They believe what they want to believe

Created
Thu, 31/08/2023 - 09:30
Updated
Thu, 31/08/2023 - 09:30
New polling from Georgia: Most Republican voters in Georgia polled by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution say they still believe the 2020 presidential election was tainted by large-scale fraud — despite abundant evidence to the contrary. The poll of likely Republican Party primary voters shows that 61% of respondents said there was widespread fraud in the last presidential election, a distrust that has persisted for nearly three years as another race looms. So most of them think the election was stolen in Georgia. They believe Trump but not their state officials who claim that he is lying. And yet, a majority supports them too: Though many GOP voters retain their unproven suspicions about the 2020 election, they haven’t turned against Georgia Republican leaders who rejected Donald Trump’s unfounded claims. Gov. Brian Kemp, who refused Trump’s call for a special legislative session to question the election results, achieved an 80% approval rating. Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, a major Trump supporter, won approval from 44% of poll respondents, with 45% undecided. And a plurality of Republicans, 49%, approve of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger even though he resisted Trump’s demand that he “find” enough votes to reverse the results. About 23% were undecided on Raffensperger. Three vote counts and dozens of investigations upheld the results of the 2020 election, which Democrat Joe Biden won by about 12,000 votes in Georgia. Investigations debunked claims of double-counting by poll workers, ballot stuffing, counterfeit ballots and dead voters. I suspect that quite a few of these people know that the Big Lie is a lie. They just don’t care. They love Trump and as far as they’re…