7. The thing with the mail-in/absentee ballots is particularly relevant in Florida

I was listening to Rachel Bitecofer earlier this week. According to her, there are approx 200,000 more registered Dems than Repugs in the State of Florida. Some of these are legacy Dems where Daddy was a Dem therefore so am I, making those numbers soft and variable. But the way Republicans have overcome the voter differential is with:

Early and mail-in voting.

The push for those votes start months before the election with mail ads urging GOP voters to complete their mail-in ballots so that votes can be banked early. Same with the political messaging--starts months before Election Day so adjustments can be made on memes that work and those memes that flop.

The Lincoln Project confirmed the strategy and said the Democratic Party simply waits too long to get their wheels grinding and their voters out the door. Bitecofer used Giilium's gubernatorial loss in 2018 as an example. The man was running an 8 pt lead at the end and everyone assumed he had the election in the bag. But . . . the GOP had a better ground game in GOTV.

Bitecofer argues that this is the GOP's secret sauce in Florida--mail-in ballots and months of beating the bushes for persuadable voters.

Under the circumstances, Trump's messaging on mail-in/absentee ballots is really counterproductive, another shoot-yourself-in-the-foot moment.

Keep digging, Donnie!