L: President-elect Joe Biden (Official White House Photo by David Lienemann) // R: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris (photo by Office of Senator Kamala Harris, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons)
Three weeks ago, when we were discussing the ceiling-smashing glory of Kamala Harris, we could only have guessed at the craziness that Trump was going to subject the country to for the next fortnight (and beyond). While the pandemic saw the States break the sort of records that you never want to break regarding cases and deaths, Trump has been spending his time tweeting bullshit, throwing tantrums, and actively trying to steal the election.
That’s no exaggeration; he, his staff, and his supporters have been so busy crying “fraud,” “rigged,” and “steal,” that they haven’t been paying enough attention to their own behavior. Or maybe they have, and their own accusations acted as a handy diversion. First of all, we had South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham calling up the (Republican) Secretary of State in Georgia, Brad Raffensperger, pushing him towards tossing out legal votes. Then we had the president himself meeting with Michigan Republican GOP leaders prior to the certification deadline. That certification happened on the day I’m writing this, by the way, but while it ultimately passed, one of those Republicans, Norm Shinkle, abstained from voting. While it passed 3-0, the fact that pressure from the president encouraged someone not to do their duty and certify the will of the people of Michigan is incredibly concerning.
It really hammered home many people’s suspicions: Trump never really believed that any fraud had taken place. He started talking about fraud months ago, when the polls started hinting at a Biden victory. Even when he won the election four years ago, it bothered him so much that he had lost the popular vote that he claimed fraud then too. Of course there wasn’t any then, and of course there isn’t any now.
Trump knew that from the start. He admitted years ago that he never says sorry, never says he’s wrong, because those things are a sign of weakness in his (and his father’s) eyes. The truth, of course, is that it just makes him a sore loser. And a dangerous one.
Trapt (photo: Bill Barton)
He is a loser though. A big stinking loser. The joy in his awfulness is that his persistence in denying a free and fair election has resulted in him losing again and again, like Groundhog Day, every single day. Last week, as we mentioned, Michigan was certified on Monday. That Tuesday saw Pennsylvania and Nevada certified. Pennsylvania courts keep throwing out Trump suits. Rudy Giuliani keeps making a prick of himself — after that wonderful moment when he held a press conference at the Four Seasons Total Landscaping (who are selling a “Make America Rake Again” shirt), he spoke for 90 minutes while hair dye ran down his face. Frankly, the Trump protests against this election have been an embarrassment — to the country sure, but more so to himself.
And here’s the thing: So many Republicans have been staying silent and allowing him to act like a nightmare because 1) they need his support for the Georgia runoffs in January and 2) they’re frankly terrified that he’ll be back in 2024 (or 2023 for the Republican primaries, if you will). Many Democrats shudder at the thought, but they shouldn’t.
First of all, we’ve beaten him once and we can beat him again. Yes, he got an incredible 74 million votes. But voting was up this year across the board. And three–four years is a long time in politics. Those same people rabid about Trump now might well be in an entirely different mindset by then. If Trump sets up his own Network, or appears regularly on the extreme right OAN or Newsmax, his audience will thin over time.
It’s like Parler, a microblogging platform, which will likely wither away after the inauguration. By all accounts, the platform looks like shit and rates terribly for usability. People will get tired and reactivate their Facebook/Twitter accounts when they tire of their adolescent echo chamber.
One of those people will likely be Chris Taylor Brown of the ’80s nu-metal band Trapt. We’ve had run-ins with the guy before and we were tickled to discover that Brown had turned to Parler because Twitter and Facebook had removed the band’s profiles because of incessant disinformation.
But I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking, “What did Ted Nugent have to say about the election?” Welllllll…….
“I’ve been absorbing, searching, reviewing, masticating and regurgitating. All the evidence I can find, the election was a fraud. There were an awful lot of dead people that voted. I don’t have the exact number, but there were a lot of dead people that voted. There were a lot of suspicious ballots brought in in the middle of the night in giant boxes and in giant numbers that we have eyewitnesses and people who have actually signed affidavits accordingly that these boxes came in full of thousands and thousands of ballots that were only for Joe Biden. So I can go on. I think everybody who doesn’t have their head too far up their ass already knows this kind of evidence.”
Nobody really believes there was fraud. Republicans might believe that the mail-in voting system led to more people voting which, in turn, led to a Democratic victory. There’s nothing Republicans fear more than large voting numbers — it benefits them to keep the numbers down because, if every legal voter in the country actually voted, the Democrats would always win. They know that. So suppression makes sense to them. In 2020, We the People didn’t allow it. The rules were the rules, and they were followed. No fraud, just a welcome Biden/Harris win.
