JANUARY 6, 2020 – To function successfully, a democracy requires a foundation of many supporting stones—a well- informed public, established rule of law, majority rule, minority rights . . . for starters. But the cornerstones of democracy are (1) free and fair elections; and (2) losers respecting results. Since November, the Naked Emperor has been leading a non-stop assault on the latter. Ironically, his attack is built on baseless claims that (select) elections weren’t free and fair. Shameless in their support are Republicans whose names appeared on the very same ballots that would have to be rejected if the phony fraud claims weren’t phony. Shame, it appears, is so not a thing anymore.
Anyone who’s read a sampling of my blog posts knows I’m as thoroughly disgusted with Trump as anyone can be. But I also realize that Trump isn’t by himself the problem. Further, I’m not surprised that he still enjoys broad support among a troubling percentage of Americans. What worries me most acutely is that high elected officials—starting with the dozen rotten eggs in the Senate—and not just a scattering of trailer trash have jumped on board Trump’s crazy train.
The Dirty Dozen Republican Senators are worse than craven hypocrites. They are dangerous traitors. For the preservation of democracy, they deserve to be publicly excoriated and electorally eradicated from public office. By their wholesale participation in Trump’s charade, they use the hammers of raw personal ambition to smash our democratic cornerstones. Gripping false claims of voter fraud, they refuse to accept an electoral loss and an overwhelmingly decisive one at that.
To be sure, the indictment mustn’t stop with the Dirty Dozen. How many other Republicans, short and tall, across the country have said, however half-heartedly, “Trump has a legal right to challenge the election process”? If this reaction isn’t openly traitorous, it condones and abets efforts that are.
The baseless refusal to accept electoral loss is anti-democratic and therefore, anti-American per se. Even after January 20, the precedent set by the Naked Emperor and the Dirty Dozen will inspire emulation in the future—driven in a feedback loop fueled and fanned by such sources as FoxNews, Newsmax, Breitbart, Oann . . . and their consumers . . . not to mention a long list of white supremacist and extremists empowered by the internet.
This traitorous condition will not be easy to combat, particularly amidst the challenge of so many other immediate crises threatening our way of life and our lives themselves. It’s as if we’re aboard a warship in stormy seas. Enemy planes attack from the air while a mutiny ensues on board and disease rips through the ranks. And all the while, we must keep the ship afloat and underway or all is lost. Now more than ever before is the time for steady hands—and minds—on the bridge.
But likewise, now is the time to understand and protect the cornerstone of American democracy, to-wit: our survival depends on electoral losers accepting electoral loss.
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© 2021 by Eric Nilsson
