Overthrowing democracy is not like a health care debate or a highway bill A good piece by Mark Z Barabak in the LA Times: Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. That is an incontrovertible fact. And yet for many Republicans — including most of those seeking the party’s 2024 nomination — Trump’s irrefutable loss and direct responsibility for the Jan. 6 insurrection are a verity they dodge and duck. At least right now. Florida’s flailing governor, Ron DeSantis offers a prime example. The won’t-back-down-culture warrior, who gleefully stoops to swat at teachers and transgender people, meekly tucks his tail when it comes to Trump’s Big Lie and Jan. 6. DeSantis won’t say if he believes President Biden was duly elected and suggests it’s wrong to call the assault on the Capitol “a plan to somehow overthrow the government of the United States” — though how else would you define a violent attempt to overturn the result of a free and fair election? South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott blames the attempted coup on “the folks who broke into the Capitol” but not Trump — which is like faulting the gunman for a murder and absolving the mob boss who ordered the hit. Scott and others in the Republican presidential field glancingly acknowledge Biden’s victory (mumble, mumble) then go on to amplify provocative, unfounded claims of voter fraud and other election irregularities, which serves only to legitimize Trump’s bogus claims. Their motivation isn’t hard to figure out. Polls have consistently shown most Republicans buying into Trump’s lie about a stolen election, or at…