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We see an instance of the kind of myth-making you discuss in a comment below: our Great Leader was cheated of his rightful role by a corrupt establishment colluding with illegal invaders (“It’s just that simple!”)

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People believe the election was fraudulent because hundreds of thousands of mail-in ballots were dumped in battle ground states and non-citizens have been allowed to vote. Why have so many countries around the world banned mail-in voting? It's because it has been wrought with fraud. Why has the current administration allowed millions of illegal aliens into the country, and even flown them to certain states? Because they want to duplicate the fraud of the last election. Why do democrats so oppose the requirement of a valid ID to vote in a federal election? It's because requiring an ID would make fraud extremely more difficult. Having a federal election with current election rules is almost absurd, as the democrats can just turn in as many "mail in" ballots needed in order to "win" again.

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A mind once steeped in religion is hard to change, but it can be redirected. In "Rising in the West" (published in 1992 by Knopf) I told the story of an impoverished family that emigrated from Oklahoma to California in 1934. The background of "old time" Holiness/Pentecostal religion was the glue that held it together in the cultural cauldron of the Golden State. But what struck me was the variety of outcomes: a daughter who was pro-choice; a granddaughter who joined hard-right movements and home-schooled her children to keep them away from negative secular influences; the experience of divorce; the disilllusionment that came with corrupt (or abusive) preachers. Sometimes I wish Biden would just take off one Sunday morning and go to a Pentecostal church. We need to try to understand better. As Peter suggests in this fine contribution, it is hardly new under the sun.

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