Josh Hawley and GOP blasted for their 'contempt for electoral democracy' in Independence Day editorial

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) and the Republican Party were the target of a hard-hitting St. Louis Post-Dispatch editorial commemorating the Fourth of July holiday.

"On America's birthday, the word 'patriotism' gets waved around like a rhetorical flag, but what does it really mean? Some Americans express love of country by paying homage to the nation's military might, others to its traditions of freedom and compassion, still others to the enduring genius of America's founding documents. It's much easier to define what patriotism isn't. On this Independence Day, Americans of all political stripes should be able to agree that elections must be accessible and fair, that the legitimacy of those elections must be respected regardless of outcome — and that violence is never an acceptable response from citizens who don't like a particular election result," the editorial board wrote.

"Yet those fundamental principles, which are as good a definition of patriotism as any, are currently being challenged by large swaths of Americans and their political leaders. A majority of Republicans still claim to believe the corrosive lie that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president. One poll indicates close to 4 in 10 Republicans consider violence to be an acceptable tool to address perceived failures by the nation's leaders. Patriots of conscience, regardless of party, should forcefully reject this inherently un-American mindset," the newspaper explained.

The editorial board reminded readers of the insurrection by Trump supporters that was egged on by Sen. Hawley.

"Jan. 6 was among the darkest moments in the nation's history, not merely because of a rogue president's unheard-of refusal to accept his electoral defeat, nor his incitement of his followers to assault the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn that defeat. The more lasting danger is the contempt for electoral democracy that the episode has exposed on America's political right," the newspaper warned. "It was exposed by the 147 Republican members of Congress (led by Missouri's own Sen. Josh Hawley) who, having just witnessed firsthand the violence that Trump's big vote-fraud lie had visited upon the seat of government, further promoted that lie, voting to overturn a valid election based on nothing but their supporters' disdain for the outcome. It was exposed in most congressional Republicans' failure to hold Trump accountable for what was arguably the most impeachable thing any sitting president has ever done. It was exposed in the GOP's refusal to allow a full investigation of the insurrection, for fear it would reflect badly on their party."

Days before the election, Hawley was praising Republicans "joining the fight on #Jan6" as he hashtagged the date of the planned insurrection.

The editorial board also noted the illegitimacy of GOP voter suppression efforts.

"For months, this contempt for electoral democracy has been exposed in the more than a dozen Republican-controlled state legislatures that have passed laws designed to make voting more difficult for minorities, urban dwellers, the poor and others they fear will vote for Democrats," the newspaper noted. "Of course, the purveyors of this poison claim they are themselves acting out of a patriotic urge to protect the sanctity of the vote. This is the biggest lie of all. Countless election officials and dozens of judges of both parties have looked more closely than in any election in modern memory, and have found zero evidence of the widespread voter fraud that Trump falsely claims robbed him of the presidency. There is, therefore, also no validity to the coordinated voter-suppression campaigns sweeping red-state America, predicated on that phony allegation."

The editorial ended on a patriotic theme.

"On this of all days, Americans should remember there is just one legitimate means of change in a democracy: free and fair elections. Protecting that institution is patriotic. Undermining it isn't — ever," the St. Louis Post-Dispatch declared.