As Trump continues to rant and rave about how the election was fraudulent and how he was cheated, this poor loser, this spoiled brat, hasn’t provided an iota of evidence in a single court of law. Republican secretaries of state, Republican appointed judges, and even Republican government officials appointed by Trump himself refute these outrageous charges, but none of this makes a dent in his core group of followers who would gladly buy whatever he is selling.
A recent poll reveals that over 70 percent of Republicans believe the election was faulty, that he was robbed, and so we will hear on Fox News for the next four years how Biden is an illegitimate president.
I was especially struck by the reasoning or, more accurately, the lack of reasoning of two Trump supporters interviewed on television, both of whom believe fervently that Trump won the election. A woman from Ohio simply could not get her head around the fact that when she went to bed Trump had a sizable lead in Pennsylvania, and that over the next day or two his lead evaporated. “If that isn’t proof of fraud, what is?” she insisted.
Another Trumpster could not fathom how Trump could possibly get millions more votes than when he won in 2016 and still lose the election. This to her was proof positive of a broad conspiracy to defraud the American public.
The answers to these two people and to the millions of folks who wallow in conspiracy theories should be obvious. Because we are in the middle of a pandemic, voting by mail was encouraged throughout most of the country, and consequently we had roughly 20 million more people voting this year than four years ago. Not only did we have more people voting than ever before, but believe it or not, some people who voted for Trump against Clinton actually preferred Biden to Trump.
The Pennsylvania State Legislature—controlled by Republicans—not only allowed voting by mail but legislated that the mail-in ballots could not be opened until the day of the election. Since more Democrats than Republicans voted by mail than in person, it does not take a genius to understand why the lady who went to bed with Trump in the lead ultimately saw the lead evaporate. The explanation is simple—the election officials were simply counting the ballots.
It is frightening enough that tens of millions of Americans apparently have no ability to think critically, but when the overwhelming majority of Republican elected officials either remain silent or worse repeat these baseless conspiracy theories of election hoax, we as a country are in serious trouble.
The only thing fraudulent about this election is the self-serving lies of Donald Trump who once again has put his own petty interests above those of our country.
Burt Ross