Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Rigged

Trump says the election is rigged.  Every mainstream politician and media representative points out that the US election system is so local and state run, so de-centralized, that it would be difficult to "rig" the entire election.  There could be some irregularities - it has been established in court that some recent laws, primarily voter id and early voting reductions, have attempted to suppress voting by college students, people of color and the elderly - the people who generally vote for the Democratic candidate.  Regarding the North Carolina law, the court said the law aimed "with surgical precision" to suppress minority voting.  A PA state legislator was quoted as saying that his states' law aimed, in 2012, to elect Mitt Romney.
That said, to say that the media is biased, calling Hillary Clinton "crooked" and promising to put work at putting Clinton in "jail" - is ridiculous.
To broadly declare that the "election is rigged" is an outright lie and undermines the democratic (small "d") process in a way that endangers the foundation of our country.
As an aside, I read that Russia as interested in bringing "observers" to Oklahoma and another nearby state.  Officials in those states immediately promised to jail any Russians attempting to observe the election.  Interesting how Russia keeps popping up in this election - that's definitely a new development.  But I digress.
The media gave Trump enormous amounts of free air time during the primary - maybe even gave him that win.
Trump has a core group of followers who believe everything that he says.  It doesn't matter if he believes what he says.  What matters is that he is undermining belief in the democratic system. 
Hillary Clinton is going to face not only a divided country, but a portion of the country who does not accept her as President. 
Hillary and the Democratic Party are doing all they can to run up their score - that is the only thing they can do to give the election legitimacy.  Mainstream Republican politicians will some day have to take some leadership, maybe after the election, if any of them are left in office.  Right now, Republican politicians are afraid of the Trump voter.  That leadership will need to broaden their base and develop a consistent message instead of the current patchwork of racism, economic conservatism and religious fervor.

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