United States | Heads we win, tails you cheated

America’s battle over election laws

The conflict over democracy has escalated since Donald Trump’s exit from the White House

|WASHINGTON, DC

AFTER THE Republicans lost the presidential election in 2012, a period of gloomy introspection set in. The party commissioned an excoriating report. “Devastatingly, we have lost the ability to be persuasive with, or welcoming to, those who don’t agree with us,” it declared. The lesson the Republican Party learned from 2020 is different. There has been no comparable period of inquiry. Instead, the party has found another culprit for its disappointments—widespread election fraud—that it is now committed to rooting out.

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Heads we win, tails you cheated”

Biden’s big gamble: What a $1.9 trillion stimulus means for the world economy

From the March 13th 2021 edition

Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents

Explore the edition

Discover more

US Vice President Kamala Harris looks shocked.

Could an “October surprise” upset America’s election?

What last-minute developments might portend for the race

Illustration of blue legs crossing a red dotted line.

Donald Trump is preparing an assault on America’s immigration system

The third in our series of policy briefs


Illustration of scissors cutting a Tax paper in half. The scissors are red and the paper is blue.

What America’s presidential election means for taxes

The second in our series of policy briefs


The Supreme Court begins another contentious term

Guns, vapes, online porn and health care for transgender youth dot the docket

What America’s presidential election means for world trade

The first in a series of eight concise briefs on the consequences of the 2024 election

Checks and Balance newsletter: gender politics in the election 

Both parties are telling very different stories about gender