Well, this is just embarrassing.
“I’m a winner and the reality is our Republican party is broken to its core!” --L.L.
Loomer is a well-known anti-Muslim white nationalist tied with InfoWars and Project Veritas. Despite being endorsed by Marjorie Taylor Greene and Paul Gosar, Laura lost. The longtime incumbent, Dan Webster, won handily. The only place Laura could claim getting more votes was from the Villages, because of course it was.
Laura’s bigotry and disinformation campaigns got her banned from Twitter, but she still obsesses over it. She was so sure she would win.
But then she didn’t.
Unfortunately for the Republicans, she can’t be written off as another fringe wingnut throwing a tantrum after she clearly lost. Claiming “fraud” is now the default with Republicans across the nation. Republican candidates in Michigan, Georgia, Nevada, Colorado, and Florida, who lost by overwhelming margins, are fighting their state parties by promoting wild conspiracy theories on why they lost. You see, the GOP establishment is out to get them because they fear them, so they are aligning with the Democrats to fudge the results.
Although the conspiracy theories are laughable, from bamboo ballots to rogue Italian satellites; the threats against election officials not to certify an election is not. Frivolous lawsuits to tie up the courts is not amusing, nor are the strong hints of violence that they often give to their unhinged “followers.” Sadly, this new phenomenon is not going to go away anytime soon.
The GOP has no one to blame but themselves. They indulged Trump’s ridiculous conspiracy theories on how he never lost an election that he clearly did. It was fine to appease him when the election fight was against Democrats, but loony fringe right-wing candidates who can’t win their primaries are now turning their ire, and their followers, against the GOP establishment. It’s an odd predicament. They are terrified of these screwballs, but also desperately need them to vote en masse to win elections. If you are ever in a party that counts on courting a violent fringe to win, you need to rethink your values.