A perpetual disinformation motion machine

Maybe. But maybe there is both power and persistence 

in propaganda and lies

In an article, ‘A Perpetual Motion Machine’: How Disinformation Drives Voting Laws, the New York Times describes the obvious.[1] Even if it is obvious, it helps to mention it.

The machine incorporates the former president's lies about a stolen election. That undermines some (minority) public confidence in elections. In response to a minority of voters concerns, Republican lawmakers pass voter suppression laws to limit democratic and minority voters. Republican politicians and blowhards cite a lack of public confidence based on the original lie as the reason for an urgent need to suppress voting. Some even have the guts to state that there was was no evidence of massive vote fraud in the 2020 election, but they are merely responding to voter's expressed fears of a fraudulent vote. Lack of evidence of massive vote fraud is irrelevant. Only unfounded complaints from a minority of Republican voters, fomented by the most mendacious liar president in US history, counts as the "rational" basis for Republican voter suppression by government force.

All complaints from even more democratic voters, when that is the case, that there are too many voting restrictions are ignored as lies, irrelevant, non-existent and/or nonsense. 

The disinformation perpetual motion machine

Clearly, this tactic can be used for any authoritarian ends. For example, if the former president claims that there are too many gun laws, and his supporters complain about excessive gun laws, Republicans can pass laws to repeal all gun laws to respond to voter concerns. Same for abortion. Same for tolerance of the free press, political opposition, laws against white collar crime and corruption, laws that apply to a president or his supporters or donors, tax obligations for the president and his donors, etc.

There are many targets for this misinformation and disinformation tactic, so it can be used to crush democracy, the rule of law, pluralism and etc., to build a single party kleptocratic dictatorship. It is fun, mindless and easy. And, for the elite winners, it is vastly rewarding in terms of both power, e.g., re-election, and wealth. Lots of wealth. The non-elite winners (rank & file voters) get satisfying bragging rights and a deep psychological satisfaction from screwing the hated opposition into oblivion, even if their own civil liberties are eventually also undermined.

Questions: Does anyone recall any reporting where an involved Republican lawmaker working to suppress voting in recent years explained clearly why vote suppression law(s) they backed or wrote would decrease voter suppression? The best rationalization I can come up with is this: Conservative White Republican party voters and vote counters are honest and do not commit vote fraud. Everyone else is bad, a crook and a fraud. Bad people votes need to be suppressed, even if it means suppressing a few honest good people votes as unfortunate collateral damage. Or, is that over the top motivated reasoning?

Footnote: 

1. The NYT writes: 

“The ultimate voter suppression is a very large swath of the electorate not having faith in our election systems,” Mr. Kaufmann, a Republican, said in defense of his bill, which was signed into law in March. “And for whatever reason, political or not, there are thousands upon thousands of Iowans that do not have faith in our election systems.”  

The bills demonstrate how disinformation can take on a life of its own, forming a feedback loop that shapes policy for years to come. When promoted with sufficient intensity, falsehoods — whether about election security or the coronavirus or other topics — can shape voters’ attitudes toward policies, and lawmakers can cite those attitudes as the basis for major changes.

There you have it. For whatever reason, political or not, reality-based or not, rational or not, there are thousands of voters who choose to drink the ex-president's Koolaid and Republican disinformation to create a machine of political destruction. Whatever is under attack gets obliterated or at least attacked with intent to obliterate. And, as we all know, destruction of democracy and inconvenient truth are usually fun, easy and psychologically quite satisfying. 

Some folks are just born dividers and destroyers, mostly authoritarians in America. Others are uniters and builders, mostly democrats. At present, the former group is dominant. The uniters and builders are in deadly serious trouble.