We are seeing a new reality show play out before our eyes as His Trumpness continues to deny the results of the election with his so-called legal team threatening to challenge results in as many as 10 states. The shameless Ronna Romney McDaniel is asking for time to produce evidence for these outrageous claims that are feeding a social media frenzy. I have to think her father Mitt is sorely disappointed with her, having congratulated Joe Biden himself on his victory.
For those with a short memory, Hillary Clinton made no such accusations when her "Blue Wall" crumbled in 2016. In fact, she didn't even ask for a recount, much to the chagrin of many Democrats, despite the closeness of the races in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. She lost by a total of 70,000 votes in these three states. She knew that you are lucky to come up with a few hundred votes in a recount. Jill Stein, apparently feeling guilty that she might have cost Hillary these close races with her third-party candidacy, paid for a recount in Wisconsin out of her campaign money. In the end, 131 additional votes were found for Donald Trump.
The lame duck president is not going to find thousands of votes in these states. He lost by more than 145,000 votes in Michigan alone. When all the votes are counted in Pennsylvania, he is likely to have lost by a similar number. The only states that remain close are Wisconsin, Georgia and Arizona, which taken together represent 37 electoral votes. If Team Trump were somehow magically able to find enough votes to swing these three states, it would result in a 269 split in the electoral college. However, the only state where Biden's lead is shrinking is Arizona, and even here not so much that AP has retracted him as the winner of the state.
So, why does Trump persist in this charade? There is some historical precedent for this. Way back in 1804 when Thomas Jefferson was running for a second term, Aaron Burr openly challenged him, despite being his Vice-President. In those days, the guy who came in second became Vice-President. There were no conventions, and in fact 1800 was the first year when most white men in America could vote. Before that you had to own land to be able to vote. Jefferson had won a very contentious election over John Adams, largely thanks to Burr pulling New York in his favor. Burr didn't think Jefferson gave him enough credit for his support, and set out to create his own country in the northern territories of Mexico around 1804, one that he hoped would soon rival that of the United States. The Burr Conspiracy never came to fruition. He was ultimately arrested and charged with treason, but he managed to elude the charges against him. Trump seems on the same path.
He is likely to get a lot of followers, judging by all the show of support on social media. Many many persons think he has been cheated and that we need to get to the bottom of all this fraudulent voting. As a result, the White House has set up a voter fraud hotline, which has been flooded with mostly prank calls. Some say this cheapens the voting process, but all it does is add a new wrinkle we all knew was coming. Trump was never going to accept the outcome of this election if he lost. It didn't matter if it was by 4 million or 40 million votes. In his addled mind, any vote against him is an "illegal vote."
It's just sad that so many Americans have fallen under this delusion. I see some of my conservative friends on facebook questioning the results. Some are even convinced His Trumpness may pull this election out once all the votes are fully counted in the handful of remaining states. This despite having previously wanted the counting to stop when Trump was ahead in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. They have totally succumbed to Trump's alternative universe and will accept virtually anything he says. This misplaced devotion had previously been consigned to television evangelism. Now, we see it writ large in American politics.
It is yet one more embarrassing chapter in the Trump presidency that has led many outside observers to question the sanity of Americans. Sadly, this is what happens when you have nothing to compare our so-called democracy to. Less than half of Americans even have a passport, which means they have never traveled to a foreign country, not even Canada and Mexico, our next door neighbors. They are blithely unaware of how the rest of the world lives, content to believe anything they hear on social media. They live in their own "bubbaville," as Mike Huckabee once intoned in his book God, Guns, Grits and Gravy. So, they have no clue as to how the rest of the world sees them.
Still, you would think they would be aghast by the petulance of their legally deposed leader, as he rails against the international conspiracy being waged against him. Virtually all foreign leaders have acknowledged Joe Biden as president-elect, with the notable exceptions of Vlad the Impaler and Winnie the Pooh Jinping. These Trumpists had no end of fun teasing all the "snowflakes" who thought the world was going to end when Donald Trump was elected president. It seems that when the shoe is on the other foot, they are just as scared of an impeding Armageddon as were those silly liberals.
Fortunately, our country has proven very resilient. If it can survive the Burr Conspiracy, it can certainly survive the rantings of our infant terrible on twitter. We will get over the sorest loser pretty quickly, at least I hope so.
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