The Real Fraud

 I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't know why anyone, and I mean anyone, listens to anything, and I mean anything, Donald Trump says. 

He won the election? No. 

He's going to get states to appoint alternate electoral college voters who will undo the will of the people? No.

He's the best Republican president since Lincoln? No.

It's clear that he doesn't care at all about the country or democracy or unity, but only about himself and how history will see him as a minor, failed, one term president who lost because he couldn't adequately meet the most serious challenge of his presidency. In fact, history will remember him as the president who refused to wear a mask, told the country to take unproven medicine and bleach to fight Covid, and victimized responsible politicians who followed science and common sense rather than worrying about how the pandemic was going to effect Donald Trump.

He's also going to be remembered as the president who couldn't even consider that he might lose the election to a more qualified, less hyperactive candidate who spoke sensibly and genuinely to the American people. Donald Trump could have easily won this election, but his strategy in the first debate was a debacle, and his reliance on conspiracy theories regarding Joe Biden's son and mail-in ballots, and that darn virus likely did him in.

And it's not like Donald Trump is in any way a popular president. He lost the popular vote in 2016 with 46% of people voting for him and 48% for Hillary Clinton. During his presidency, his approval ratings rarely rose above 46% and only in the pandemic's early days did it rise above 50% before moving back down into the 40s. In the 2020 election he improved his share of the vote from 46% to...47%. In an election where more Americans than ever took part. In every case, he claimed fraud, illegal voters, and other plots robbed him of his rightful majority. The only thing he didn't claim was the truth; that he didn't, never did, and doesn't now, have the approval of a majority of this country.

Joe Biden has so far won 51% of the popular vote, and more votes are being counted. Joe Biden got more votes than any other presidential candidate in the history of this country. Joe Biden won the election. I just don't see where Donald Trump can claim anything other than he lost the election. Period.

But rather than show any grace or respect for the country, its democratic institutions, and its people, Donald Trump has to drag us through a process that has seen him lose in court after court because he has no case and no facts. He certainly has his supporters and spineless Republican officeholders who fear that if they tell him the truth he'll have them defeated in primaries, but, again, there's no case for anything other than helping to transition the country from the Trump Administration to the Biden Administration. 

Anything else does damage to the country.