https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/06/opinions/trump-loss-republicans-authoritarianism-obeidallah/index.html
The 2020 election is over but Republican denialism of the results continues.
The Supreme Court of the United States has brutally dealt a fatal blow to the hopes of the Reactionary Republicans by even refusing to hear their case for over turning the 2020 presidential election results.
The court blithely and quickly dismissed the case due to lack of standing. As Ted Cruz, Trump’s whipped dog and off site resident house boy (and lead attorney) should have known, if you are not injured or involved in the action done by another person then you have no right to take them to court. If the various states in which the alleged fraud had occurred had wanted then they could have brought the case to the Supreme Court themselves. But they didn’t (because they know that Joe Biden won fair and square).
It is a little hard to know whether or not Trump is really deluded enough to believe he still won the election. However there is little doubt that many of his supporters do. Even now more than half of all Republican voters believe that Trump won the election. Even a large number of GOP state attorneys general are backing Trump’s claim that he lost due to election fraud.
For the sake of Joe Biden’s presidency, for free and fair elections, for the effective and just governance of the country as a whole, this denialism needs to be fought.
Of course the denialism of the Reactionary Republicans extends far beyond the results of the 2020 election. It extends to climate change, institutional racism, immigration and inequality of wealth (among many things). However, the denialism of the election is where we should start.
Here are some things that should be said done regularly, vigorously and openly to bring home the truth of the 2020 election.
-Keep repeating the truth in public that Trump lost the election by a huge margin.
Biden won the popular vote by a large margin. Now that the results are about to be officially certified it is clear that about seven million more people voted for Biden than Trump. Of course it is the electoral college votes that really count. But it does not hurt to mention this over and over again, and to point out that a man who is very popular with voters is also likely to the be the man (or women, someday) who will win the most electoral votes as well. And by the way, Biden won 306 electoral college vote - the same number Trump won in 2016 and which he called a “landslide”).
-Keep repeating the truth in public that nationwide more people prefer Democrats as president and have for a long time.
Republicans like to believe that they are the party of America, and that most people support Republicans and their conservative beliefs.
It would also be worth noting, often and publically in the face anyone who watches Fox (Fake and Phony) News, that Democrats have, with one exception (Kerry in 2004) won the popular vote in every presidential election going back to 1988 (Dukakis, Clinton, Gore, Obama and Biden). If you look at what most of the people in the country want, it is the Democratic candidate and our national policies. The Republican party tends to be a minority party for America as a whole. It is only because of the distortion and undemocratic skewing of the electoral college that tends to hide this fact. Sooner or later the electoral college results lines up with the true popular will of America. Repeating this often will help condition people to the truth of our national preferences and aid in the erosion of Republican denialism about our elections.
-Keep repeating the truth in public that Trump lost the battle to over turn the election results at EVERY LEVEL OF APPEAL.
Trump and the Republicans have tried at every judicial and legislative level possible to over turn votes for Biden in all battle ground states. And they have lost every time. Every. Single. Time.
The opposition started with Trump and cronies at Fox (Fake and Phony) News claiming in tweets and press releases that the voting in every battle ground state was flawed (general slander that mail-in voting was not secure). They then moved to the individual precinct level with attacks centering on voting irregularities, lack of access by Republican poll watchers, fuming about possible ballot harvesting and signatures that did not match something.
When these lame accusations were all refuted, and as the states moved towards certification, Trump and allies moved their attack to the level of the Secretary of State in various states with claims of massive voter fraud. They tried to challenge the certification of Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Georgia. And they were rejected by every one. And these were all states CONTROLLED BY REPUBLICANS.
As the election passed and Trump and his supporters grew more frustrated and desperate they let loose Rudy Giuliani (who hasn’t practiced law in thirty years) and Sidney Powell (does anyone really pay her for legal work??) to argue one outlandish pseudo-legal claim after another in federal court. And they all failed. ALL!
Then came the Supreme Court. The lawsuit brought by the State of Texas was designed and launched simply to throw out the results of every battle ground state and give the votes to Trump. I think that Trump and the Republicans believed that because there were six white, conservative judges, three of whom were appointed by Trump, that they would understand that they were indebted to trump and therefore had a duty to just give him the election.
The Supreme Court did not even listen to the case - they simply said “Go away.” Trump had no more success here than he did in persuading the legislatures in Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania to commandeer their states votes and award them to him. In almost 40 court challenges in various Republican states not once did a judge award him any votes or overturn and election. The state of Georgia did three recounts of the vote, once by hand, and still upheld Biden as the winner. And when Trump viciously attacked the state’s Republican governor and Secretary of State for failing to insure a fair election, they just ignored him. (To understand just how brutally, completely and humiliatingly Trump has lost his lawsuits in court read this article from Business Insider).
Trump has lost at every level of challenge or petition from the local precinct to the Supreme Court. He lost in states that he won in 2016 and which are all controlled by Republicans. Even Bill Barr, Trump’s very own Attorney General, has stated flatly and publicly that he is not aware of any evidence of voter fraud that would change the election.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/01/william-barr-no-evidence-voter-fraud
There is no where else to go, and he has unfairly had too many bites at the apple.
-Biden and Harris and all other democrats need to repeatedly tell Trump and the Republicans that, “Put up, or shut up!”
Trump has been given too many chances to challenge the 2020 election and failed at all of them. There has been too much Republican whining of how Trump has the right to go to court over the election results but too little talk of his responsibility to provide evidence of electoral wrong doing when his lawyers stand before a judge.
Nonetheless, the man doth continue to protest. Trump and his allies will just not shut up about how there was massive voter fraud. He continues to support rallies in which Trumpers and Trumpets wave signs about saving the vote. And worst of all, the whole rancid crew keeps inventing new and imaginative ways to claim that votes were illegally cast. It just goes on and on.
Enough Republican denialism. It is time for Biden and Harris to call out Trump and the Republicans for their blatant effort to steal an election that they clearly lost. It’s time for them and all Democrats to take the offensive and tell Trump to his face, “Put up some real legal evidence that you were cheated or just shut the hell up! Nobody wants to hear your incessant whining.” In other words, force them to confront reality and try to square it with their denial of it.
At this point there is no sense being overly polite, or even being polite at all. Maybe we should remind them what they say in Vegas, “If you’re gonna play the game, win like a man. Lose like a man.” No, better yet, just say the words, “Hey Trumpers, no more fantasy. Put up or shut up!”
I would urge Biden and Harris to immediately make a joint speech to the nation reassuring the country that indeed the election was fair, orderly and conclusive. They should take pains to emphasize that the voting system works well and that all Americans can be proud of it.
Vote progressive, live progressive, live in the real world.
(Note to all progressive readers: Today, December 14, 2020, the states are preparing their electors to cast votes for the president of the United States. This should put an end to the problem of Trump and his reactionary supporters claiming that he was robbed of the election. I am sure that it won’t.
I fully expect that Republicans will continue to try and rewrite and pervert the history of the 2020 election and embed those lies in the minds and lore of all Reactionary Republicans and those who do not know better. It is imperative that progressives continue to demand Republicans, “Put up or shut up” about the election for a long time to come. Don’t grow weary of eroding the Republicans ability or tendency to fool themselves or other people. Moreover, please be prepared to demand the same “Put up or shut up” evidence from Republicans for their other common lies and delusions: climate change is a hoax, there is no systematic racism, there is no income inequality, most people support conservative policies, etc.
Life in the real world is life worth living. Vote progressive. Live progressive. Live in the real world!