Several polls have been released over the past few weeks, all showing that Donald Trump maintains a substantial approval rating among Republicans. One of these polls from Iowa indicated that 91% of Republicans continue to view Trump favorably, in contrast with 99% of Democrats in that state who view him unfavorably. See,
Those who view Mr. Trump favorably apparently have no problem with his repeated claims that the 2020 election was “stolen” from him.
Perhaps the most bedrock principle of any democracy is that the people get to pick their leaders through fair and honest elections. After the 2020 presidential election, court after court, some led by judges appointed by Donald Trump, dismissed challenges to the election results, often citing fraudulent claims and flimsy evidence submitted by plaintiffs. So-called “audits” conducted by GOP-led states have done nothing to support the notion that anyone other than Joe Biden was elected by both a majority of American voters and a majority of Electoral College ballots.
So, what is it that Republicans want? Do they want to establish a rule that says the winner of a given election will be the person who screams the loudest after the votes are counted? Or do they want a rule that will establish as the winner whichever party successful holds onto the Capitol Building on the January 6th following each presidential election? How, exactly, to they propose we determine the winner, if not by the current method of certification according to each state’s laws, as monitored by state and federal courts?
Rest assured that if Donald Trump were, heaven help us, to regain his position as President of the United States, he will do everything humanly possible to gain control of the election machinery in all fifty states. He will make sure that the only winners of state and federal elections will be those deemed by his inner circle to be Trump loyalists. When honest vote-counters refuse to certify a result in his direction, they will be summarily dismissed from their positions and replaced by those who will agree to just “find me another 20,000 votes.”
Republicans can’t have it both ways. They can’t pretend to be afraid of big government, on the one hand, while also agreeing to give up the bedrock agreement stated in the preamble of the United States Constitution: “We the People” are the ones who determine the leadership of our government.