December 3, 2020

It’s been a month since the election and the president has not yet conceded alleging ‘wide spread voter fraud’ and a rigged election.  The solution to this conundrum is really very simple.  I’m really surprised that Trump’s crack legal team led by Rudy Giuliani has not thought of this already.  All they have to do is produce some evidence that will stand up to scrutiny in a court of law.  I think they teach this in ‘Law 101’ but perhaps in the heat of the moment, Rudy just forgot about that lesson. 

If the Trump campaign has as much evidence as they claim to have, this should be a slam-dunk!  You would think after losing or withdrawing around 40 lawsuits in state and federal courts in multiple states that it would have dawned on Rudy and his colleagues that if they just supplied the courts with their overwhelming evidence of election fraud, their cases would be adjudicated much more favorably.  Alas, perhaps Rudy just doesn’t have any evidence.

Republican and Democrat election officials across all of the contested states have states that there is no evidence of election fraud.  And now, even the Attorney General, Bill Barr, has stated that the DOJ has found no evidence of election fraud.  [Note to Bill Barr – get ready to join the growing crowd under the bus!] Could it possibly be there wasn’t actually any election fraud? 

I actually have a theory as to why Trump is so convinced that there was election fraud.  There are the obvious reasons.  He continues to raise money for his leadership PAC as long as he propagates the myth of election fraud.  And, as I have discussed before, he and his family certainly face legal exposure when they exit the White House.  However, I think there is another reason why Trump is so upset.  I think his ‘plan’ backfired.

As you recall, Trump has been talking about a rigged election for months.  And for months he railed against mail-in ballots, stating, without evidence, that mail-in ballots are rife with opportunities for voter fraud.    He mucked with the US Postal Service by installing a Trump loyalist, Louis DeJoy, as US Postmaster, who immediately implemented changes that slowed down the mail delivery.  In the weeks leading up to the election, there was a great deal of fear, particularly among those that were going to vote against Trump (Democrats and Independents) that their votes would not reach polling places in time due to the slowdown in the mail system.  This led to a record number of early voters and mail-in ballots.  There was also fear of election day violence and Trump’s ‘poll watchers’ intimidating voters which led to a further increase in people using mail-in ballots.

I have this little voice in the back of my head that is whispering that it was the intent of the Trump campaign to scare ‘anti-Trump’ voters into using mail-in ballots with two objectives.  They were hoping that some ballots would not reach the polling places in time and would be thrown out.  They further assumed they would be able to challenge these mail-in ballots and get them thrown out.  And, that’s where the plan fell apart.   The fact is, if all of the mail-in ballots were thrown out, Trump probably would have won the election. 

Perhaps Trump’s campaign just figured that if they alleged wide spread fraud with mail-in ballots without providing any evidence, that judges would side with them and just toss out all of those ballots.   Fortunately, judges in this country including conservative judges appointed by Trump, have all followed the law, demanded evidence to support the allegations and when no evidence is produced, the cases are thrown out.   I think Trump is angry because his plan backfired.

I have discussed in previous posts how a standard tactic in authoritarian regimes is to pack the courts with sympathetic or corrupt judges and use their ‘pseudo-legal’ rulings to maintain and increase the dictators grip on power.   I really think that is what Trump was trying to do here.  Fortunately, the court system here is still holding solid against Trump’s continued assault on the rule of law and our democracy.  Let’s hope the system holds together for another 50 days.

There are, however, continued threats.  Apparently, Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Advisor, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia and was recently pardoned by Trump, retweeted a post from some Right-Wing organization calling for Trump to declare martial law and force a re-do of the 2020 election under the direction of the military.  Think about that.  The former National Security Advisor of the United States, propagating information calling for martial law.  This is the stuff that dictatorships are made of.  This is dangerous stuff.  And amidst these assaults and continued delusions from the president and his allies, the silence from the Republican leadership continues to be deafening.

Fortunately, I don’t believe that Trump has the unwavering support of the military and, in fact, General Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has made it clear that the military is loyal to the Constitution.  That said, Trump has been actively purging the top ranks of the Pentagon and installing Trump loyalists, so don’t discount anything.  As I have stated before, I won’t rest easy until a moving van leaves the White House with all of Trumps crap in it.  Well, given that Trump is so full of crap, it might take several moving vans!  Nonetheless, I will be happy to watch the convoy leave 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.  Until then, this man is so desperate, nothing would surprise me.