A Disquieting Reluctance to Do The Right Thing

 

I find it disquieting that, according to some polls, most of the voters who cast a ballot for Trump still believe that the election was "rigged."   This, despite the failure of Trump team to produce a single case where there was proven intent to change the actual count of ballots.

No foreign ballot harvesting, no rigged election machinery, no illegal marking of ballots.  No argument presented in court of anything but vague allegations. Claims of hundreds of affidavits, but not one presented to the Court for scrutiny and investigation. Nada. Zilch.

What is appalling is the silence of the Republican leadership.  Instead of disavowing these specious claims, or at least, calling for the immediate proof,  members of congress, governors and leading conservative pundits remain mute.  "Let the process unfold," they say.  What process?   Do they think they can get a case or two bumped up to be ruled in their favor by having the stacked SCOTUS conservative majority help them steal the election?  I don't think this will work.  I apparently have more faith in the Supreme Court to uphold the law and the constitution, and do the right thing.

"Stop the Steal" is more appropriately applied to Trump and his followers.  They are so invested in their ideology that they would prefer to invalidate the legally cast votes for Biden than to stick-up for the democratic process.  

It is clear that most Trump supporters are both underinformed and gullible.   They are willing to sacrifice democracy to autocracy.  It is un-American and deplorable. 

Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt...

"I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, with no proof, this election was rigged."  Brent Terhune

@Brent Terhune has produced numerous videos as a mock Pro-Trump redneck on Twitter and Facebook.  He has a genius for capturing the oxymoronic stances of the under-informed citizen.

Re: Columbus Day vs Indigenous Peoples Day.   "My ancestors stole this land fair and square."

These videos are far more entertaining and informative than watching the talking heads on cable news.  But they also inform us, quasi-authentically, that some of our Fellow Americans are misguided, obstinately proud of their ignorance, and in the end, they will never accept the outcome of the recent election.

They say, "Let's check out all the allegations of fraud," even those that are fictitious.  Because they would cheat to win if they could get away with it, they cannot believe that the opposition did not engage in conspiracy.   The few actual errors did not amount to fraud.  They certainly would not affect the outcome.

Let us hope that those who falsely signed sworn affidavits alleging illegal voting activities are prosecuted, and anyone who tried to interfere with counting of legal votes is prosecuted harshly, as a lesson for the future.  

As to the disappointed Trump Kool-Aid drinkers,  I repeat: in the end, they will never accept the outcome of the election.

  

Click on the Ad, I need revenue

 

It's not too early to plan for the future

I don't Wanna Go

 Trump wants to stay.

No doubt, he had the same feelings about going into the military.

And The Loser is...

 

I'm writing this on the morning after election day 2020.  At the moment the electoral totals are close for both Biden and Trump, but no one knows how it will end up.  The pundits are leaning toward Biden as the mail-in ballots are still being counted in several swing states.  

However it eventually turns out, I have been proven wrong in my prediction for a landslide victory for Biden.  My calculus was that Biden would pick-up millions of "Bernie Bros." who reportedly sat out the 2016 election because they felt Hillary and the DNC had conspired to keep him from winning the nomination. Moreover, I was counting on a major shift in Trump voters who I assumed would  have been alienated by his unpresidential antics and lies.  I counted on former military supporters to become disillusioned by his lack of respect for military leaders, and that his denigration of captured and dead heroes would have made them vote against him.   I thought that decency and integrity were more important than "standing up" to foreign powers.

I was wrong.

The mere fact that the counts are so close is a shock to me.  It tells me that I am out of touch with reality.   To quiet my mind, I had come to view the past 4 years as an anomaly, something we would someday look back and laugh the way we do about mistakes we made in our youth.   Certainly the electorate would come to its senses in the light of Trump's edging toward autocracy,  embarrassing ignorance of science and diplomacy, his narcissistic obsession to make everything about him, the bombastic and unsupported accusations of fraud and embracing of conspiracy groups.   But I was wrong.

Trying to assess why more people couldn't support Biden, I am flummoxed.    

AFTERWORD:  11/5/2020   In a Globe article  titled "A Liberal Dream meets the crushing reality of America"  the authors attempt to provide an answer to the shared surprise of many liberal/progressive Americans who thought that the electorate would be more decisively anti-Trump.   The biases of both camps created starkly different perceptions.  "It is as if the  two sides were watching different movies."