Should Trump be Stopped?
Left, Right Contributors Comment on the Former President's Ongoing Coup Attempt
As News & Notes, along with Congress, takes holiday recess for the rest of 2021, The Hustings is running comments from contributors and readers on apparent efforts by Donald J. Trump and his supporters to secure the 2024 presidential election. Following are the first left- and right-column comments. To submit your own opinion on the matter, please hit the comments button on this site, or at https://thehustings.news or email us at editors@thehustings.news.
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The Incredible Power of the Big Lie
Left-column commentary by Jim McCraw
With every passing day, the investigations by Congress into all the things that happened after the election and before the certification on January 6th reveal more and more details about who was in league with Donald Trump and what they were all up to, generating doubt from every angle about the legitimacy of the elections in Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Michigan.
With every passing day, we find that more evidence of Republican senators and congressmen and vast numbers of people inside the Trump White House, all screaming about “crime,” “fraud,” “impropriety,” “cheating,” and all the rest of the epithets that add up to The Big Lie.
They took command of the news media and social media, they instituted lawsuits against governments and officials and didn’t stop lying about The Big Lie for weeks, inflaming right wing voters to the point where the most radical elements in the party attacked the building, the people and the institutions that form the United States government because certain leaders in the government told them to do it.
Treason is an ugly, ugly word, but, for many of the people involved in this horrible mess, that it exactly the definition of what they did, and I hope that every single one of them will be made to answer for their crimes. This is still America.
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Corruption from a Con
Right-column commentary by Stephen Macaulay
Let’s make this as easy to understand as we can:
Donald Trump claimed, for months before the 2020 election, that if he lost the election, then the election had to be rigged. After all: Everyone loves him. Lots of people say so. Let’s forget about the 65,844,610 people who voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. They had to be wrong. The 62,979,636 people who voted Trump—yes, they knew what was going on.
And in case you’re wondering, 65 is greater than 62. But never mind.
In the 2020 election, Joe Biden got 81,283,098 votes. Trump received 74,222,958.
81 is bigger than 74.
Of course, the reason that Clinton didn’t win, the solid popular vote (you, know, THE PEOPLE) notwithstanding, is because the way the electoral college is constructed.
Trump received 306 votes in the electoral college in 2016. He called it a “landslide.”
Biden received 306 votes in the electoral college in 2020. Trump called it a “steal.”
There have been recounts and lawsuits brought on by Team Trump. The Capitol was invaded. In the first case, there haven’t been irregularities of any scope that would change the results. In the second case, we can see just how desperate and deluded some people are.
For reasons that are mystifying, there are those who continue to support the false claims of the Biggest Loser.
Remember: He said, before the fact, that if he didn’t win, then the election had to be rigged. Everyone knows that he’s the one more people want.
But look at those numbers:
Clinton: 65,844,610 Trump: 62,979,636
Biden: 81,283,098 Trump: 74,222,958
The people who think that Trump unfairly lost—people who have no evidence of that—should be ashamed of themselves. If they had any shame.
And as the country moves toward the elections in 2022 and 2024 we can only hope that people who understand that things like facts and evidence matter stand up for them in the face of boldfaced lies.
If they don’t, then perhaps we get what we deserve: The corruption caused by a transactional con artist.