03.11.

2020 Op n on | The War on Truth Reaches Its Cl max - The New York T mes

What if he doesn’t manage to hang on to office? We all know what’s likely to come next: claims that he was robbed. He’ll claim that
millions of people voted illegally — after all, he did that following the 2016 election, denying that he lost the popular vote. He’ll
probably claim that millions of Trump votes were somehow discarded — after all, he has already made the false claim that ballots are
being “dumped in rivers.”

And he’ll find a receptive audience. Professional forecasters have considered Biden the heavy favorite for a long time, but according to
a late September Gallup survey, 90 percent of Republicans expect Trump to win. If he loses, our conspiracy-minded right will react
with shock and rage.

The immediate result may very well be a wave of violence and property destruction — Trump supporters engaging in the behavior
they falsely attribute to Black Lives Matter demonstrators. But that’s actually the part that worries me least.

No, the really big danger is that millions of our citizens will probably buy into an American version of the “stab in the back” myth that
loomed large after Germany’s defeat in World War I, claiming the military was betrayed by the civilian government. And those voters
may well end up choosing the G.O.P.’s next presidential candidate.
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