The “big lie” is back in style. Wikipedia tells us that the term was invented by Adolf Hitler to describe what other did — though he was the biggest liar of all. “The broad masses of a nation,” he wrote in Mein Kampf, “more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie.”

No one on the political scene in this country or any democratic nation is a monster comparable to Hitler. But some have resorted to the big lie in their attempts to override clear decisions of the people, at the risk of delegitimizing the nation’s democracy.