Whatever I Say

 

 “The only way we’re gonna lose this election is if the election is rigged.”

Donald Trump at a Wisconsin rally, August 17^th

 

Even as the US Postmaster General and Trump mega-donor, Louis DeJoy, under pressure from Republicans, Democrats and his own board of governors, reversed course and pledged to maintain USPS staffing and facilities levels to service the upcoming election, the damage that has been implemented to date may have already impaired the vote-by-mail possibilities. Post offices have been closed, almost 700 major sorting machines removed (many disassembled) and untold numbers of mailboxes have been ripped out (a disproportionately from minority neighborhoods) to be dumped and stored (see above photo) with no intention to put them back.

Trump has never been subtle about believing that he could ever lose an election. Despite his shortfall of nearly three million voters in the popular vote in 2016 – he won only because of the way the electoral college is structured – he has consistently maintained that that only voter fraud could account for that shortfall. Since the election has accelerated campaigns for the November balloting, Trump has steadily increased his attempts at voter suppression, fabricated the notion of massive voter fraud if vote-by-mail is permitted and suggested that HE may accordingly choose to ignore election results if he loses.

His major excuse, documented in the Trump-mandated federal lawsuits against blue states with vote-by-mail, is that these blue states are likely to have oversized voting – by non-citizens and by those stuffing the ballot box – which should invalidate those who did not vote in person. In the middle of a major pandemic of a highly contagious disease. Even states that have had vote-by-mail structures for a very long time… with no measurable voter fraud. That Trump himself is casting an absentee ballot in Florida, a red state with a long-standing vote-by-mail system (which Trump has personally blessed), suggests the level of desperation that Trump must feel in wave after wave of strongly negative polling results. But his threat to disregard the election results raises the bar to what some might call treason.

Many right-wing conservative Trump supporters are aghast at the prospect of a President refusing to leave office at the end of his term in office because in his personal opinion, the election was not fair to him. “Fox News’ Chris Wallace described President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to cast doubt on the result of the upcoming 2020 election as ‘troubling.’…On Tuesday’s broadcast [8/18] of ‘America’s Newsroom,’ anchor Sandra Smith asked Wallace what Trump’s claim [quoted under the title above] told him ‘about what we could see and hear over the next couple of months from the president.’

“‘Well, look, the president obviously is going to make the case for himself and make the case against (Democratic nominee) Joe Biden,’ Wallace replied. ‘But this is troubling and he did it in my interview with him, I guess, three weeks ago, he has done it repeatedly before and since…. The argument that if he loses, it’s because the election was stolen from him, not because of a majority of Americans voted against him, you know, obviously one of the things that we treasure in this country is the peaceful transition of power,’ explained Wallace.

“‘I’m not saying Joe Biden is going to win and Donald Trump is going to lose. But if that should happen and there’s certainly a possibility that it will,’ Wallace continued. ‘One would hope that whoever wins, whoever loses, that both sides will agree that was the judgment of the American people and they’re going to abide by it.’” Huffington Post, August 19^th.

On camera, Trump has requested foreign countries to help him get reelected. He has admitted asking Ukraine to investigate the Biden family. Trump’s bizarrely overly cozy relationship with Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin has taken precedence over warnings and hard factual findings, even from Trump’s own political party.

Trump has consistently denied massive and thoroughly documented attempts by Russian operatives to spread disinformation to US voters through online communications – emails, texts, social media, etc. – often tailored to the recipients’ obvious insecurities and biases. Computer-generated communications (“bots”) have been a particularly effective method of offshore manipulation. He has sloughed off the reports from every US intelligence agency of Russian interference and even of the Russian bounty on US soldiers. He rejected the Muller Report, relying on his Attorney General’s highly in accurate summary of the conclusions, as total exoneration (which was pretty much the opposite of the true results). Since the House impeachment vote was mounted by Democrats, he was able to dismiss that effort entirely (supported by a party-line vote in the US Senate).

But the fact of Russian support, Russian election manipulation, never goes away. A new report, this time generated by a GOP-majority Senate, sustains the accusations… again! “President Trump’s 2016 campaign eagerly capitalized on Russia’s efforts to meddle in the U.S. election four years ago, according to a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report that raises new concerns about connections between his top aides and Moscow.

“As Russian military intelligence officers were releasing hacked Democratic Party emails through WikiLeaks, the report said the Trump campaign ‘sought to maximize the impact of those leaks’ and ‘created messaging strategies’ around them… The report, released Tuesday [8/18], found that the Trump campaign ‘publicly undermined’ the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia was behind the email hack and ‘was indifferent to whether it and WikiLeaks were furthering a Russian election interference effort.’

“The 966-page document describes Paul Manafort, the president’s former campaign chairman who is serving prison time for financial crimes, as a ‘grave counterintelligence threat’ because of his relationship with Konstantin Kilimnik, a business partner in Ukraine who is conclusively described as a ‘Russian intelligence officer.’…

“The Senate Intelligence Committee was alarmed by efforts to mislead or stonewall its investigation… According to a letter reviewed by The Times last week, the panel told federal prosecutors last year that three witnesses — including former campaign strategist Stephen K. Bannon — may have provided false testimony. Lying to Congress is a felony.” Sarah D. Wire and Chris Megerian writing for the August 19^th Los Angeles Times.

What is particularly shocking is the lockstep support Trump still generates from Republicans in Congress, state GOP elected officials and his evangelically led base in spite of his dramatic lack of character as evidenced by the above. Particularly in light of his utter failure, particularly when compared to global statistics, to set a strategy that is directed at effectively containing the spread of this highly contagious novel coronavirus. We’re still flailing. The virus is still growing and killing. And Trump is still bragging about his “success.” Trump feeds his constituents “words” without solutions. Without character, how can any president govern?

I’m Peter Dekom, and I find it puzzling that so many Americans simply do not realize that the nation itself is in peril, because of a leader who cares only about himself and not the people he was elected to serve.