Quite reasonably, Jonathan Tobin attempts to chart a middle course between declaring the 2020 election fraudulent and denying that nothing was amiss, in an essay for the New York Post titled, “No, the 2020 election wasn’t stolen — but yes, it was underhandedly tilted“:

If you read the headline of a blockbuster, 6,000-word-plus story in Time magazine, you might think former President Donald Trump wasn’t so wrong about the election, after all. …

As the magazine reports, a secret alliance of left-wing activists, union leaders and corporate CEOs worked together to help craft unprecedented changes in the rules governing the way America votes. They did their best to encourage and facilitate mail-in voting on an unprecedented scale. …

That means the challenge facing the country is not what to do about Trump’s sore-loser tantrum, which resulted in a disgraceful riot (swollen into an “insurrection” by Democrats and media keen to discredit all Republicans). The real problem is whether Americans are prepared to let the same forces that tilted the 2020 election in Biden’s favor get away with it again.

Tobin’s analysis may be correct, but in striving not to throw in with conspiracy theorists, he avoids a relevant question:  If a national (nay, international) cabal went to these lengths, which are fraudulent at least in the sense of social expectations, why should we trust that they would draw the line at outright election fraud, if it was necessary to bring to fruition the arguably much more profound deceits that preceded it?

Of course, we shouldn’t.  Of course, they would have massive incentive to cheat so as not to be out on that limb of blatant disregard for fair play and still lose.  This is why it’s been impossible to find anybody on the anti-Trump side who will say that they actually care whether there was electoral fraud.  They’re happy to insist that there was not, but if there was, oh, well; all’s well that ends well.

This is also why — of course — they’ll do it again, even doubling down if they have to.  Cheating is an addiction; there is always some reason why it must be done, once it is accepted.  Even now, the cheaters are laying groundwork, banning and maligning people who question the election results, so that when they cheat again, they’ll be able to bully people who’ve gone this far with them lest they draw any lines against their brazenness.