SEPTEMBER 26,2020 – After three and a half years, no one should be surprised by Trump’s latest disruption of political norms. But his most recent assault on our democracy should motivate responsible Americans to vote for Biden in overwhelming numbers.
What Trump has said about the electoral process is not merely “disruptive.” It undermines the foundation of the democratic process. His exact words: “[T]he only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”
Studies across the country have shown that voter fraud in the modern era is infinitesimal. Yet Trump cites the nine discarded ballots in Pennsylvania as evidence of “widespread fraud.” The claim is nothing short of a lie atop a distortion. The discard was an honest mistake by a neophyte employee of a contractor tasked with processing the batch of ballots that included the nine in question; in 2016 over 6 million Pennsylvanians voted in the presidential election. Yet Trump’s supporters have jumped on this red herring peddled by the Orange Man. I fear that our democracy will choke on the bones of irresponsible rhetoric.
Trump’s words reminded me of a sign at the anti-Trump rally a year ago in Minneapolis. Among many clever protest slogans, the most direct one read simply, “WHERE DO I START?” At the time, I laughed. Where does one start in describing the litany of Trump’s offenses? Today I know exactly where to start—and finish: Trump’s deadly poisonous statement that the only valid result will be his victory. This is the language of a dictator—not “the leader of the free world.”
Trump’s declaration ought to send shivers down the spine of every patriotic, independent-minded American. To all Republicans I say, Trump’s frontal attack on democracy should overwhelm your support of his edicts, orders, and actions—no matter how much you embrace his “policies”; no matter how convinced you are that your 401(k) performance is attributable to Trump; no matter how critical you think an ultra-conservative Supreme Court is to your religious beliefs; no matter how much you discount the Mueller Report (assuming you’ve read it); no matter how much you deny climate change and its primary cause; no matter how scared you are of Black people; no matter how much you fear “socialism”; no matter how much you despise government for ordering you to don a face mask (to inhibit a killer pandemic) before you enter store or restaurant—oh, where do I end?
In the wake of Trump’s dangerous talk, David Gergen and Sean O’Keefe—serious people, advisors to Republican presidents—expressed harsh condemnation of Trump. They issued dire warnings about his threatened dictatorship. That’s when the reality of the present danger sank in.
As never before, responsible voters need to stop the dictator in his tracks. We need to turn out in numbers never before witnessed.
We can still pull our democracy from the abyss. And we must—for ourselves, our children, and our children’s children, and . . . in honoring the memory of our forebears who built and defended this Grand Old Republic.
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© 2020 by Eric Nilsson
