Trump: Election Lies

President Donald J. Trump

No sentient being should have ever expected a normal post-election period in 2020. No. One. Still, POTUS and his minions deserve a trip to the woodshed, to be whipped with a proverbial stick, for making a shambles of our democratic traditions.

Rs tell us, the votes count, not what the media declares. Right, sort of. At the end of the day, we have 51 separate voting systems in the United States, each of which determines which electors get to cast their votes on December 14, 2020, the Monday following the second Wednesday in December. (Rs tend to favor state’s rights, but in 2020, do we really need to let states decide the rules for national elections? Might a national set of rules make sense?)

The end of the day matters, but words matter too. President Donald J. Trump advocated for not counting votes after Election Day. Put simply, he wanted his desired outcome on Tuesday evening.

Fair enough, for that’s what Americans got used to. My Wingnut friend, in fact, asked me just the other day why we don’t have a complete count before we go to bed on Election Day? (He asks, often, why things don’t happen as they used to, failing to recognize the shortcomings associated with his memory.)

Truth be told, we haven’t had a complete count by midnight on Election Day in my lifetime, and that’s what I told my friend. Well, yah, he said, but we know who won. Yep, and that’s because the media makes the call. The MSM.

For more than 100 years, the Associated Press calls races on Election Day if it can, based on counted votes and other information it had. Right always? No. We never got a President Dewey in 1948. (In fact, the Chicago Tribune muffed that one.) Then there was 2000, when Florida messed with everyone.

So, as you listen to the Very Important Republicans rant about the media, remember this: Mr. Trump and his followers wanted the media to call the race on Election Day. The media held off, due to uncertainty. When the facts warranted the call, the media said: Biden wins. (Recall, by the way,  Mr. Trump and his followers complained not even a little in 2016, when the AP and other MSM sources called the race on Election Day.)

Back to my Wingnut friend and slow counting. Three things. First, 2020 saw tens of millions more people voting by mail or dropping off paper ballots. You don’t like that? You want white, property owning men to show up on Election Day and act like citizens, and that’s it and that’s all. Those trains left the station years, decades, and centuries ago. Citizens get to vote and, as time goes by, we will see a diminished number of in person votes.

Second, paper ballots take more time to process. Signatures must be checked. Paper must be handled. Etc. Ballot security is the term, and we ought to demand it. (Ironic it is that Rs complain about alleged fraud and about slow counting!)

Finally, recall my comment about states having different rules. Arizona, Florida, and many other states allow elections personnel to open envelopes, verify signatures and administer ballots long before the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. Other states – notably, Michigan and Pennsylvania – do not allow for ballot handling until Election Day or the day before. Rant away, but if millions of people mail in ballots and they sit in bins until the day before Election Day, no one should expect them to be processed before POTUS goes to bed on Tuesday.

So, no one should ever believe we have an outcome on Tuesday evening, based on an actual count. We move on, however, when the outcome reflects everything other than an extremely close race in a state or more than one state whose electors will determine the identity of the next POTUS. Except … this time!

Why not in 2020? Simply, we have a very damaged man in the White House. Forty-plus percent of Americans adore him, and those who serve him cater to his every wish, no matter how mindless or absurd. And, this man cannot accept the fact that a substantial majority of American voters – this time, situated in the right states – have sent him packing. Bye-bye, Donald! So, Very Important Republicans allege fraud without facts, knowing that even if they find some fraud – and they will, probably, for we have almost 150 million ballots – the quantum will not come close to changing the outcome of the election. (By the way, if a systematic fraud scheme existed, would anyone allow Mitch McConnell to win his elections?)

Shame on Ted Cruz, Lindsey Graham, the afore-mentioned Mitch, and many others for destroying a little bit lot more of our democratic core values as Mr. Trump leaves us to face economic problems and, perhaps, indictments. All of y’all ain’t worth a warm bucket of spit! (There’s a Zoom cocktail date with whoever gets the spit reference first.)