Caffeinated Politics

What the vast majority of the United States well knows is that Joe Biden solidly defeated Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Even 6th graders know that there needs to be 270 electoral votes to win and that Biden earned 306 of them to Trump’s 232. Biden received 51.3% of the vote compared to Trump’s 46.9%. In terms of actual votes, that computes to 81.3 million votes vs. 74.2 million votes. It was not a close election. Conversely, it must be stated that Trump lied (I know, I know, you are shocked that Trump would do such a thing) in 2016 by trying to claim that his 304 to 227 Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton was a “landslide”.  The FACT is that 2016 was the closest election since 2004.

When it comes to history and presidential elections, there are reasons for a couple of national candidates questioning the end result in modern times.  In 1960, Republican Richard Nixon was denied (I believe) a victory due to election chicanery in Illinois. In 2000, the most bizarre ending of ballot counting in Florida denied Democratic candidate Al Gore the presidency.  Some hoped that Nixon might challenge the results, but he knew a prolonged reexamination of the ballots would harm the nation on the world stage and threaten our security needs in the growing Cold War. Gore’s reaction to the loss of the White House due to the actions of the Supreme Court will go down as one of the best examples of what Dad always pressed upon me as a kid.  The best way to gauge a politician is not when they win, but how they react when losing.  Then he always told me to act the same way when coming up short in life. Here are a few lines from Gore’s remarks to the nation.

Over the library of one of our great law schools is inscribed the motto, “Not under man but under God and law.” That’s the ruling principle of American freedom, the source of our democratic liberties. I’ve tried to make it my guide throughout this contest as it has guided America’s deliberations of all the complex issues of the past five weeks.

Now the U.S. Supreme Court has spoken. Let there be no doubt, while I strongly disagree with the court’s decision, I accept it. I accept the finality of this outcome which will be ratified next Monday in the Electoral College. And tonight, for the sake of our unity of the people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.

When Trump lost the election, he and his ilk coordinated with conservative Republican members of Congress, including Wisconsin Senator and full-time clown Ron Johnson, to try to outright subvert the election results to stay in power. They promoted and then staged an insurrection where violent and angry Trump-supporting rioters actually used flag poles to beat and injure law enforcement officers at the Capitol.

So, what is the best way to defend our democracy from authoritarianism? What is the best way to act moving forward as we recall the violent, angry men who sought out Vice-President Mike Pence to hang him at the Capitol on January 6^th?

We are aware of the term act locally, but I strongly suggest that it is precisely what we must continue to do moving forward. I had every intention of stopping blogging after the 2016 election. (I started Caffeinated Politics in 2006.) But the dark road that Trump was taking the nation required every lighted voice to fight back, so this small place on the information highway and the ways to use it continue. 

We know that what happened on January 6th was aimed to create such chaos and danger that Congress would not, could not, complete the constitutionally required counting of the Electoral College ballots, and that a delay would be forced on the body, and conservative Republican efforts would then be used to flip the election to a fascist. Donald Trump.

The legislative chamber was cleared, and members of Congress moved to safety. But it was the page staff who secured the Electoral College ballots from the mob, who ‘just wished to pick up their much-used library card that dropped from their pocket when they were looking for the gift shop’ at the Capitol.

We will never forget the attack on our nation by Donald Trump and his supporters.