Ted Cruz’s push for belief over fact means Biden didn’t win, there was no moon landing, Elvis lives

Pushing belief over fact can be heady but barmy. Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

This week, Texas Senator Ted Cruz will lead nearly a dozen Republican colleagues in a move to reject electors from certain states won by President-elect Joe Biden. The grounds for these are vague but fevered: Mr Cruz and the others cite unsubstantiated allegations of voter fraud and want an emergency 10-day audit of the election results.

Pour quoi?

Why?

The answer is bananas no matter which language you use to ask the question.

Mr Cruz and Co plan to muddy the proceedings of Congress’s joint session – hitherto, a ceremonial event – by objecting to some states’ election results. (Those would obviously be the ones that Donald Trump believes – without any evidence – were “stolen” from him: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.) By law, if Congressmen from both chambers object to the electoral college slates, the House and Senate must debate and then vote on the contest.

Pour quoi?

Why?

Again, switching languages doesn’t change the whackiness of the answer.

Mr Cruz and Co cite a public opinion poll showing that about 40 per cent of Americans believe the election was rigged.

So, that’s pretty decisive right?

Even in July 2019, half-a-century after the Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the moon, polls showed that six per cent of Americans didn’t believe it happened. (And in July 1970, a year after the moon landing, a poll found 30 per cent of Americans declaring Apollo 11 to be a fake.)

And even in August 2017, 44 years after his death, the “Elvis-is-alive” brigade continued to believe the king of rock and roll had faked his own demise.

Going by Mr Cruz and Co’s push to privilege belief over fact, Mr Biden never won the 2020 presidential election; Apollo 11 never landed on the moon and Elvis isn’t dead.