Jan 13, 2021

The Republicans are now making a big deal out of what they describe as the righteous indignation, totally justified, that a big segment of the 74 million who voted for Trump feel the election was stolen.

Stolen, and they want it either restored to Trump, or at the very least, a convincing process engaged to study, analyze, and verify the election results. That’s what they want.

What’s missing?

Three things are missing. First, the 50 States each studied and analyzed their election returns, several of the “battleground” states re-counting and taking other measures to study any questionable ballots in regards to signatures and other factors. They all reported that they were entirely satisfied with their results. They all reported that even if the very small number of discrepancies were further studied, they could assure that the changes from such a small number would never be sufficient to change the outcome of the election in their states. Subsequently, some 60 lawsuits were turned down by judges in state and federal courts across the country, including our Supreme Court–finding absolutely no merit to the only anecdotal evidence offered.

Furthermore, the Federal Election Commission reported that they had done their own preparations thoroughly and that this was the most secure election in American history.

So, there was no one,. no official body, no court, no state Attorney General or Secretary of State, who found evidence that a court considered valid to show the election was stolen.

So, no one.

But the third reason is the clincher: Who was it who created the illusion that the election was stolen, in the face of all this evidence to the contrary? President Trump did that. President Trump from the day of the election and daily after that, in speech after speech, rally after rally, tweet after tweet, incited his base with the belief that the election had been stolen.

That’s what’s missing. That’s what the Republicans do not mention when they are trying to gain sympathy for millions of disenfranchised Americans who believe the election was stolen.

Since the perpetrator of the lie is not going to recant his claim, and the genie is out of the bottle now. there is little that can be done to assuage the frustration of those millions who bought the lie.

Biden’s team is certainly studying a review of the election as a possibility, but it’s not that simple now. Given the level of passion Trump has incited, who can devise, who can imagine, a process that would really be sufficient to resolve that falsehood? It’s next to impossible.

Can anyone imagine a process that would convince Jim Jordan and Matt Gaetz?