The US primaries underlined a disturbing American reality

By Hussein Ibish, columnist for The National, where this article appeared, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States ­Institute. Previously, Ibish served as a fellow at the American Task Force on Palestine.

"The Democratic and Republican parties are profoundly divided, but while the Republican Party continues to charge towards the extreme right, with rare exceptions Democrats are tenaciously sticking to the moderate centre embodied by President Joe Biden.

"The article of faith that the 2020 election was “stolen” – a thoroughly irrational dogma that is objectively, verifiably, and obviously, false – is now the defining centrepiece of Republican politics and was the driving force in Republican primaries this year.

"Meanwhile, while Democrats are campaigning on familiar liberal themes about increased social spending, especially on children, protecting abortion rights and marriage equality, raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy, empowering unions, and so on. 

"Fifteen Republican nominees for state governor, 11 for secretary of state (which usually oversee elections), and 10 for attorney general are avowed election deniers, and appear prepared to suppress democratic outcomes. 

"It is now unmistakable that the Department of Justice is investigating a huge range of current and former Trump aides pursuant to a wide variety of alleged conspiracies and other major potential felonies.

"Even if anti-democracy candidates win key state-level posts in November, presumably they will be on notice long before they might try to subvert, reject, or tamper with the outcome of the presidential election in 2024: conspiracy to defraud the United States and similar major felonies can lead directly to prison."

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