by Robert Fischer<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This article is courtesy of a Canadian friend who sent it to me after reading yesterday’s post. It strikes me as especially significant as it gives the view of our long time friends and closest neighbors. Sometimes our friends elsewhere see our politics more clearly than we do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reprint of article below from\u00a0The Globe and Mail (Ottawa\/Quebec Edition) “Let\u2019s be clear: U.S. President Donald Trump is not simply refusing to admit defeat to his opponent, president-elect Joe Biden. He\u2019s not just filing Hail Mary lawsuits to overturn voting results, or sticking to character by spreading fictions about stolen votes. This article is courtesy of a Canadian friend who sent it to me after reading yesterday’s post. It strikes me as especially significant as it gives the view of our long time friends and closest neighbors. Sometimes our friends elsewhere see our politics more clearly than we do. Reprint of article below from\u00a0The Globe and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-robert-fischer"],"yoast_head":"\n
November 12, 2020<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those are just the mechanics of a more dangerous game, one in which Mr. Trump is attempting to delegitimize an election. In doing so, he is inflicting lasting damage on American democracy.
It\u2019s not enough to hope that Mr. Trump is just being Mr. Trump, and that in a few days he will give up this typically self-serving charade. His outrageous claim that he won the election needs to be clearly rejected now, especially by his own party, before it gathers too much strength to be stopped.
And it is indeed picking up momentum. Mike Pompeo, the U.S. Secretary of State, declined on Tuesday to acknowledge Mr. Biden\u2019s win and said that, \u201cThere will be a smooth transition to a second Trump administration.\u201d
If that was a joke, it was a very bad one. Those words, from the cabinet secretary responsible for foreign affairs, must have been a shock to the many world leaders who have congratulated Mr. Biden on his victory.
Mr. Trump\u2019s Attorney-General, William Barr, is also refusing to dismiss the President\u2019s claims. And Senator Mitch McConnell, the leading Republican in Congress, this week said that Mr. Trump is under no obligation to \u201cimmediately, cheerfully\u201d accept the election results.
They argue that allegations of voter fraud must be investigated. But Mr. Trump hasn\u2019t offered any credible evidence of fraud, because none exists.
The election went off without major hitches, let alone fraud, and produced a winner. Despite the constraints of COVID-19, the level of voter turnout was higher than it\u2019s been in decades. One state, Georgia, is close enough that there will be a recount, but even if that somehow overturns Mr. Biden\u2019s current 14,000-vote margin of victory, he will still have won the presidency. Mr. Trump lost, fair and square.
But Mr. Trump and his enablers are conditioning supporters to believe that the election was rigged, a cancerous lie many Americans may never stop believing. Recounts and unfounded claims of fraud won\u2019t change the election\u2019s outcome, but a steady drip of doubt from Republican leaders and Trump allies will delegitimize it in other ways.
The President has done this before. After the 2016 election, he made up a story that illegal voters in California were the reason Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. He set up a commission to investigate that fairy tale, only to shut it down in 2018 when it was clear it was looking for something that didn\u2019t exist.
He is a proven fabulist about elections in America, and now he is further poisoning the well.
In Georgia, Republican Senators David Purdue and Kelly Loeffler, facing runoff elections in January that will decide which party controls the Senate, have picked up Mr. Trump\u2019s rhetoric. They\u2019re now claiming, without evidence, that the Nov. 3 election was an \u201cembarrassment\u201d marked by widespread \u201cfailures,\u201d and are demanding the resignation of Georgia\u2019s chief election official.
The potential for lasting damage is immense. Mr. Trump has spent his presidency loosening the bolts on the conventions, principles and public faith that support American democracy. Even if he eventually slinks off into history, he will leave behind a weakened system that another populist could exploit and undermine.
That is not an overblown fear. So-called \u201cmanaged democracies\u201d such as Russia, Turkey and Hungary would love to see the U.S. slide into their camp.
Such a fall from grace would be fed to their people as proof of the failings of unfettered democratic freedom, and used to vindicate the suppression of dissent that keeps them in line. That\u2019s why there are countries that hope Mr. Trump\u2019s attack on the election outcome will succeed.
The calamity that would ensue if a legitimate American election was overturned by a mendacious demagogue who refused to hand over power is simply too enormous to contemplate. And yet Mr. Trump is forcing the entire world to imagine it.
American democracy is likely to survive Mr. Trump\u2019s last sabotage attempt. But the wounds he\u2019s inflicting on the way out, and the scars they will leave, will not be quick to heal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"