OPINION

In the spirit of unity, Trump should admit 2020 wasn’t rigged

As Donald Trump prepares for another presidential term, B. Jay Cooper suggests a unifying gesture: acknowledging the 2020 election was not rigged. Such honesty could foster reconciliation amid widespread anxiety. Will he do it, though?

B. Jay Cooper

B. Jay Cooper

— 5 min read


In the spirit of unity, Trump should admit 2020 wasn’t rigged
Credit: Flickr/Gage Skidmore

H ow about we start off this transition period to another term of Donald Trump as president by all agreeing that the 2020 election was not stolen or rigged by the Democrats?

If the Democrats were capable of rigging an election, one would think this would be that election. The one when they lost the White House, the Senate and, likely, the House of Representatives.

Wouldn’t that be a nice way to start this period which half the country is scared to death about? By finally giving up the lie about the last election being fixed?

I mean, Trump convinced his entire base that it was fixed. He’s said it every day since he lost.

And, in this election, I’ve yet to hear anyone on the Democratic side say it was fixed in spite of being shocked by the results.

In fact, we just elected a man who survived two impeachments, numerous federal and state indictments and a conviction for which he’s slated to be sentenced later this month. His own chief of staff and some senior advisors called him a “fascist.” He endured two assassination attempts, including one in which a bullet grazed his ear.


And we are witnessing a full GOP takeover of the government two years after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

Yet, Vice President Kamala Harris called Trump to formally concede. She didn’t run to the cameras yelling “foul!!”

She’s given a speech to publicly concede and, I expect that both Harris and President Joe Biden will be on the platform January 20th for the inauguration of a man who has called them every name under the sun and who remain under his threat to prosecute them for whatever he feels like when he is sworn in.

After, of course, he has the pending cases against himself dismissed.

Wouldn’t that be a nice way to start his last term? By being honest at least about that fact that he actually lost the last election and now has staged a comeback even Hollywood would not have made up?

It’s a move that would be against character for Trump and one that might make some of us give him a second look.

I don’t expect it, of course, nor do you – even those of you who voted for Trump.

I think I get why he won. As James Carville told us years ago, “it’s the economy, stupid.” It’s ironic, too, that Trump will be inheriting, again, not a bad economy, but a very good one – yet one that has not positively affected all our fellow citizens.

It will, of course, unless Trump gets to put in place his threatened tariffs on other countries first, which will explode prices to Americans and pump up inflation, again.

This isn’t sour grapes. These are my expectations. I didn’t have a good feeling for two minutes watching the results Tuesday night. Even though each of those early states was going the way everyone expected – red states went red and blue states went blue. The battleground remained close. But good vibes were not coming from those early states.

I went to bed nervous because my expectation was Harris would do better than expected. That was not proven out by those early results.



In fact, Trump even won the popular vote. So much for ballot box stuffing! They weren’t stuffed … but millions were invested by taxpayers all over the country to guard against something that needed no guarding against – rigged elections.

Did foreign players distribute misinformation? Yes, they did. Did Trump and his people spread lies and disinformation? Yes, they did. It’s what they do. And, my guess is that will not stop despite his not being able to run for reelection (term limits) and therefore him being beholden only to the Constitution, which we’ve seen him ignore in the past.

So, he won. I’m not claiming foul play. I’m not alleging cheating. It’s not what we do in America when you lose an election.

That doesn’t mean I have to celebrate.

First, I’m going to be afraid that he actually will do the things he’s promised – prosecute his enemies, even if it takes the military; deport millions of people that could take years and result in refugee camps; put Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in charge of health policy and Elon Musk in charge of the budget; and so many other outrageous things he promised.


Friends on social media who are Trump supporters are posting today, in effect, that we need to unite now. The election has been decided. Many of those same “friends” who published the most disgusting memes about Vice President Harris. Many of those same friends who told me 2020 was rigged, Democrats cheated.

That will take a bit of time, I’m afraid. This isn’t like a “normal election” other than it was decided by the voters and we respect the voters’ decision.

But a nice touch would be for Trump to begin his final four years of public service by admitting he lied about the last election.

As was proven by this one.

PUBLIC SQUARE UK

GOING FURTHER



Sources:

▪ This piece was first published in The Screaming Moderate and re-published in PUBLIC SQUARE UK on 8 November 2024 under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. | The author writes in a personal capacity.
▪ Cover: Flickr/Gage Skidmore. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.)
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