It probably sounds absolutely crazy that much of the country has refused to accept that Donald Trump lost the presidential election seven weeks ago. Many of his supporters have complained that it was “rigged,” that, among other things, voting machines used in a number of states actually changed their votes (their manufacturer is suing Newsmax and One America News, two right-wing television networks making that phony charge, for defamation).
But what you’re seeing is a lot deeper than Trump — indeed,
it has been for a very long time. The political populist right has long
believed that power is its birthright and anyone who doesn’t agree with it is
illegitimate.
We first saw this with Bill Clinton in 1992.
The right was so frightened of losing an election that it
actually filed suit in Federal court in Little Rock, Ark. to have him removed
from the ballot (the judge must have laughed them out of his courtroom). Within
weeks of his inauguration bumper stickers began appearing that read: “Don’t
blame me — I voted for [George H.W.] Bush.” Then you had right-wing media
playing up Whitewater, a failed land deal that cost Bill and Hillary Clinton;
and his alleged tomcatting and bogus accusations of rape. (Keep in mind that
the Fox News Channel didn’t exist at this time.) Then you had H. Ross Perot as
a spoiler, apparently taking enough votes from Bush in ’92 and Bob Dole in ’96 to
hand the reins of power to Bill Clinton.
Ever since, supporters of the “radical right” wanted a
Republican presidential candidate to trash-talk his or her opponents with impunity. George W.
Bush didn’t. John McCain didn’t. Mitt Romney didn’t. (Vice-presidential
candidate Sarah Palin came the closest.) Trump, however, did, which is why he’s
literally worshiped — it had so much hatred for political opponents that even
talking to them was considered surrender because they were considered sub-human.
The thing is, you can “go low” for only so long before folks start to react, which is something that Trump’s minions didn’t, and apparently still don't, understand. The “liberal snowflakes” certainly screamed when Trump got elected. But then, they began to organize, making some headway in 2018.
That organization became even more focused this year, with groups sending texts to people encouraging them to vote — I received about a dozen such texts — and even the NAACP not only mounting a voter-registration drive but calling upon volunteers to reach out to black voters.
And those black voters came out strong, initially propelling
Joe Biden to primary victories in the South, eventually handing him the
Democratic nomination and later the presidency. (It didn’t help that Trump denounced
the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer, giving them more ammunition.)
Then you have his failure to address the COVID-19 epidemic, insisting that it
would simply go away. (It should be noted that Trump was raised with Norman
Vincent Peale, author of “The Power of Positive Thinking,” as a pastor, which
might explain his reticence to do more.)
See, that’s the real reason that Trump complained about the
election being rigged — he can’t stand the idea of people, especially those in
power, opposing him. During his administration his whole mindset was exposed as
defective and his failures were not only magnified but used against him. Even
now that he’s playing out the string he’s failing to govern, filing these frivolous
lawsuits to try to overturn the election results. And shame on those people
trying to argue that “We wuz robbed!” Because they weren’t — they lost fairly and
squarely and are about to have their boy turned out because of his own failure.
Let that word sink in — failure.
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