Donald Trump was all over the place in his big Time Magazine interview this week but there is one issue on which he's never wavered. When asked if he thought there would be violence around the election this fall he said, "If we don’t win, you know, it depends. It always depends on the fairness of an election.” On Wednesday he went even further, telling the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “If everything’s honest, I’ll gladly accept the results. I don’t change on that. If it’s not, you have to fight for the right of the country.” It's pretty clear that in his mind and the minds of his followers, there is no such thing as an honest and fair election that doesn't result in a Donald Trump victory so there's little doubt about what to expect if they don't get their way in November.
Over the past three years, Trump's Big Lie has become the main organizing principle of the Republican Party. There had been a festering sense of grievance and resentment among the GOP base for decades which Trump skillfully tapped into. But ever since his flukey win in 2016, his insistence that the succession of losses the party has suffered under his leadership were all the result of rigged elections, has taken a toll. Among the Republican faithful these days are quite a few who question whether it's even worth it to participate.
