When I noted in last night’s ethics update that North Carolina’s Electoral College votes had been added to the Trump column, I was not aware that that Georgia had been called with Biden in a small but likely uncatchable lead (nonetheless, a recount is underway that will be complete on Wednesday: thanks to James Flood for the correction). Without Georgia, there is no sliver of a path for the President to be re-elected now. The Biden-Harris ticket has 307 EC votes, well above the 270 threshold required for election. RealClearPolitics, one of the very few news sources that did not display open bias and worse, a desire to push the election to a conclusion they favored, has the race marked as decided.
President Trump should make his concession speech today. He has a duty to concede as soon as possible, for the good of the country, in fairness to President-Elect Biden, and, though I doubt anyone could convince him of this (though I would love to have the opportunity to try), himself.
The President should do everything in his power to establish a clear contrast with the irresponsible conduct of Hillary Clinton after her defeat in 2016. She set out to undermined Trump from the beginning by refusing to accept that her loss was genuine and legitimate, thus setting the stage for a four-year effort by Democrats, the “resistance,” and the news media (the “Axis of Unethical Conduct”) to withhold national support of his leadership and wreck his term in office by unscrupulous and despicable means.
One reason this conduct by Clinton and her supporters was so destructive is that it created a precedent that risked being followed going forward to future elections, permanently weakening what had been a strength of American democracy. The President can go a long way toward undoing that damage. I think it is crucial to our national health that he do so, and the sooner the better.
The next President does not deserve to be treated like he has been. No President does.
Trump won’t what he should, of course, and this is his tragedy. All of our greatest personal strengths are also our greatest potential weaknesses, and the President’s strength is his combativeness and perseverance. These traits allowed him to accomplish an impressive number of policy achievements despite the lies, hatred, insults and fury being showered on him literally every single day. He has good reason to be bitter as well as vengeful, which is all the more reason for him, as a President, as a role model, and as a custodian of the nation’s health, welfare and future, to rise above his emotions, and do what is right.
Democrats, members of the resistance and about 99.9% of the media are ethically estopped from demanding that Trump behave better than they have. Incredibly, vicious serial attackers of the President like Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff have proclaimed that the President’s challenging the preliminary election results poses a “threat to democracy.” Their hypocrisy defies belief.
Trump also must stop claiming that the election was “rigged.” Oh, it was rigged all right, but he shouldn’t be the one saying so. At this point, Hillary Clinton has lapped the field as the most ungracious, reckless and devisive losing Presidential candidate in our history. Trump shouldn’t try to top her, although he, unlike her, has good reason to feel the election was unfair. I covered some of the reasons here.
But there is nothing anyone can do about it in practical terms, and prescriptions that are not practical or realistic are not ethical. I hope to get a post up about the “fruit of the poisonous tree” argument, a criminal law principle that some would apply to an election won by underhanded means. Declaring the loser of both the popular vote and the Electoral College total on the theory that the entire election was invalid is a recipe for civil war; it’s as irresponsible as it is impossible.
The Democrats, the news media and the Trump-Deranged are not going to make it any easier for the President to resist his worst instincts. He should rise above them, but that’s not his style, unfortunately.
There are ways for those rightly disgusted at the tactics employed to end the Trump Presidency to try to ensure their misconduct does not become a destructive national habit and our system has ample options for engaged citizens to teach politicians and their supporters to observe minimal levels of fairness. For now, our ethical duties as Americans and citizens include giving the new President a clean slate and the benefit of hope, faith, best wishes as well as the promise of support when he is right and civil criticism when he is wrong.
You know: all the traditional and time-proven democratic essentials that his party denied to Donald Trump.
President-elect Biden will need all the support he can get once he takes office. He is old, declining, stuck with an ambitious and principle-free VP and leading a party that has lost its ethical bearings. The problems the nation faces now are challenging, even frightening. He needs our support. What he does not need is predecessor seeking to undermine him and his chances to succeed.
Congratulations, President-Elect Biden.
I hope against hope to soon hear similar words from President Trump.
Ethics Alarms 
The GA recount isn’t over. It’s still continuing today and only just started yesterday morning. There were some news stories that they had stopped counting but that was a clickbait headline. They had just stopped counting for the night. It picked back up today.
The Times says this morning that the state has called it.
Wouldn’t this suggest otherwise? “The recount started at 9 a.m. Friday and will last until 11:59 p.m. Wednesday. Joe Biden led Donald Trump by 14,000 votes as of Friday afternoon.”
https://www.ajc.com/politics/recount-teams-assemble-for-manual-review-of-georgia-election-results/V22J6ZW66VESNHW77WJ2ZZ35WY/
My comment with that a link from the same source was eaten, but yeah they were counting as of like 20min ago at a rate of something like 150,000 a day with a projected deadline of Wednesday.
Yup. That’s correct. But absent some massive fraud or computer issue, 14,000 votes is impossible to make up.
Anything is possible, of course. And it gives the President a plausible excuse to delay conceding a little longer, which will become a lot longer.
And I’ve entered the appropriate correction. Thanks.
I would like your take on Sidney Powell’s interview on Lou Dobbs show yesterday.
I don’t think she would stake her reputation on the claims she made without some belief in the veracity of the data.
Trump’s legacy will be how he acts from here out. However the those making the allegations must be allowed access to materials that could substantiate the claims.
Trump did not make me skeptical of the media narrative, the media itself did. Media claims or even some Republican statements that Trump’s claims are baseless are also evaluated with a skeptical eye.
I trust no one
Here is the link to that Sidney Powell interview https://www.facebook.com/100001439347616/posts/3577192639005346/?sfnsn=mo
My God, Jack; the very machines that tabulate the votes have left-wing fraud built into them! They’re made in Venezuela, the votes are tabulated off-shore (in venezuela, I’d wager), and are actually illegal in many parts of the World because they have been PROVEN to be essentially “back-doored”.
https://canadafreepress.com/article/shock-us-vote-machines-first-used-in-communist-state-to-throw-election-by-s
https://jonsnewplace.wordpress.com/2020/11/12/us-vote-machines-made-in-venezuela-for-election-fraud/
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2020/11/hammer_scorecard_and_a_venezuelatechnology_election.html
Jack wrote, “President Trump should make his concession speech today.”
I agree.
He should also continue to legal challenges to get to the bottom of the irregularities.
And I agree with that.
I think the central issue to this election is the question “If election laws are violated, can the election be a legal, legitimate election?” Forget about the fraudulent votes for a moment, what about the election laws? Can you just ignore the election laws by removing observers, forcing observers to stay 25+ feet away from the ballots being counted, counting ballots that came in late, violating court orders to separate votes, etc, and still call the election valid? If the answer is ‘no’, then it is likely that the election results in numerous states are void and this election will have to go to Congress. If the answer is ‘yes’, then this is the end of freedom and democracy. If you can just violate election laws with no consequences, then what happens next election? That means that if you have people with baseball bats shooing the ‘wrong’ kind of people from the polls, it is OK. That means you can throw all the observers out, take large shipments of blank ballots into the counting rooms, and count the ballots in secret. That means the people who count the ballots get to run the country. In Detroit, for instance, Kwame Kilpatrick’s money man got to count the ballots this year. He paid the night shift worker over $600 for the midnight to 6 AM shift so they would keep their mouths shut…er…do a good job.
You might say it is the ethical thing for Trump to concede to heal the nation, etc etc, but rolling over for ‘unity’ or ‘the good of the nation’ is what got us here in the first place. Allowing these things to happen and not wanting to address them is what encouraged these rigged elections in the first place. By stating that Republicans must back down and ‘suck it up’ (take a look at Whoopi Goldberg’s little rant that Republicans need to ‘suck it up’ and accept the results like they did in 2016) while Democrats can have a 4-year long temper tantrum means that the Democrats win through terrorism. There is nothing to deter them from doing this again and it will encourage the courts to side for Democrats, no matter the merits of the case (If we side with the Republican, there will be riots, if we side with the Democrats, there won’t). I think Republicans need to be allowed to express their displeasure just as Democrats have. How many farmers own bulldozers and front-end loaders? If you are going to let Democrats destroy cities when they don’t get their way, Republicans need to be allowed to as well. It is only fair. If they aren’t allowed to, then why are Democrats allowed to? Is it because society expects Republicans to back down ‘for the good of the country’, but allows Democrats to be terrorists? I noticed that Democrats were allowed by the government to assault Republican protesters in D.C. this weekend. Would you ever allow the Republicans to defend themselves, or are Republicans always going to be required to back down? Are they now second-class citizens?
When people expect one side to always back down, it is usually the wrong side that is required to back down, like when all Harvey Weinstein’s victims backed down because it was too hard to rock the boat or why people are mad at Polanski’s victim. Responsible people are required to back down because irresponsible people are not fun to deal with. That is why we disarm law-abiding gun owners instead of murderous criminals to stop gun crimes. This is why we go against critics of Muslim terrorism instead of Muslim terrorists. Who would YOU rather deal with? This is the wrong approach, however. Difficult problems require difficult solutions, not pandering to bad actors. Continual pandering to bad actors gets us a presumptive President who has pledged to institute state censorship of speech (eliminate ‘disinformation and hate speech’), lockdown the country for months, and sell our economy out to China (‘back to business as usual’). We have pandered to the criminals for too long. I fear that this is our last election.
“For now, our ethical duties as Americans and citizens include giving the new President a clean slate and the benefit of hope, faith, best wishes.”
I don’t think so. He has a longer political career than I’ve been alive. He gets no “clean slate”. He’s picking right up where Obama’s regime left, which included his son flying around picking up business deals and lucrative advisory board positions. I’m not feeling generous. Never mind that he’s choosing people based on race and gender for his cabinet selections. No… we will not see competence federally when picking people first by their skin color and lady parts. Sorry Jack. He gets no “pass” from me. His prior actions show him to be unethical, I see no reason to assume he’s had a change of heart. Plus being in DC for most of his life… well I bet he hasn’t even had to go find health insurance on those cute “exchanges” they developed. Nope. No pass. Actually, I’m not sorry. His platitudes during the campaign were signals enough to show how he’s going to govern. Nevermind his dementia. If he or anyone in the top of the democratic party was ethical, he would’ve stepped down.
“Your actions are so loud, I can’t hear what you say.”
I never thought in my lifetime that I would see my state of Georgia go blue, but it seems that these are strange times we currently live in.
I wish Biden and his administration all of the best of luck-as you have pointed out Jack, he is going to need all of the help he can get from the American people….however I have serious doubts that he will be much, if any of a bulwark against the radical members of his party which seem to be gaining in power with each passing day. Biden, for all of his tough, no nonsense talk, is an old man well into his twilight years whose mind is not what it once was.
I suspect that Harris will act as his handler for the time being, at least until such a time as when Biden makes the decision himself to step down from his duties, or until he can be ‘persuaded’ to do so by members of his party-until then I suspect that we the public will be treated to a sort of King Theoden and Grima Wormtongue dynamic of presidential rule. (Yes I’m a Tolkien fan)
I now truly worry for the future of our nation, because it is now plainly apparent that radicals are poised to seize the reigns of power. I hold no illusions that their policies will succeed-if anything they will fail spectacularly, but few I think will ever be aware of it, at least not at first, not with the MSM and Big Tech, who are so firmly in the pocket of the Democrats controlling what ‘news’ and ‘facts’ are made available to the public.
Joe Biden remarked that a ‘dark winter’ was ahead of the nation-he was partially right I think, but not for the reasons he was alluding to, nor will it be relegated to just winter.
I hope I’m wrong.
Regardless I will continue to stand up for my principals, and fight to preserve the spirit of the country that I love so very much-warts and all.
When I did the math last night, with GA,WI, MI, PA, NV, AR in some state of recount/litigation it was 227 Biden to 232 Trump, so unless you are changing the media doesn’t get to call it, may as well wait, since we all expect Trump to kick and scream. We waited 37? days in 2000 for ONE, with SIX….
The media doesn’t call it, but the states do. Recounts won’t do it with Michigan. Trump had only a couple ways to win, and all non-fantastical ones included Arizona and Georgia, plus Pennsylvania. Penn. may yet get reversed, but when the odds are this long, previous candidates have conceded. If recounts and lawsuits change things, a concession isn’t legally binding.
Recounts don’t work in Michigan. The law says that if you find a difference between the original count and the recount, the original count stands. This is how you can pretend to have a recount, but not upset the work of the Party. That is why in the 2016 recount, when they found the box with 1500 Clinton votes and only about 25 ballots, the 1500 votes were counted, even thought he poll workers admitted they ran each of the ballots through the machine dozens of times ‘to make sure it worked’.
The problem is that it worked, even at the cost of losing seats in the House, and failing to capture the Senate.
If I remember correctly, you cited a poll that claimed that about 70% of Democratic voters believed in Russian collusion. I can not find the post; perhaps you can link to it.
Only a resounding defeat would have ended that precedent; even a narrow defeat would have been insufficient.
Republicans voters have a good reason to feel bitter and vengeful as well. In addition to the media bias, social media has actually suppressed the sharing of information and ideas.
What other truths are they hiding? Are they hiding anything about the COVID-19 pandemic?
How many Republican voters will believe the vote tabulation is significantly fraudulent, regardless of the evidence?
1. If I believed that Donald Trump were “literally Hitler,” or literally as bad as Hitler, nothing — no laws or anything else — would have stopped me from doing everything I could to ensure his defeat.
2. Even if it could be proved today, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Trump actually won the election, Biden would be installed as president anyway.
3. Harris will not be Biden’s handler. John Brennan will be Harris’s handler, by way of Obama.
4. Our elections are broken, and much of the breakage, especially since 2016 (particularly in the 2018 and 2020 “elections) was deliberate, indeed calculated.
5. Donald Trump is now a marked man. He knows too much.
2. Today? Not true.
You have more faith than I do.
Malaise Longue wrote, “2. Even if it could be proved today, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that Trump actually won the election, Biden would be installed as president anyway.”
HOGWASH!!!
Malaise Longue wrote, “5. Donald Trump is now a marked man. He knows too much.”
Exactly what are you insinuating?
In response to both of your questions, Steve, I am saying that Trump’s enemies will stop at nothing — legal, extralegal, or criminal. YMMV (and evidently does).
There goes the neighborhood.
“For now, our ethical duties as Americans and citizens include giving the new President a clean slate and the benefit of hope, faith, best wishes.”
That may be my ethical duty; but, it will never be with me. I’ll never be convinced Biden won. Although it may be unethical, I won’t acknowledge his victory. This, on my part, will have no impact beyond this comment.
A three or four week total lock down could bring more havoc than the country can withstand. I predict (guess, speculate, whatever you want to call it) 2021 will be worse than 2020.
Now I feel like Steve did a day or two ago.
“I’ll never be convinced Biden won. Although it may be unethical, I won’t acknowledge his victory.”
If no amount of future factual evidence could convince you of Biden’s victory, it would be unethical of you to proclaim what you see as false to be true. It would be dishonest. So refusing to acknowledge such a victory is not unethical, quite the contrary.
If on the other hand it’s just a matter of feeling the evidence for Biden winning is insufficiently convincing, while acknowledging that hypothetically such convincing evidence could possibly exist – that you just don’t think it does – then it is neither Psychotic nor Unethical.
If no amount of future factual evidence could convince you of Biden’s victory, it would be unethical of you to proclaim what you see as false to be true. It would be dishonest. So refusing to acknowledge such a victory is not unethical, quite the contrary.
If on the other hand it’s just a matter of feeling the evidence for Biden winning is insufficiently convincing, while acknowledging that hypothetically such convincing evidence could possibly exist – that you just don’t think it does – then it is neither Psychotic nor Unethical.
I will quote Jack.
https://ethicsalarms.com/2020/11/15/how-is-rewarding-unethical-behavior-ethical/
It would be tragic- and unsurprising- if even 50% of Republican voters believe that the vote tabulation was significantly fraudulent in the first case.
Actually the GA hand recount is not over yet, it continues under the eyes of the Carter Center (such credible watchdogs they, who told us that the 2004 election here was suspect, but Venezuela was totally on the up-and-up) but the media has called the state anyway. I think this sets a rotten precedent. I think this opens the way to electoral tactics to get even dirtier next time out. I think this will go down in history as the triumph of sharp practices and amorality. I also think it will leave a lot of people thirsty for revenge However, there’s no way out of this for the president. At this point the GOP needs to direct its resources to the GA runoffs, where they need to only win one of two to keep control of the Senate and deny the Democrats total control of the government, and make damn sure no fraud is used there.
Congratulations, President-elect Biden. Congratulations on winning on your third try for the White House after the party decided it didn’t want you twice, but nominated you once you were long past your pull date. Congratulations on leveraging a pandemic and civil unrest that you didn’t do a damn thing to help with. Congratulations on leveraging staying out of sight as much as possible. Congratulations on gaming a loose, insecure mail-in system ripe for fraud. Congratulations on relying on polls so oversampled and so wrong that they might as well have been made up of whole cloth, and on Big Tech burying your and your son’s unethical conduct. Congratulations on reaping the benefit of a press industry that has become and remains your ministry of propaganda. Congratulations on reaping the benefit of a party that has done nothing but attack the soon-to-be-former president from the day he was elected.
Realize that you come into office with not much of a mandate, as the down-ticket results should tell you. Realize also that there are 70 million Americans, probably a bit less than one third of the adult population and just under half the voting population, who voted against you. A lot of them can’t stand you and will never see you as legitimate. Realize also that those of us on the right are neither blind nor feebleminded. We saw what your party did the last four years, and we will not forget it. We also know that your party hates us, they’ve been saying as much for four years. You have no right to request, let alone expect, our silence, our loyalty, or our approval. You have no right to request, let alone expect, that we not do to you as your party did to Trump. If, as I suspect, you are going to be facing a hostile Senate, don’t expect them to move your appointees, executive or judicial (assuming there are many judicial slots left to fill when the current president gets done). You can thank your pal Harry Reid for setting that up. Don’t expect them to move whatever stupid bills Nancy Pelosi throws their way, except continuing resolutions to keep the government from closing, so you can’t pull the same crap Obama pulled with trying to inflict maximum pain and inconvenience on the populace and pointing the finger their way. Don’t expect us to cheer for you when you throw out the first pitch, assuming you can physically do it. Don’t expect us not to make our disapproval of you known from day one, with both ink and pixels, pointing up your many gaffes, reminding the world you can’t keep your hands off young girls, and calling you out for the senile old man you are. Yes, I said senile and I’ll keep saying it. The media can only cover for you so much. You’ll be 78 and you’ll have access to the BUTTON? When my grandfather was 78 we wouldn’t let him touch the tv remote.
Know what you can expect? You can expect the Senate to keep on looking into your ne’er do well son’s actions and your brother’s actions. The media can ignore it, or bury it, but eventually it’s going to get big enough that it can’t be ignored or buried. You can stonewall, just like Obama had his AG stonewall Congress, but that just makes you look that much more guilty. If, as I expect, the GOP takes back the House in 2022, I think you can expect to find yourself impeached, although if they’re smart they’ll go after your amoral, worthless affirmative action VP first, who I’m sure they can dig up plenty of dirt on, so she’s not your insurance policy the way you were Obama’s. You can also expect the GOP governors to tell you to go pound sand if you try to order a national lockdown, and to take you to court if you try to push it, the same way the Dem governors insisted on busting Trump’s horns in court about every damn thing. Oh no, you don’t get to suddenly say Federal authority is paramount, not after your party’s been saying the opposite for four years. You can also expect a lot of American people to look you squarely in the eye if you send Beto O’Rourke to confiscate guns and say two words: Molon Labe, which is Greek for “come and take them.” You can expect no breaks and no mercy from Putin, or Xi, or the mullahs, and you can’t hide in your basement from them. You also can’t hide from this pandemic, which is your problem now, and you better solve it, WITHOUT blaming your predecessor when you hit road blocks, otherwise why did this country hire you?
There’s another thing you can expect. You can expect all those 16 leaders in the GOP from 2016 (remember them?) who mostly dropped out of sight for four years, plus a few who’ve arisen since then, to return to the forefront, and start building a new GOP, with more minority, female, and blue-collar support, to stymie your goals at every turn, and to take you down in 2024, IF you live to see it. Because the last thing I will say you can expect is for your own party to turn on you once you act too independent or decline too far to be useful as their puppet. That 25th amendment thingy the House passed wasn’t intended for Trump. Even if it was, it can still be used on you. Don’t be surprised if it does, or if suddenly Hunter’s story gets a lot more traction, or something more sinister happens, once the party decides your services are no longer required.
Oh, and we don’t give a damn about your dogs, or your grandchildren, or your taste in ice cream, or your wife’s wardrobe, or your son who’s been dead a decade, or the faith you tout when it benefits you and ignore when it comes to it’s inconvenient tenets, so STFU about them. You are in for a rough ride, and we’ll be making it a lot rougher.
I really enjoyed reading that, thanks!
Bravo. COTD!
In looking at various definitions of the word “support,” it’s clear I simply cannot do that for Biden.
I can’t promote his interests and causes. Nor can I argue for him. I won’t hold him up or advocate for or champion him. I do not agree with him and I sure as heck won’t encourage him.
Supporting Biden means I would turn my back on my fellow Americans who deserve more than his audacity to believe he gets to decide who is and is not black. Who believes children should freely castrate themselves chemically in the name of some false diversity.
And let’s not even get started with who he is surrounding himself with. People who want to see this country become a “green” technocracy where censorship becomes a spiritual practice and identity politics becomes more important than simply being a human being.
Thanks to his former boss, my family had a 6000% increase in our health insurance costs. We spent years paying off so much medical debt we couldn’t take vacations. And he wants to make sure the ACA is expanded.
No. I won’t support Biden. I will support the Office of the President, however. I will respect him as a fellow traveler on this earth. And will watch my own ethics alarms so I don’t judge him or discern his actions from a biased view (which, admittedly, will take effort). I will make an effort to remember no matter his past, that he now has a job most of us could never do.
I won’t say, “not my President,” or call him a nazi. I won’t tell those who voted for him that they’re klan sympathizers (even though Biden’s mentor spent time with the KKK) and deserve to be ostracized. And I won’t let any media tell me what I should think about Biden, for better or worse, until I do my research.
That being said, he has to prove himself. I simply won’t support someone that is as untrustworthy and cognitively diminished as he is, until it is clear he’s earned it. Until then I will support the Office but I won’t support Joe Biden.
Well said, Mrs. Q! I concur.
Likewise.
Ditto
Sorry. Given Jack’s Ten Reasons, I’m just not ready to be enthusiastic about an Obama Restoration. I’ll keep my mouth shut, but no, I’m not going to say a thing.
Nah, they broke our balls while Trump was in power, now it’s our turn to break THEIR balls.
You’re younger and more energetic than I am, Steve.
Again, I can’t agree.
I will stipulate that Trump’s chances are not really measurable with current technology, but the reasons he should not concede are these:
1. It’s not who he is. The one thing Trump should never be, as disgusting as I find him, is inauthentic and fake. His brand is the exact opposite of that, and “To thine own self be true” is not just a truism. If he wants to retain hope of another run (which I hope doesn’t happen but alas), he must be who he is, even if the body politic must suffer some frustration for it.
2. Joe Biden doesn’t deserve it. It isn’t that I particularly loathe Biden — I don’t. Unlike Trump, I wouldn’t mind having a beer with Biden. But Biden has demonstrated that he is exactly what he wants to be; the opposite of Trump. Cultured, polite, politician-like, plus fake, inauthentic, insincere, deceptive, and typically amoral with no meaningful convictions or principles outside those situationally necessary to win votes or satisfy his political masters.
3. The Democrats don’t deserve it — the faux impeachment and the Russia fake conspiracy are the two biggest reasons why. If I have to expound on why that is, then the reader has missed the whole Trump presidency, or has lived in the MSNBC/CNN/NYT/WaPo bubble. It may be big of somebody to ignore all that with the intention of moving the country forward, but in my view, the offense was too great to justify forbearance.
Having said all that, if his Supreme Court case in PA fails to bear very significant fruit, he should concede. It would add five zeros between the decimal point and whatever his odds currently are, and there comes a point at which fighting is no longer useful even for him. But that moment has not yet arrived.
I reject the idea of un-conceding, because I’ve always thought of that as both defeatist and dishonest. I’d rather a candidate fight until he no longer has any chance than un-concede. While honesty is not exactly a Trump hallmark, the proverbial scorpion made no excuses for his nature. Neither should Trump.
Finally, regarding a President Biden: If Trump’s challenge fails, I will consider that Biden has been duly elected and he will be my president. I will hope that he is more successful than I think is realistically possible for such a dishonest, low-functioning, morally flexible politician, but one never knows.
I will no doubt oppose his presidential actions in almost every regard, but everyone deserves a chance. If we can’t find the fraud most of us think is there, we have to live with the results the election is able to produce and work to better secure future ones.
There will be other elections, no matter what. None of us knows if they will be fair or not, but if we have no hope, well, perhaps this country has existed in its current form long enough. But I’m not there yet. Not yet.
Quick reactions:
1. It’s not who he is. Isn’t that a rationalization?
2. Joe doesn’t deserve it. Of course not! But..
3. The Democrats don’t deserve it Agree 100%! But just as the election aftermath,isn’t about what Trump wants, or what Joe deserves, it also isn’t about what the Democrats deserve.
Having said all that, if his Supreme Court case in PA fails to bear very significant fruit, he should
I reject the idea of un-conceding, because I’ve always thought of that as both defeatist and dishonest. My point is that if the final tally shows that Trump won, his conceding is irrelevant. It has no legal force at all.
.
1. Yes, but it is also true. Conceding isn’t who he is, and flies in the face of everything he has stood for. That’s not necessarily a good thing, but it is at least being true to what he is, warts and all.
2 and 3. That has to matter, though. The biggest beneficiary of a concession are Democrats, not really the people at large. I believe most people are willing to wait and see. From what I have read, a significant number of Americans believe that a fraud has been perpetrated. I believe before the President concedes, that should be adjudicated to at least a majority extent. When a president concedes, most people take it as surrender, even if it isn’t legally such. I don’t think a President should surrender to a perception of fraud before it is adjudicated.
If the courts say there was no fraud, or the fraud doesn’t matter, then I think he should concede, whether he agrees or not. There is no place else to go, and We, the People now have to deal with the consequences of that adjudication. At that point, Trump would be done, and have no remedy other than trying to foment rebellion, which I would reject.
I’m preparing for that long winter Biden warned us about. Laying in more food, supplies and firewood while I can. Helping my church’s community food bank get stocked up as well. Focusing on faith, family and community even more than usual in the months ahead.
Also I am buying my garden seed and gardening supplies now to avoid the rush next spring. Ditto with canning supplies and other food preservation needs. Practicing with my awesome new crossbow. Taking additional steps toward self-sufficiency. Cooperating with like-minded others. Doing what I can to help keep the light of liberty alive.
I will fervently pray daily for God to give Biden and his administration the will and the wisdom to govern fairly and in the best interests of the nation and all its people. I hope that he will but, as we all know, hope is not a plan.
We will be okay here in our hills and hollows. In Dixieland I’ll take my stand.
How is rewarding unethical behavior ethical? Why should anyone accept Biden’s hollow call for unity while his supporters and media proxies are screaming for repression? No. Trump shouldn’t concede even if it goes to the House. To quote Rod Blagojevich, “election fraud is a time honored Democratic tradition.” Al Frankin comes to mind.
This election does many if not all the red flags of a rigged election (see link below). Letting it slide and wishing Biden well will not strengthen our democracy, it will destroy the republic. How? Every time the opposition would lead, a box of ballots will show up in the middle of the night all marked for the Democrat in more than one city. It wouldn’t matter if it is an establishment Republican or another populist like Trump.
Sure, Trump is crass and uncouth, offending upper class sensibilities. Frankly, that is the real reason for the opposition to him. Classism and envy. Sure Biden is more polished, but he is still a venal and loathsome hack with a mediocre mind even before his cognitive decline. How does he deserve the office? He didn’t campaign. He didn’t attract any crowd. His policy positions depended on his audience. All he did was hire 600 lawyers and let the machine do the rest. Now he is concerned that Trump supporters will out number, or show up, to his ingratiation. What happened to being president for all of the people? Besides, Trump is simply the better person of the two.
https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/flashback-us-once-decried-election-expelled-observers-absentee-boxes-and
If the attorneys have evidence, now is the time to present it. I agree with the Red-Eye radio hosts talking about Giuliani — don’t say I have 3 witnesses and I could produce 50 more. If you have 50 bring them forward now. Later won’t cut it, time is of the essence.
I believe the President should pursue his legal battles to the point where it becomes clear there is no hope of prevailing. It is laughable for the Democrats to contend he is obliged to concede now — they have yet to really concede 2016.
But…….but….it does not look good. So once we get to that point, yes the president should concede. I have always felt it was fatuous for the Democrats to speculate about forcibly removing him on January 20th. He’s as American as we are, and he’ll do it. He may be like some other presidents and not speak to Biden as power is transferred, but he will do the right thing. He generally has, regardless of his speech.
If I thought Biden would truly be acting as his own man and truly have the capacity to do so, I’d feel a lot better about his administration. I wish I could. I’ll not be saying ‘not my president’, but damn!
I am unconvinced this was a fair election, but I suspect nothing can be proven before 2021 or 2022. But I think we should continue looking into it and, if fraud can be proven, I hope those responsible are tossed in jail.
Republicans learned the hard way to mobilize their ground game and it nearly came through this year. I hope they have learned the hard lessons about vigilance after the balloting ends. I think Trump’s legal teams were woefully unprepared.
This sort of thing is really hard to write, and I suspect it’s somewhat incoherent but, as with the things Trump has said over the last few years, I trust you’ll get the gist of it.
When the Democrats steal the Georgia Senate seats (as they will since they know what to do now – Hell, they’re openly discussing what to do, they are so brazen at this point), Republicans will not have another change to even worry about “vigilance” or “ground game”. It’ll be set in stone. Democrats will *not* give up power. We’ve seen their fervency over the past 4 years. We know how much they hate the American Republic.
When Biden occupies the White House in January, he’ll get what God commands of me – prayers for our leaders and submission to legal authority. But he will not be a legitimate president. Not after that crap fest we witnessed. Then again, once the Democrats flip the Senate in January, it won’t be the American Republic much longer anyway.
Let me just say one more thing: Let us not give in to the councils of despair.
All is not lost, there will be another day. We have to believe that, and do what we can to make it happen.
I refuse to believe that the Democrats will be able to win both Georgia elections in January, especially looking at some of the things Warnock has said in the past. Republicans should know what is at stake and make sure every vote possible gets turned out.
I am sick at heart at what has happened, but I am not yet ready to give up on this great Republic of ours. It has endured many trials and I believe will be able to endure this one. I commend this speech to all: