I hear some people are still thinking that we are rushing to conclude that the election is decided.
That Democrats are pushing our national acceptance of a Biden victory before the results are certain. This isn’t true.
Of course there are still votes to count, but not enough to change the outcome.
Of course there will be at least one recount, but we have a long history of recounts and they have never moved enough votes as separate the candidates today, nor is it likely they will.
Of course the states electors haven’t met to vote, and the states haven’t certified the vote; but again, the long history of our democratic process shows that this too will be followed like the ones in the past.
Leaders from around the world are calling to congratulate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris already, because they have seen us do elections for many generations. The process is normal.
No one is rushing to judgment. Except the President when he claimed victory before the votes were counted.
But the thing is, this is how previous elections have gone. The votes are cast and when there aren’t enough uncounted votes left to change where things stand, the Associated Press “calls” the election. In that they predict what can’t change mathematically.
Just like they have done in elections going back a long time. No, their call isn’t official, but it doesn’t need to be because it is a reflection of reality. The official part is legal formality.
By now in any other election the loser would have conceded to the will of the people and offered a wish of success to the winner. It isn’t close enough to do otherwise.
While the President has the right to challenge close calls, his doing so under the circumstances of so great a difference demonstrates his mistrust of American democracy. Changing the outcome could only be done by either demonstrating with factual evidence that he is right to mistrust it, or by staging an executive coups with the aid of courts and legislatures.
But for all the talk by radical cultists, when time comes for the necessary political actors to throw their hands in, they are unwilling to do so. Is it fear of failure and prison? Is it fear of the civil unrest that would follow? Is it love of our democratic values? Or is it simply political expediency? After all, the Republicans gained a few Representatives and may well hold the Senate. Add to that conservative federal courts at many levels and they probably don’t think trying to keep Trump in office worthwhile.
I am reminded of the end of the movie Seven Days In May, staring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Frederic March, and other stars. When the leader of the coup was exposed and confronted, his sycophants and toadies lost their nerve.
Perhaps one day memoirs will reveal some similar tension in the White House. Perhaps Trump and his capos were ready to cross that line. Maybe they are counting oaths to see who will join, and finding insufficient support. I don’t know, but for a long time it smelled like the plan they were hatching.
But Trump hasn’t called for an uprising. He isn’t winking at his “2nd Amendment people.” He hasn’t tried to take custody of ballots, as was suggested by his ally Roger Stone. He didn’t send federal police and brown shirt “militias” into the streets to chase away voters. And the calls his lackeys are making for state legislatures to dismiss the votes of their citizens and offer their own slate of electors seem to be gaining zero traction.
The declarations Trump is making about fraud and cheating will only ring and then echo in the minds of his devoted base. The rest of those who supported him are disappointed but accepting.
There is no rush, but there is a process that follows the vote.