'Rigged' election claims then and now

philebersole

Sep 30

President Biden and other leading Democrats are aghast that so many Donald Trump supporters don't accept the results of the 2020 election. But as these two videos by Matt Orfalea show, the shoe was on the other foot for the 2016 election.

First there was the campaign to persuade members of the Electoral College to vote for candidates other than the ones the voters chose.

Then came the charges that the election result was somehow the result of a conspiracy between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. All the specific claims in the bogus Russiagate scandal were debunked.

Nevertheless Democrats proceeded with an impeachment trial on the claim that Trump had tried to obstruct the investigation of the nonexistent crime, which failed.

Then they tried again for impeachment on the claim that Trump urged the President of Ukraine to investigate a corrupt corporation in his county for the purpose of discrediting Joe Biden. This, too, failed.

Now they are pursuing criminal investigations of Trump's business dealings and of his failure to turn over classified information. Of course Trump may well be guilty of something and, if tried and convicted, he should pay the usual fine.

I think the motive for these investigations is to find something - anything - that would discredit Trump or possibly prevent him from running again. I recall Democrats took a different stance about Hillary Clinton's problems with handling classified information.

∞∞∞

Here's the thing. It is not a crime to claim that an election is rigged. It is not a crime to deny that an election result is legitimate. If you believe that, and say so, this is an expression of your right to free speech.

I myself think there is a strong possibility that the 2016 election result was swayed by hacking of voting machines. Tests of certain voting machines showed that the results could be altered, both on-site and remotely, and that there was no way to detect the results.

There were also widespread attempts to illegitimately purge voter rolls of black people. Investigative reporter Greg Palast has been on this topic like a bulldog.

I am certain that the result of the 2000 election was determined by illegal purging of voter rolls in Florida and may also have been influenced by a miscount of ballots.

It is very possible that there was ballot-tampering in the 2020 election, although it is just as likely that it was done by Republicans as Democrats. Yes, Republicans are the ones making the most noise about this. Recall the strategy of Karl Rove was to accuse one's opponents of the thing you are doing yourself.

But once the election is held, it is too late to change the result. There is a fine line between protesting the results of an election, which citizens have every right to do, and making an insurrection or coup to overturn the results.