Fraud
By
Leonard Zwelling
Let’s ignore for a moment the rants of the current occupant of the Oval Office that somehow he was cheated out of an election victory despite the fact that he lost the popular vote (again) by 7 million ballots (this time, 3 million last time). At this point in time, some 28 days from the end of the Trump Presidency, I really don’t care what he says or does. His behavior is reminiscent of Nixon’s in The Final Days (see Woodward and Bernstein book of that title) of his presidency. I suspect Trump is talking to the portraits in the halls as Nixon did. As they used to say on Laugh-In, “say goodnight, Don.”
But once again, Ron Johnson (R-WI) convened his Senate committee to look into the allegations of fraud that beset the 2020 Presidential election. Except there are none of consequence. The officials who know what happened on both sides of the aisle confirm that Joe Biden is the Electoral College victor by the same margin that Trump won by in 2016. As Chris Krebs, the former head of cyber security and a Republican has noted, this was the fairest and most secure election in American history.
My conservative friends have insisted that up until the Electoral College’s official tally on December 14 that Trump could still win and that the election was stolen from him. This was patently ridiculous. But now, even after all that has transpired since November 3, there are still Republicans out there insisting that Trump didn’t really lose. People—he did!
The problem that my conservative friends will not acquiesce to is that this behavior denying reality is damaging to the democracy. It is. To have large segments of the population actually believing that our electoral process is somehow rigged will make Mr. Biden’s job of bringing the country together that much harder. And consider what this means for future elections if the people don’t believe in their integrity. This will be tested presently in Georgia.
So here’s a suggestion.
Stop it!
You don’t always get what you want. You do get what you need and what we need is Trump gone. He has poisoned the political atmosphere and brought out the worst in leaders on both sides of the aisle. Believe me, I wish I could have voted Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer out as well as they too are impediments to progress on Capitol Hill and I think that Mr. Biden may have as much trouble with them as he will with Mitch McConnell.
The government is simply not working. It shouldn’t take this long to get needed relief to those whose businesses have been harmed by covid, nor should it be so hard to get federal dollars to those who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own. Do your damned job, Congress!
Mr. Biden’s number one challenge will be to get the people to believe in the government again. I am reading David McCullough’s John Adams and the people losing faith in the federal government is nothing new. Even George Washington was heavily criticized at the end of his presidency. It’s the nature of Americans to complain, but in times of need they also usually pull together. This is just such a time and the cries of fraud by the Republicans are damaging the compact between the people and their leaders.
Once again—STOP IT!
1 thought on “Fraud”
Government has NOT been working efficiently because we have had an incompetent President at the top, surrounded by family and others who have NO real experience in leadership or management. We also have some embarrassing Republicans who are whiners! Please get real! Don’t tell what you cannot do. Tell us what you can do to help ALL Americans.
Biden and Harris are likely to come on with vigor, competence, and persistence. Don’t expect them to be nice to incompetent people who have obstructed justice and held up relief for the needy. They need to be TOUGH! After all, a majority margin of over 7 million Americans want them to build back better. That means debriding the “dead flesh” in government.