By V. Susan Hutchinson
When Hillary Clinton lost the Electoral College in 2016, Trump supporters were quick to say “get over it.” Trump campaign signs and bumper stickers this year read “Trump 2020 – Make Liberals Cry Again”, as if that was the only reason to vote for him.
Liberals have never cried, but boy Trump supporters sure know how to whine. Like newly re-elected Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC).
While President-Elect Joe Biden pleads for unity and says those who voted for Trump “are not our enemies”, Donald Trump’s supporters continue to dig in their heels, refusing to accept defeat, and are out protesting across the country to the tune of “Stop the Steal” and “This Isn’t Over.”
Donald Trump and his lackey, Rudy Giuliani, continue to claim voter fraud and a rigged election. Of the dozen lawsuits filed by Trump in states where Biden won by a narrow margin, all have been dismissed. The Republican party has even started a campaign to raise $60 million to fund the legal challenges. But read that fine print before you donate because it says more than half of the money raised will go to paying campaign debts.
That last part should come as no surprise. After all, Trump and his family have been banned from operating charities in New York because they stole from a children’s cancer charity they established.
Don the Con is still scamming his supporters under the guise of doing something good for them.
Lindsey Graham Whines Too
Although Trump has been eerily silent for the last couple of days, his supporters in Congress were on national television yesterday banging the drum for him, and Graham is still on the Trump train even though over one million South Carolinians voted last week to send him packing.
Apparently all that matters to Graham is that he won and the voices of all of those who didn’t vote for him have fallen on deaf ears.
Lindsey Graham made a telling comment about the Republican Party while being interviewed on Sunday on Fox News. Graham said Trump shouldn’t give up the fight because “if Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again.”
Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich responded by saying the GOP has no evidence of fraud and is only attacking the outcome because Trump lost. Reich went on to state:
The nation was already divided when Trump became president. But Trump exploited our division to gain and try to keep power. He didn’t just pour salt into our wounds. He planted grenades in them. And now he and his enablers appear willing to pull the pins.
Is Lindsey Graham Right?
A lot of people on both sides of the political fence probably agree that the U.S. election system needs to be changed or at least seriously looked at for improvements. In that respect, Lindsey Graham is right.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed just how precarious the current electoral process is. This, by no means, will be America’s last pandemic. Hopefully, it will be the last uncontrolled pandemic, however, but the fact still remains that the way the United States conducts its general elections is wholly inefficient.
Donald Trump barely squeezed out a win in 2016 in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania and is now claiming fraud because Joe Biden has done the same in those states. When putting Graham’s comments in context of these 2016 and 2020 swing state results, he is saying that the system needs to be changed so only Republicans can win elections. He couldn’t care less if the playing field is leveled for both parties.
Challenging the voting system during an election process where your candidate lost only looks like sour grapes, Mr. Graham, not a sincere appeal to change things for the good of the American voters.
Why don’t you initiate something via the legislative process in Congress for future elections instead of whining about how unfair the election process is to Donald Trump this time around?
We Need Something to Change
Should the Electoral College go away? Should it be restructured? Should there be a national standard for how all elections are conducted and not have state-to-state variations?
All good questions, but we shouldn’t be looking to only change our processes.
If we really want to level the playing field in future elections, maybe both parties should start asking why two polar opposite candidates garnered so many votes. Over 74 million people voted for Joe Biden while over 70 million voted for Donald Trump. Those are very telling numbers if people like Lindsey Graham would just pay attention and stop trying to find ways to rig the system, so the minority has the most say in government.
Both Democrats and Republicans need to learn from this election and seriously look at how we got to this point. The ongoing issues of racism, healthcare and climate change, among others, are being addressed as part of a legislative process, not on a personal level of understanding.
Congress has the power to initiate legislative change, but only the leaders in the political parties have the ability to bring people together on both sides by talking with them, not at them, to find common ground for the good of the country.
You can’t legislate unity.
As Abraham Lincoln said “A house divided against itself cannot stand.” Except this time the division goes a lot deeper than slavery and it can’t be addressed with an amendment.
