Elections and Consequences

 

It’s time

Seventeen days ago, the United States of America held election day. It was preceded by several weeks of early voting in a number of states (Virginia included) and expanded absentee / mail in voting. A majority of the voting population, about 60%, took advantage of these alternatives voting methods to avoid exposure to the Corona virus. This change to the way we vote in national elections caused results to be delayed longer than we’re used to but it also provided us with, according to bi-partisan officials, “the most transparent and unencumbered election in history.”

President-Elect Biden

As of this writing, the Electoral College vote count shows Biden leading incumbent Trump, 306 to 232. This is a clear victory for Biden and the margin of votes in key “battleground” states is far higher than Trump managed in his 2016 win over Hilary Clinton. The total popular vote shows Biden with a 6 million+ vote lead with about .5% of votes left to be counted.

In other words, Biden is the President-elect of the United States.

And yet…

Transition as planned

Our nation has always prided itself on a peaceful transfer of power from the incumbent President to the new one. Even in 2016, arguably one of the most contentious presidential elections that I can recall, Clinton conceded the race within 24 hours and President Obama welcomed President-elect Trump to the White House to begin the transition within a week’s time. The Trump transition team was given
everything it desired and needed to begin the process of setting up a new government. (There are well documented reports of how the Trump transition team had little to no clue how to do this thus beginning a culture of incompetence that has lasted for four years but that’s for a different post.)

Here we are, 16 days after election, and Trump hasn’t conceded the race to Biden. He has Tweeted dozens of times that he “won the election” and in some claimed to win in a landslide. He has made so many false claims about the election up to this point (including vast conspiracies that have been disproven) that Twitter has placed more declarations of inaccuracy on his tweets than not!

It gets worse…

Over the past week or so, lawyers for Trump have filed lawsuits in multiple states across the country claiming various forms of election fraud. None of these have been filed in states that Trump was declared victor, mind you. Thus far, 28 of 31 have been thrown out for lack of evidence and the remaining 3 have been waiting for proof or evidence to investigate. (There isn’t any, they’re simply waiting for it to be presented.)

Yesterday the lead attorney for the President, Rudy Giuliani, held a news conference

Lying may cause sweating

where one of the other attorneys presented the notion that the President had won “in a landslide” and the reason the results weren’t showing that is because of a vast and dark conspiracy that involved voting machines created by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela to undermine their elections. These same types of machines are being used in swing states to undermine the President and his re-election.

Election Disrupter

(For those of you without access to Google, Hugo Chavez died in 2013. Trump hadn’t declared his intention to run for President in 2016 by then. And why on earth would the machines be set to elect Biden while allowing the loss of seats in the House And not flip the Senate? I mean, how far does one have to reach to believe this stuff???)

After watching parts of this press conference, I’m left to wonder, “What the hell?”

Time to move on

Our current President appears to be doing everything in his power to remain in power. He has always been unique in his approach to the job, sometimes bordering on the fringes of legal and often stomping all over what has been considered moral and right.

While this is hardly new, I think he’s overreaching. What he’s doing crosses the line into the area of treason. Yes, treason.

Treason is defined as “the crime of betraying one's country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.”

As I stated before, the US has always had a process in place for the peaceful transfer of power. As the US rose to the most powerful country in the world, doing so became critical to the stability and safety of the free world. This peaceful transfer has been called out, time and time again, as an example of how democracy should, and did, work.

By taking the tack that he has, President Donald J. Trump has chosen to betray our country by attempting to overthrow the government, the part of government being the effective and fair manner of holding an election. And this election has been called by bi-partisan officials as transparent and unencumbered.

What am I asking?

I’m asking for the President to concede the race and begin the transition process. If he continues in his current fashion, I’m asking for the Cabinet to remove him under the 25^th Amendment (because he’s become unable and unwilling to govern effectively).

After the new administration is inaugurated, I’m calling on the Justice Department to follow the law and prosecute anyone in the administration who has violated the Federal statutes. I also include anyone in the Republican caucus that has enabled the illegal behavior that we’re seeing.

Why would I ask this, when everyone is saying it would divide the country further? Because we need to ensure this isn’t going to happen, ever again.

Because in the end…

The Great American Experiment has taken 240 years to get to this point and almost fall apart. We must get a head start on the next two centuries. A fresh start. A clean start.

Time to take out the trash. 

This is the Trash.