I am a firm believer in the meaning of words, and in words having meaning, even when chosen by the subconscious mind rather than the conscious one.
A fortification is a mechanical force multiplier for defensive purposes. It allows ground to be held against a superior force with a smaller number of defenders, or poorly-equipped defenders. It must be built on ground the occupying side already holds, prior to the arrival of the opposing force, and requires personnel actively engaged to repel the enemy.
When the institutional Left spoke of "Fortifying the Election", they were tacitly admitting # things.
- The 'Election', in other words the electoral system, and by proxy the federal government, was territory they occupied and laid claim to.
- They had a defensive force ready and willing to protect their claim over the electoral system, but they were numerically inferior to those preparing to take it away (the voters).
- The only way to fend off the electoral assault on their claim was to implement a force multiplier for allow their limited defenders (ballot manufacturing/harvesting) to stave off the electorate at large.
I'm honestly quite irritated to have put all of this together two years after the fact. I knew they planned to cheat, and have not wavered in that belief since well before the last U.S. presidential election, but I should have realized they were telegraphing exactly how they planned to do it months in advance.
I would wager there are other instances of this out there, waiting to be noticed. It seems a cousin of the liar's smirk or beguiler's glee seen so often when a Leftist activist is interviewed or interrogated, knowing no consequences will come of it.
When were they talking about fortifying the election?
The big one I recall is the Time Article / (Archive), which basically gloated about activity taken against Trump in 2020.
I think this is where the term 'fortifying' was first used, too. Per the linked article: "They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it."
I recall that. That seems to be the story of fortifying the steal. I thought you were talking about processes to ensure reliable vote counting and against cheating, which leftists seem be always against. Whether their pre-2020 concerns about the vulnerability of the system were well founded or not, the PTB seem to have understood that cheating would benefit them. Otherwise, there's no way they push for mail in voting, because that's the easiest kind to defraud.
Evidently they still don't believe Republicans are going to "turn the tables," because in that case they'd push for voter ID in a heartbeat.
That is assuming that Republicans want to win elections. Their schtick works a lot better when they are the minority party. They still get to go the same authoritarian direction as the progressives but can claim that if they were "in power", things would certainly be different.
Most establishment Republicans are right where they want to be. They are taking their cut by playing their part and get to be seen as the good guys by a majority of the country.
When the curtain falls, all the actors in Washington are friends with one another and celebrate how easy it was to convince everyone of their drama and narrative.