Indeed, this is astonishing:

This is astonishing, from @zeynep’s newsletter: 91% of Democrats think that the 2020 election was free and fair, up from 43% in 2016 pic.twitter.com/gK5chv8sUL

— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) November 24, 2020

In 2018, after two years of media spinning tales about shady Russian infiltrators in our government, 67 percent of Democrats believed that Putin’s gremlins had bored into our voting machines and altered the outcome to put Donald Trump in the White House. Today, 91 percent of Democrats believe the 2020 election was “free and fair.” Does this mean Trump, unlike Barack Obama, was able to stop the Russians from “interfering” in our democracy? Why, one wonders, would this alleged fascist do such a thing?

It all remains a mystery.

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1996 might be the last time in a long time that the bases of both parties were generally satisfied that the outcome of the presidential election was legitimate. Many Democrats — it’s a big hobbyhorse of the conspiratorial Left — believe George W. Bush stole Florida in 2000. No amount of evidence will change their minds. There is no credible evidence Barack Obama is a foreigner. There is no credible evidence that Donald Trump was a Russian asset. And so far, there is no credible evidence that widespread cheating gave Joe Biden the presidency this year. It’s true that conservatives who adopt these notions are generally dismissed as conspiracy kooks, while liberals who embrace them are given platforms on CNN. But it’s clear that large numbers of partisans on both sides only believe elections are free and fair when they win.