Another Election, 2022

Another election day is less than three weeks away and I am panicked at the possibility that the Republican liars might win control of Congress and pave the way for Trump to announce his candidacy for 2024. I am forever appalled by the willingness of the Republican candidates to continue to promulgate the lie that the 2020 election was “stolen,” despite the existence of absolutely no evidence to support that claim and sufficient evidence to refute it. I am horrified by the willingness of Republican leadership, despite their acknowledgement that Joe Biden won the presidential election, to support candidates who continue the lie. I am astounded at the illiteracy Republican candidates display in their public pronouncements and I am insulted by the continual racism, sexism and antisemitism that spews from their mouths. This is not Germany in the Nazi era, but Republican rhetoric smacks of fascism; their behaviors and words portend what might happen should they, indeed, succeed in gaining power.
            But more, I am horrified at the willingness of so much of the populace that continues to accept the Big Lie that the 2020 election was won by Trump and then illegally stolen from him. There is a sign on a lawn I pass regularly that announces, “He is not my President.” What a display of disrespect and ignorance, I think. The reality is that Biden was legally, unequivocally elected by several million votes. Under normal circumstances that might be considered a landslide. If the electoral college system suggests that with the change of a handful of votes in several states Trump might have won the election, then it is simply further evidence that the electoral college system is badly flawed and anti-democratic. It is ironic to me that the founding fathers (and mothers?) tried to ensure that the country would be run by the intelligentsia and yet it is the ignorant that the electoral system has most supported. These founders were afraid of what they perceived the ignorant and unwashed. So am I, but in fact the 2020 elections seems to me to suggest that the electorate is not at all as ignorant as the founders believed.

I am horrified that Trump’s legal troubles seem not at all to concern either the Republican party (save for a few brave ones: Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, for example) or the MAGA world. Yesterday the news reported that the Trump organization had charged exorbitant rates to the Secret Service and today Trump himself is being deposed in a defamation suit brought by a woman who has accused him of raping her. His defense is that he didn’t know the woman and besides, “she’s not my type,” as if there are others who are more his type and who he would prone to rape. He continues to spew his lies, ugly bombast and repulsive calumnies, and his minions delight in his lies and insults and despotic spewing. He gives voice to the hate within them.

This has been yet another rant. It is meaningless in the long run, and does not relieve my concern and anger, nor does it affect the situation. Oh, I remain angry and fearful; I know that there is precedent to support my anxiety.