“One of the paradoxical lessons of the 2020 elections was that even in the face of foreign interference, postal slowdowns, deliberate misinformation, and the possibility of an election meltdown of epic proportions, millions of Americans chose not simply to vote but to believe that voting was a rational act. Even as they doubted that the election could be administered fairly, record numbers of people voted as though it would. The big lie is the mirror image of that same problem. Voters are being trained to doubt voting until it appears an irrational act. Millions of Americans are being told, day in and day out, by cynical liars who have no proof and no substantiation, that voting is pointless and that – as we now hear repeated on a loop – the will of 74 (they say 75) million people was somehow thwarted by allowing Biden to become president. Those voters didn’t just lose, we are hearing, somehow, their own valid votes were also canceled… Elections, they are saying, no longer matter.”

“The big lie, then, is not just nomenclature of those hellbent on restricting who can vote in the midterms and 2024. And it’s not just the language of the nihilism and denialism of those who want Joe Biden to fail and must feed the idea of his illegitimacy in order to do that. The big lie isn’t just aimed at election reform or undermining Democrats. It’s also aimed at elections themselves. It suggests not just that people of color and poor people and young people in Detroit and Philadelphia cannot cast valid ballots, but also that elections themselves are ‘rigged’ and ‘fixed’ and that the courts and the media and state elections officials are all in on the tyranny. The endpoint, therefore, won’t simply lie in making it more difficult to vote, and more challenging to govern. The endgame lies in convincing voters that democracy itself is pointless. The big lie isn’t just an attempt to advantage Trump in 2024 or Republicans in the midterms. It’s an attempt to seed and nurture the forces of tyranny and autocracy, in precisely the fashion most big lies are intended” – Slate.