Jon's Soapbox
Large Minority of Americans Create an Alternate Reality
(posted 01/03/2021) - There are 74 million stories in the US of A about how Biden and a huge cadre of henchmen stole the election from Donald Trump in 2020. God knows I've listened to enough of them to last a life time. They are so earnest, so heartfelt, so sure of the obviousness of their position. As one Trump supporter recently said " Anyone believing (sic) no election fraud is either lying or ignorant."
I'm not going to try and refute specific claims -- it is futile, as they just keep morphing in real-time. If your favorite pundit has said (or has brought on those who say) "There is video proof and affidavits of massive voter fraud in this election" then you will point to that and accuse me of willful ignorance at best if I dismiss your argument.
But here's the thing - across six swing states and across 81 million Biden ballots you are arguing that your 74 million votes count more somehow. Over 50 state and federal courts have listened to arguments from the Trump lawyers and have dismissed the suits - with prejudice in many cases - as baseless. Do you really believe literally hundreds of people across so many states are in cahouts? It strains credulity!
I feel so sorry for the voting segment of the Trump constituency that has lost the ability to step back and ask a few basic questions about the level of conspiracy required to throw an election across so many states. Significantly, even the Trump dominated Justice Department has reported "no significant, election result altering fraud" was found in their investigation.
These die-hards have created a closed network in which they trade conspiracy theories and succor each other's wounded pride. Fact: This presidential election experienced the largest ever off-shore betting pool for any US event in history. Oddly enough Trump bets continued to be made at 5-1 odds even after Trump was declared the loser. The Trump Voter will not admit defeat. The odds makers waited until the state certifications were all in to pay out on Biden bets; and Trump bets were still flooding in (that is crazy).
So, I recognize that many of my fellow Americans are living in a separate reality in which there are massive deep-state forces at work to block the Trump Team from making America Great Again. I'm so glad I don't live there with them.
Just saw this Lou Dobbs quote and it seems so apropos I had to tack it on to this soapbox post ...
Following the despicable January 6th attempt to disrupt the counting of electoral votes in congress by organized and abetted seditionist MAGAnistas I believe this NYT op-ed by James Bouie is quite approrpriate as a history lesson. Link is here.
Light at the end of that tunnel ...
Post Script: Article on state of GOP in 2021 for future reference -
link to PDF.