Our president refuses to admit he’s a loser..
But that’s okay—although his personal behavior and his political attitude suggest he should be sent to his room without supper
—because he might be doing the country a big political favor with his stubbornness. .
Mind you, this is being written by a voter who didn’t cover the campaign or the national election returns with the intensity of the national media, whether friendly or fake in the eyes of the president.
The election was unique beyond the combatants. It was unique in the process by which it was held, a process that is likely to continue in many parts of the country. Early voting in one form or another is here to stay. Processing of those votes in this election seems to have satisfied most people, but not our president and his loyal supporters. The president is filing lawsuits right and left alleging various kinds of fraudulent actions that have denied him a second term. The complaints appear to lack evidence but our legal system does not require proof before a citizen files a complaint.
Critics have little good to say about all of this even though they are not surprised President Trump is being a poor sport about losing.
Our president is also a citizen and as with all of us, he has a right to ask the courts to remedy what he asserts is a wrong that has been done to him. It would be nice if he had firm proof to back up his attacks on the elections system and the people of both parties who administered it in this terrible time.
That aside, let us look at the positives he might be providing the country rather than dwell on the negative aspects of his personal behavior.
Your obedient servant sees at least two benefits to his actions.
First, in filing all of his lawsuits claiming the process was badly flawed, he is giving the courts multitudinous chances to confirm it was not. He is giving the courts—perhaps ultimately including many judges that he appointed—an opportunity to confirm our elections system worked even under one of the most severe tests it ever has faced.
As this is written, he and his lawyers haven’t won a single case. His efforts to de-legitimize the election and the election process are, in fact, legitimizing them, thanks to his losses in the courts. So cut him a little slack. So far he has proven the process he seeks to disprove. Let him keep going. In the end, the establishment of a 21st Century system of voting might be one of his biggest legacies, much as he might dislike the result.
Second, he is proving something upon which he has at times cast doubt—the concept that no one is above the law. Not even the president. In filing his lawsuits he is admitting that he does not have the power as President of the United States to void an election. He has the same authority you or I have, the authority as a citizen to seek redress of perceived wrongs through the court system. He’s not above us. He is still just a citizen regardless of his title.
So let him go, even though his accusations and his lawsuits and his lack of cooperation with the president-elect’s transition effort is not good for the nation. Let’s appreciate that he’s proving—although he doesn’t seem to want to—that two essential parts of our democracy are true—that no one is above or beneath the law including a president, and the election system not only works, it is capable of working under the greatest of strains. It might need some fine-tuning after this, but once again, this latest use of the system given to us by our founders has continued to work.