I had told myself that after the election, win, lose or draw, I would give up on blogging, tweeting, commenting and facebooking about it all for an indefinite time. I had spent too many hundreds of hours, too much money and too much emotional resources, I realistically have little to no effect, and that enormous energy spent could be used elsewhere.
I had planned one further and last post in which I was going to be pretentious enough to offer my ‘advice’ to the President and Vice-president elect, and that that advice was going to be to LISTEN. To have a “Listening Tour” of the vast swath of states in the middle of this country, just to listen and try to learn what it has been that democrats have missed for so long. I think such an outreach would be healing to all.
It is, I confess, saddening to feel that I have to record one more argument before that more positive vision which would, and will, precede a protracted “radio silence” on my part, and that is to ask those people who are following the 45th president down that sink hole of refusing to accept the election results to just stop and think about it logically. To use your heads which can be objective, not for the moment your hearts, which I know must be hurt and angry and disappointed.
I get it. You are pissed. There is room for some “pay back”. There were protracted marches in November 2016 with people chanting “Not my President”, and so there is certainly room for some resentment and wish to get back. I would just ask those who want to pay back whether they remember the outgoing administration, or the then defeated candidate of the other party obstructing the transition. As I recall, protests nonwithstanding, Hillary was gracious and Barack Obama helpful. But never mind that. Let’s just look at the logic.
The current president has made the assertion that there was wide spread voter fraud and if there hadn’t been, he would have won.
Now I know that science and expert analysis are considered suspect by some, but everyone wants, I believe, to be logical, consistent and thoughtful. Those are not uniquely Democratic values, they are American, bipartisan, and human.
We can analyze the assertion logically, asking three questions.
One. Would a Biden victory be so unusual, so unexpected that we have to invoke outside factors to account for such an occurrence? If an occurrence is totally unanticipated and makes no sense, then we have to look for a cause. I voted for McGovern against Reagan (yes, I am that old!) but I was not in the least surprised when Reagan won in histories largest landslide. Reagan was enormously popular, enormously well liked, the country as safe and prosperous, and even though many of us didn’t like his conservativism, every one ‘liked’ him. It was no surprise that 49 states were red that year. If McGovern had won – then we would have had to wonder why!
In 2016 Clinton was strongly and consistently favored to win in virtually every poll, and that is why when Trump won, people may have wondered about other factors, and that may be why the Russia story gained such traction.
Don’t think of your self as arguing with me. If you were to ask yourself, in your most logical mind, and be as honest with that logical mind as if you were – say – speaking in front of God, is it really that surprising that Biden would win? After all, Hillary won the popular vote by millions. And while Trump may well have been one of our nations more consequential presidents, he was never one of its most widely popular. He spoke to his base, and his general popularity never topped 50%. It may have touched it the day they killed Isis’s leader, but dropped back and has never been more than in the 40’s. Then he was impeached, and received a bipartisan vote to convict, although well less than that needed to convict. Shortly after the Corona virus hit, the economy collapsed, and despite a steady drumbeat that it was soon over, millions are infected, hundreds of thousands dead, tens of millions out of work. Furthermore, Biden’s lead in the polls has been consistent and universal, so much so that democrats had to work overtime to keep themselves from growing complacent.
So, if even the most ardent Trump supporter is truly honest, I think they would have to answer question one, “is it really all that surprising that Biden would win”, “is it so unexpected a finding that you have to invoke another factor”, that no, a Biden victory was not so unexpected or unusual that one has to assume some other factor. Even if you wanted Trump to win, you would have had to admit that the opposite result was likely.
Two. Is there any actual evidence of voter fraud? Not that you thought there had to be, or assumed there were, or were told there was. Has anyone come forth with real data, or witnesses, or documents to show that tens of thousands of improper ballots were cast? If there were such evidence – wouldn’t it have surfaced? The president will have his day in court, and the chance to submit evidence. So far no one has seen any, and every such noted fiery eyed socialist liberals as Chris Christie and President George W Bush have said the election was fair. You know, the idea of innocent until proven guilty was all the rage when Democrats asserted electoral malfeasance on the part of the Trump campaign. Why so quick to assume interference now?
Three. Is the source of the accusation an impartial and objective source? If, for example, the UN, or some international body, or an impartial public watch dog, or, some respected bipartisan committee raised a flag – someone detached from either campaign and independently interested in the justice and impartiality of the American electoral system -then I might say it was time wonder. In this case, the only party crying foul is the person who lost the election.
When a sports team is convincingly beaten, and raises objections over the referees calls, do we suggest playing the game over?
Just use logic. There is no reason, for anyone who has had eyes open for the last several years to doubt that the Biden victory was at least as likely, based on history, popularity, approval ratings, and polls, as the opposite. There is no evidence which has been accepted as credible to a court or to a public voice of voter fraud, and there is every reason to recognize that the one party crying foul is the only person to benefit.
Let’s just use our heads.
Our democracy and the world’s regard is at stake.