Election conspiracy theorists just can’t shake their paranoia

The Bottom Line from NC Newsline

(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Sometimes, you just have to shake your head in wonder at the crazy paranoia of North Carolina election conspiracy theorists. Their latest kooky idea: that the recent state election was somehow rigged to prevent victories by Republican candidates for offices like governor and attorney general even as Donald Trump claimed the state’s presidential contest.

That’s right — the same people who repeatedly tell us that state government is dysfunctional and incapable of performing core public functions, are claiming that somehow, someone inside it pulled off one of the most diabolical criminal conspiracies in modern American history.

Please. Give us a break.

If such a scheme were possible – and it’s not – why would the mysterious forces rig just some elections? Why let Trump win?

The bottom line: as political scientists have repeatedly demonstrated, North Carolina voters have been splitting their tickets in the precise way they did last week for decades.

The conspiracy kooks should spend more time studying civics and history and less time wallowing in dark and disturbed corners of social media.

For NC Newsline, I’m Rob Schofield.