Results
Democrat Joe Biden leads the popular vote by over six million, and has over fifty percent. When all of the votes are “certified” by the various states, Biden will have 306 Electoral Votes to Donald Trump’s 232. That’s the exact total that Trump claimed was a “landslide” in his victory in 2016. And, in the three “Blue Wall” states that gave Trump his 2016 victory by the narrow margin of 77,744 votes, Biden flipped them by 255,754.
For a few moments (more like a couple of weeks) it seemed that Donald Trump would try to somehow ignore the popular vote, and politically maneuver himself into a second term in office. And while last night we saw a Trump tweet “allowing” (ordering?) the Administrator of the GSA to “ascertain” that Joe Biden was the President-Elect and begin the transition process, even in that message Trump still claims to be “fighting the good fight”.
Donald Trump’s supporters tweeted back to their leader. Just a few:
“Greatest President Ever!”
“You have to wake up, this is no longer a conspiracy theory.”
“BIDEN IS NOT MY PRESIDENT”.
Delegitimize
President Trump has led a yearlong campaign to discredit this election. He has questioned the results every step of the way, including filing “nuisance” lawsuits. He has created among many of the almost 74 million who voted for him, a “more than reasonable doubt” about the whether the election was “stolen”.
But what if the “shoe was on the other foot”? What if the very real strategy to political “flip” the results and take the Presidency for Trump had actually worked? I believe, when history reveals the whole story that we will find that it was a much nearer thing. It wouldn’t have taken much; a couple more state legislators susceptible to Presidential level pressure, a judge or two that could be influenced, and the Trump plan might have worked.
And what would we Democrats do? Would we accept that the election was “stolen”; that over a six million vote majority ignored, and the “rules” manipulated to maintain a Trump Presidency?
Our History
We were “led” by an honorable candidate in 2016. Secretary Clinton conceded on Wednesday morning, even though the election margin was razor thin. She said all of the right words: support the new administration, the will of the people, we must unite and move on. And even though many of us didn’t follow that advice, with the term “Resistance” in play even before Trump took the oath of office, few questioned the legitimacy of the Trump victory. (Though there remain statistical questions about what happened in balloting in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and with large precincts in – surprise – Detroit.)
But if the Trump “team” had managed to reverse the election decision, Democrats this time would have been unwilling to accept the results. What that means – I’m not sure. It’s not likely that Democrats would take to the streets with guns: that’s not our style. But take to the streets – absolutely. What kind of civil unrest might result from that, I don’t know.
Expect This
So there are many millions of Americans, including some of my closest neighbors; that have been told by their “leader” that the election has been stolen from him, and them. Many of them are “true believers” in Donald Trump, and in the aura of victimhood he engenders.
What are they going to do when Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20th at noon? It’s hard to imagine that those who would “storm” the State Houses with semi-automatic weapons at the ready because of face masks and stay-at-home orders, would do less if they felt the Presidency was stolen. Are they going to have a national “truck parade” to block traffic throughout the nation? That seems pretty futile.
President Trump has achieved a personal goal. He has established a “base” that will follow him – anywhere. And while last night’s tweet (a Hell of a way to run a railroad) acknowledges a Biden victory, Donald Trump is never going to say it. And so his “base” will never believe it. Many of those supporters fly the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag of the American Revolution. Do we really expect they are going to “swallow” an election they believe was “stolen”? I don’t.
This isn’t over.
