This is Donald Trump's greatest offense against democracy http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/opinion/this-is-donald-trumps-greatest-offense-against-democracy/ar-BBw4XcC?ocid=spartandhpAfter more than a year of outrageous statements, the prospect of singling out Donald Trump's most poisonous pronouncement might seem an impossible task. Is it the passing reference to immigrant rapists in his speech announcing his candidacy? Or his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country? Or maybe his attacks on "Mexican" Judge Gonzalo Curiel? Or the "258 people, places, and things" he has insulted on Twitter, from John McCain to Mika Brzezinski and beyond?
So many options!
But the truth is that there's no real contest. Trump's greatest and most pernicious offense against democracy, hands down, has been his suggestion that if he loses the general election, it would mean that the political system is "rigged."
By raising the possibility of voter fraud, Trump is, in some ways, merely expanding on a widespread Republican trend, as any regular viewer of Fox News, or anyone living in more than a dozen states with recently enacted restrictions on voting, is well aware. Still, the Republican nominee injecting the issue into the presidential campaign is a quantum leap in seriousness — above all because he's done so not in reference to some potentially verifiable past incident of alleged voter fraud but instead in the form of a blanket prediction about a future incident.
That's a big deal — and a potentially massive threat to the integrity of American political institutions.
For one thing, it's a blatantly paranoid conspiracy theory. Many have noticed the spread of conspiratorial thinking this election cycle, encouraged by the Republican nominee, his surrogates, and a slew of websites that publish unsourced assertions that get spread virally through social media.
