Donald Trump should concede the 2020 election now and facilitate a normal transfer of executive power.
It's not that he doesn't have a point regarding possible fraud in this election. Christopher Krebs' assertion notwithstanding, the 2020 election is unlikely to have been "the most secure in U.S. history", and the more dogmatically our Democrats echo Mr. Krebs' avowal, the more open to question it becomes. Circumstantial evidence pointing to possible fraud is significant, and Trump could hardly be expected to ignore the issue.
It should not be forgotten that Hillary Clinton herself in August of this year advised Joe Biden, should he appear to have lost the election, not to concede "under any circumstances". Her rationale was that Republicans would, in her words, have attempted to "mess up absentee balloting". Mrs. Clinton is as well-positioned as anyone in the country to know how possible this was going to be. She was also no doubt fully aware that her own party's operatives were poised to exploit exactly the same vulnerability should it prove necessary. Trump is justified in wondering if such skullduggery is indeed what just cost him this election.
All that said, however, circumstantial evidence accounts for nothing in court, and it's already clear that's about all Trump has to go on. This doesn't mean game-changing fraud didn't occur, but simply that it can't be proven conclusively. And proof is all that matters in the end.
The bar is, as it should be, extremely high for anyone attempting to overturn a called election. America is already showing disturbing signs of resembling a supersized banana republic, and a chaotic transfer of power at this stage in our history would carry that dynamic to an embarrassing new level. The consequences for our political future would be devastating, and our ballyhooed reputation as Democracy's global champion would be gone.
The immediate problem is, of course, that most of the key players don't really want an end to the banana republic stuff. They're all addicted to it. The Democrats, egged on by their left wing, are by now so accustomed to perpetual shaming and inquisition that they would feel politically naked if they had to depend on their ideology alone for winning public support. They require outrage and enemies in order to sustain momentum.
Donald Trump, for his part, has over the last four years grown comfortable in his role as persecuted martyr. He knows that even out office, his detractors are going to continue hounding him in court under whatever pretext they can uncover. It would be simply a continuation of the impeachment process that seemed like such an empty can for them at the time, but that in fact served the purpose of giving them much-needed unity of purpose. Trump has, in my opinion, always been more interested in attention than in political power anyway, and even out of office he can go on courting attention as long as he can remain at the center of inquisition. Rather like Hillary Clinton, the only thing in life he really fears is irrelevance.
Most importantly, the media has profited handsomely by endlessly fanning the flames of political discord. Celebrity pundits are not going to return easily to the roles of flat-footed reporters. Hence, they, the Democrats, and Donald Trump are all motivated by the same need, i.e., to keep the hostile extravaganza running. Even with the mantle of the Presidency in hand, Joe Biden will continue to be, as he is now, little more than a political sideshow. He's too ineffectual and a little too boring to be of much interest to anyone.
However, the general public is growing tired of the whole thing. Speaking for myself, I'm sick to death of it, and I know I'm not alone. Both Trump's cult and the anti-cult arrayed against him are going to start losing steam now. The media will soon discover that fanning dead embers will never re-start a fire.
So Where Does All This Leave The
Republicans?
Most people seem to have forgotten that Trump was never really a Republican. His ideological grounding has always been wobbly, and as recently as 2008 he identified more or less as a Democrat, voicing half-hearted support for Mrs. Clinton in her contest against Barak Obama. He didn't seem to be paying much attention to the Republicans in those days.
However, he soon recognized the opportunity opening up for himself in that hapless party, and in 2009 he registered there. By the time 2016 rolled around, he had taken over the Party "like a bottom-feeding sea creature taking up residence in an abandoned shell", if I might be permitted here to quote myself (American Counterpoint, 5/10/20). Trump formed an alliance of convenience with traditional Republicans but neither his heart nor theirs were ever really in it. When he used the Party's infrastructure to clobber Mrs. Clinton in that year's election, Republicans were pleased but still wary of him. They never really forgave him for his repudiation of free trade, his isolationism, his fiscal imprudence, nor his tolerance for big government. They also mistrusted his shoddy friends and his weird personality.
At this point, in my opinion, the only viable strategy for the Republicans is to re-affirm their party's traditional values and cut their ties with Donald Trump. He was never really one of them, and they should now allow him to drift back to wherever his shallow roots can find a point of attachment.
The problem for them is, however, they no longer have a viable political base without the voters he energized. He was able to take over the empty shell of the party precisely because it had indeed become empty. Without him, the shell probably becomes vacant again .
I wish I could see a constructive forward path Republicans right now, but I'm struggling with the task. It's aspirational values are: responsible hard work, self-reliance, economic freedom, fairness, pragmatism, and defense of liberty internationally, all political principles that must remain as focal points for any program I'm willing to support. I want to believe that the American public is ready to embrace these values again too if a responsible champion can step forward. However, I'm not optimistic. The party might survive, but only if leaders emerge who are able once again to articulate Republican precepts in a manner that has resonance for voters.
So far
as I can see, such leaders are not among
us at the present time.
And What About The Democrats?
While Democrats are trying their best to celebrate their 2020 victory, the insightful ones are troubled because they know how embarrassingly shallow it was. For one thing, they actually managed to lose ground in the House of Representatives, thanks to the antics there of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the other unapologetic leftists whom the Dems, revealingly, have allowed to become their party's public face.
Even more troubling for traditional Democrats has to be that, in an effort to disguise their party's leftward lurch, they lined up behind a man who was probably the weakest presidential candidate in America since Alf Landon. Absolutely no one seemed able to muster more than tepid enthusiasm for him, and even that was largely feigned. Voters turned to him because he promised to put an end to Trumpism, and they could imagine him perhaps on a good day to be something like what he once was.
Given Biden's physical and mental debilities, he may well not make it through his term. This sets the stage for what is probably going to be yet another turbulent transition in the very near future. It's symptomatic of the party's deep cynicism that they have knowingly subjected the country to the risk of this destabilizing scenario.
The Democratic Party, like the Republican Party, has pretty much lost its identity. What was once the "party of the common man", dedicated to a fair deal for everyone, has today evolved into the party of upper-middle class sophisticates, shallow Hollywood celebrities, and hedge fund billionaires, all dedicated to little more than strident outrage and the cult of victimhood. It's all quite odd. They have massive funding, outspending the GOP by 2 to 1 in this extravagant election, but no viable political platform. In 2020, all that has really animated them was rabid anti-Trumpism. With Trump nearly out of the way now, that soon will be gone too. What's left?
Death Spiral for America's
Two-Party System
Both of our major political parties are, in my judgment, in a precarious state. Trump may have just facilitated the final death throes of the Republicans, and the radical socialists are in the process of accomplishing the same for the Democrats.
The purpose of political parties in a democratic system is to facilitate collaboration and to help keep the human proclivity for conflict within constructive bounds. Their method is promoting cooperation among various interest groups who have different priorities but who have enough in common to allow for mutual tolerance. They build coalitions among themselves to pursue their objectives and defend against other groups perceived by all to be the bigger threat. Hence, parties are by their nature unstable and prone to fragmentation when the allied groups no longer feel their own goals being addressed within the confines of the confederation.
The roots of today's parties can be traced back to the early days of the American republic, but the modern parties both took shape in the chaotic years following the Civil War. They have since morphed repeatedly and today bear little resemblance to their original incarnations, even though Republicans occasionally brag about their role in liberating black Americans, and Democrats sometimes talk as though they imagine themselves still to be representing the nation's hardworking yeomen.
It's my guess that our parties are probably entering into another period of shape-changing, albeit with new and troubling undercurrents that will add alarming twists to the process. Trump voters are mad as hell, and probably not particularly interested in being saddled much longer with the stuffed suits of the old GOP. On the other side of the great divide, the radical left is no doubt eager to get on with shoving Joe Biden out of the way and finally making clear what their real agenda for the country is.
This is obviously an explosive configuration that bodes ill for our future.
Cold Civil War
Financier Barnard Baruch in 1947 coined the term "Cold War" to describe the deadly tension that ramped up between the U.S. and the Soviet Union when WWII's end ruptured the alliance between the two nations. In the new nuclear age, hot war was too horrible for anyone to contemplate, and yet war it seemed to be once again right on the heels of the one just ended. So "Cold War" became the metaphor that defined the geopolitics of the next four decades. The two sides entered into conflict all over the world, but mutual dread of the consequences resulting from true total war forced them to pull their punches until the Soviet Union finally threw in the towel in 1991.
Now today in the United States Cold Civil War seems like an apt metaphor to describe the sorry condition into which our national dialogue has descended.
Sometime prior to the election, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin on national television said the following:
Ms. Rubin is not some obscure blogger or an Antifa
spokeswoman. She is a mainstream journalist writing for a major American newspaper.
Talk about dog whistles! If we alter the contemporary references here,
these words could have emanated from the mouth of Joseph Goebbels. She imagines
herself to be speaking metaphorically, but political metaphors invariably reveal
deeper thinking. They will do it again! No survivors allowed!
Even the writers of Teen Vogue are fulminating in adolescent fury about "progressive ideas". One Kandist Mallett cries out that these wonderful ideas "always get shafted" when Democrats compromise with anybody. So please, Mr. Biden, no compromising!
Out of curiosity I did a quick google search yesterday to find out if the Communist Party USA was still in business. Indeed it is! While still steeped in their lugubrious nineteenth century doctrines, and still hungry for "struggle", and "people's revolution", these folks have updated their look and feel. The posted articles are full of ebullient election chatter and complete with the latest news about Pennsylvania and Georgia. Fully aware of what's happening on the left wing of the Democratic Party, they've endorsed Joe Biden! They know he won't be around for long.
Antifa and BLM, operating as our modern-day American brownshirts, will remain in the streets, knowing no distinction between celebration and riot.
I don't know what's going to emerge on the Republican side at this point, but I fear the reaction to all this. Some Dems have been loosely and irresponsibly throwing around the word "fascist" for the past four years. They've aimed it at Trump and anybody else showing the temerity to question their doctrines.
I fear the day may be approaching when they learn what a real fascist looks like. I really don't want to be around on that day.
