Don't Admit Defeat

The number of voters expected to go to the polls in November should be aware that their votes may not count. Or matter. There appears to be a concerted effort by Republican candidates running for office in the midterms, to openly declare that if they should happen to lose the races that they are in, they plan on not accepting the results. In other words, 2016 will be front and center in 2022 over some Republicans candidates not willing to accept defeat at the polls. There have not been moments in history where a candidate from either party openly says that if they lost an election, they would not accept the results. Candidates of days gone by, have called the winner and congratulated that person and “made a pledge” that he/she would work with the winner for the good of the nation. Donald Trump changed all of that. When Trump won in 2016 through the electoral college vote count, he lost the popular vote count to Hillary Clinton. What did Mrs. Clinton do? She accepted the fact that she lost and congratulated the winner, Donald Trump. There wasn’t any “fake” vote count over the electoral college tally, but somehow the winner whined that he should have won the popular vote also. Someone forgot to tell him that in the presidential race, it is not how many votes from the people directly that affect the outcome, but from the states’ allotted electoral votes that each state has. That’s the way the framers wanted it and so far that is the only game in town. If there was anyone who had a right to really grip and frag the vote count, even from an electoral college standpoint, that would have been Al Gore. Remember, Gore lost to George Bush based on the vote tally in Florida, as its electoral votes would have cemented the victory for either man. It was up to the Supreme Court that the decided the winner, as the decision went to Bush. Gore didn’t go out and gather his supporters to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” to put him in power. Mr. Gore showed a side of civility, dignity and integrity that is just about gone in today’s political climate by gracefully bowing out from any more protestations, saying that it was time for the nation to move forward. Maybe that should be taught in the history books as a way of showing new, up and coming candidates who want to serve, that there is a right way to transfer power after an election.

If Republican candidates decide to reject the outcome as some are saying that they will, what comes next? We saw how long Trump tied up the system with endless legal challenges in states where he lost, leading this reporter to ask, why not contest them all? If one is talking about “fairness”, make sure that the winner in this case, Joe Biden didn’t lose the states like New York that he was expected to win. But by saying that they won’t accept the results of an election if they lose, Republicans are sending a clear signal to judges, perhaps like the one in Florida (a red state) where Trump got his “special master”, to be on guard because they are coming looking for favors especially if they were appointed by Republican presidents. Now some of them are repeating Trump’s warning that if he is indicted, there could be trouble (read violent riots) in the streets if a judge doesn’t give him the ruling that the seeks. He didn’t say if he lost in 2024 because he hasn’t announced if he is going to run in 2024. He keeps his supporters hanging on to his every word about what he would do when, not if, he is president in 2025.

Republicans in state legislatures where they have power, are making it more difficult for minority voters to cast their votes not only in November, but also in 2024. They are hoping that by having a handful of Black candidates running in state/federal elections, voter suppression won’t be an issue, since none of their candidates will mention it. Hershel Walker hasn’t mentioned that Georgia of all states where he is running for a senate seat, is aware of voter suppression by Republicans and the fact that Trump who endorsed him, wanted the secretary of state to find him just enough votes to overturn the presidential election in his favor. What does this say about us as a nation? Not very much. The world knows about this nation’s violent history of denying Black people the right to vote. It wasn’t that way when white women got the right to vote. Nonetheless all over the South, history is repeating itself. Gone are the white men who stood up for Black voting rights, who passed laws in Congress and signed by a white president at a time when violence in the streets was much worse than what we saw on Jan. 6. Jan. 6 was one day, whereas the struggle for Black people having the right to vote went on for years, resulting in violence and deaths where some in power don’t want it taught in schools. Republican candidates are now going by the Trump playbook, throwing fairness out of the window. Perhaps a famous wrestler said it best, though not referring to politics. He said “win if you can, lose if you must. But always cheat”. Remember, the world is watching. So is God.