Idiots outside of an institution have a shitload of problems, reality being one of them, and with the case of T-Rump and his followers, it’s part of the Big Lie:

Senate Majority Leader Schumer (D-NY) on the Big Lie":

"How despicable a man is Donald Trump?" pic.twitter.com/JJD1YnRQxI

— The Recount (@therecount) June 21, 2021

Standing story of our times recapped this morning by Chuck Schumer on the Senate floor:

“He lied over and over and over again … poisoning our democracy, lighting a fire between Republican state legislatures who immediately launched the most sweeping voter suppression effort in at least 80 years. Just a note, how despicable a man is Donald Trump?” Schumer asked.

“He lost an election legitimately. He can’t face that, that it was his failure and he creates a lie, a big lie,” Schumer added.

The big problem, however, is a shitload of Americans believe the T-Rump. and despite reality-checks and factual data points, continue to do so months and months after the so-called ‘stolen’ election.
In the face of constant, repeated efforts:

In Nov, a full third of the US thought Biden won due to fraud. So the media spent weeks debunking false claims.

By Jan … a third of the US believed Biden won due to fraud. So, more debunking.

Now? A third of the US thinks Biden won due to fraud. https://t.co/uWsAed9LKV

— Philip Bump (@pbump) June 21, 2021

Of course, the mind-blowing horror of the unhinged popularity in the MAGA-hatter crowd is zero existence of proof, which has been broadcast near-about continous for months — via The Washington Post this morning:

Despite Trump’s insistence that the evidence of fraud was overwhelming, it was not.
In fact, it was all but nonexistent, and what evidence one might have pointed to was not credible.
In the months since, other theories of fraud have emerged and faded, with no such claim == including myriad new assertions from Trump — withstanding any extended scrutiny.

One might assume, then, that the burst of speculation that the election had somehow been stolen might fade over time.
That Americans predisposed to assume that President Biden had taken office only after a massive effort to steal the vote would consider the collapse of every effort to prove that point as evidence that perhaps that wasn’t what happened.

That isn’t what has happened.

On Monday, Monmouth University released polling showing about a third of Americans think Biden won only because of voter fraud — the same fraction of the electorate that held that view in Monmouth’s polling in March, in January and in November.
…
That’s driven by Republicans, as you might expect. Six in 10 Republicans think Biden won only because of fraud. That number is down from January, but Monmouth’s pollsters explain the apparent drop is largely a function of more respondents identifying themselves as Republican-leaning independents.
Among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, about two-thirds have consistently said they think Biden won only because of fraud.

What’s more, just shy of a third of Republicans say they will never accept the results of the election, while just under a quarter say it’s time to move on from the issue.
…
The result is a stable bubble of falsehood, one that shifts its shape over time but otherwise remains stable. A third of the country believed there was fraud right after the election, a third believed that at the time of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, a third believed it two months into Biden’s presidency, a third believes it now.
As long as there’s a market for the argument, which there seemingly always will be, a third of Americans may believe this obviously false thing forever.

Yet a further insane concept in the vein of delusion-illusion is a majority of Americans think those so-called ‘audits’ (or ‘audits’ to be) of so-called stolen elections are not valid, maybe not even reasonable:

A 57% majority of Americans say that, based on what they've heard about the audits conducted or proposed by legislatures in some states, they view them as "partisan efforts to undermine valid election results," according to a Monmouth University poll https://t.co/QF9mI4Kdjt

— CNN (@CNN) June 21, 2021

One would assume if an election is stolen, an audit would/could turn up evidence of a crime at the ballot box — one-plus-one does not necessarily always equal two. Idiots are people, too.
Results from apparently that same Monmouth poll per CNN this afternoon:

Most of the public rejects Republican efforts to audit states’ 2020 election results, saying they believe the reviews are an attempt to undermine valid election outcomes, according to a Monmouth University poll released Monday.

A 57-percent majority of Americans say that, based on what they’ve heard about the audits conducted or proposed by legislatures in some states, they view them as “partisan efforts to undermine valid election results.”
Just a third say they see them more as “legitimate efforts to identify potential voting irregularities.”
Further, 40-percent of the public says that such audits will weaken American democracy, while 20-percent say it will strengthen it.
Another 35-percent expecting them to have no impact.

The problem-ridden audit of Arizona’s 2020 election results, which has exasperated even some Republicans in the state, hasn’t uncovered evidence suggesting widespread voter fraud.
But it has inspired pro-Trump Republicans to push for similar efforts in other states.
Although the survey didn’t explicitly identify the audits as Republican-led efforts, it still found sharp divides along political lines.

A near-universal 90-percent of Democrats view the audits as bad faith, partisan ploys.
Republican support for the audits is broad, but less overwhelming: 59-percent call them legitimate, with 31-percent seeing them as attempts to overturn valid results.

Both the overall numbers and the partisan divides reflect wider opinions about the 2020 election.
Most Americans, 61-percent, believe President Joe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square, a number that’s budged little since last November.
But 57-percent of Republicans say they believe the baseless theory that Biden’s victory was due to voter fraud.

As it stands right now, this country is in a fucking a shit-mess of a state, especially when you have a big chunk of its citizens believing a nit-twit, obvious and bald-faced lie. And can’t be turned away from the lie, either. Especialy by facts and reality.
Schumer’s speech was a call against not only the T-Rump but the entire shitty Republican party for working toward voting suppression, not even allowing debate on the Senate floor on voting rights — reportedly tomorrow the Senate will hold a vote For the People Act, a sweeping voting reform bill, which GQPers have vowed to block.

This country be hurting…

(Illustration: Pablo Picasso’s ‘Les Deux Saltimbanques: l’Arlequin et Sa Compagne,’ found here)