As the 2022 midterms get underway, Democrats and Republicans are both canvassing communities and responding to what voters have to say. Democrats are hearing concerns about inflation and gas prices. In response, candidates are talking about ongoing efforts to curb costs, while highlighting low unemployment and other economic gains during President Joe Biden's first year and a half in office. Republicans are hearing from voters who are angry that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election, and are repeating ridiculous conspiracy theories about Biden "stealing" it. Republicans, hearing the underlying racism and antipathy to democracy fueling those conspiracy theories, are responding by promising their supporters they will never allow another free and fair election again.
To normal people, whose sense of morality and basic decency hasn't been crushed by the relentless both sides-ism of the Beltway press, these two pathways are totally different, especially in moral terms. The first is an example of how a normal party in a democratic system behaves. The second is a bunch of authoritarians using lies to hype each other up for a fascist takeover of government.
