With a few notable exceptions, Republican politicians backed Trump’s big lie about the 2020 election. Now that Trump is back in office, the big lie has faded into the background. While most Republicans did not deny that Biden was President, they were reluctant to say that Biden won the election. They also used the big lie to “justify” passing new restrictive voting laws. As such, they claimed the election system was badly flawed and needed extensive fixes. Yet Republican politicians (other than Trump) did very well in 2020 and Trump won in 2024. All this leads to a logical problem for the Republicans; so, it is fortunate they seem immune to logic.

In a democracy, the legitimacy of an elected official depends on the legitimacy of their election. To the degree an election is flawed, its legitimacy is undercut. For the sake of argument, let us assume that the Republicans are right: the election system of 2020 was deeply flawed and allowed for widespread voter or election fraud. The flaws were so severe that extensive changes were needed to correct this deeply flawed system. This does entail what most Republicans professed: the legitimacy of the election and Biden’s presidency would have been in question. Let us also suppose that things are as bad as some Republicans claimed: there was so much fraud that the 2020 election is completely illegitimate. This would also call into question previous elections using the same flawed system. At this point, things would seem to be going just as the Republicans wished. And it would be if we stopped here and ignored what this entails.

If the election of 2020 and earlier elections were illegitimate because of the flaws that elected Republicans were attempting to fix with their restrictive laws, then it would follow that Republicans elected under that flawed system would have been as illegitimate as Joe Biden. After all, if the defects of the 2020 election sufficed to take away Biden’s legitimacy, then they would suffice to take away the legitimacy of Republicans elected in that election and earlier elections with the same defects. This would entail that the Republicans who passed laws to restrict voting are illegitimate and that citizens are thus under no moral obligation to heed their illegitimate laws. And now the dilemma.

If the Republicans claim they are legitimately holding office, then they must assert that the elections were legitimate and thus the restrictions they created are not necessary. The elections worked properly, and such extensive changes are unwarranted. This does not mean that the system cannot be improved, just that there is no justification for the “fixes” they are imposing on non-existent problems. But if they are legitimately holding office, then the elections went as all the evidence shows: correctly and securely. Hence their claims about the election are false and their “fixes” were not justified.

To use an analogy, this is like a victorious athlete claiming the system they are competing in is and needs to be fixed because the real winner of the biggest event was denied victory. And, at the same time, they say that their victory in that system was legitimate, and they should be the ones to re-write the rules of competition.

The obvious counter is to claim the Democrats were behind it all and hence the Republicans are legitimate. The easy and obvious reply is that there has been no evidence of widespread fraud and Trump and his fellows fared exceptionally badly in their lawsuits. And  things did not go well for the conspiracy theorists. There is also the fact that if the Democrats were engaged in rigging the election, they would have rigged the election, and the Democrats would have done much better in 2020.

While it would be morally irresponsible to do, the left could have claimed the Republicans were the fraudsters. Interestingly, this has more plausibility than Republican claims. First, the Republicans did very well in the 2020 election, so a conspiracy theorist could claim it was rigged by Republicans to get rid of Trump while allowing Republicans to do well down ballot. After all, while Republicans are backed Trump, they almost all expressed loathing for him before he won in 2016 and he was a deeply unpopular president. But the fact that Trump won in 2024 would undercut both the hypothetical liberal conspiracy theory and the actual Republican big lie.

Second, leftist conspiracy theorists could also point to the fact that Republicans are a numerical minority and should have done worse in a fair election. 49% of adults 18 and older claim membership in or leanings towards the Democratic Party. In contrast, only 40% identify as Republicans or Republican leaning. I don’t think this is true; Republicans hold office disproportionately to the electorate because of things like voter suppression and gerrymandering rather than other forms of election fraud.

Third, it is Republicans who have been accused (with evidence) of or caught committing fraud. In Wisconsin, 10 Republicans were accused of committing voter fraud. North Carolina also featured an interesting election fraud case involving a Republican. While a conspiracy theorist could use a hasty generalization or anecdotal evidence fallacy to “argue” that Republicans are committing widespread fraud, that would be absurd. While Republicans do seem to be the ones most likely to be engaged in fraud, these cases are still extremely rare, and the perpetrators are caught.

Obviously, I think that the election of 2020 was legitimate within the context of the established system. But this legitimacy entails that there was no need for the Republican laws restricting voting, aside from their desire to win elections. Again, they are in a dilemma: if the election was illegitimate and their laws are needed, then they are illegitimate and lack the right to make laws. If the election was legitimate, then there is no need for their restrictive laws.