The End

You need to see it for yourself.  Because just reading the news stories about Trump’s statement at around 7pm ET on Thursday will lend it a degree of coherence and sanity, and it was anything but coherent and sane.  It was the desperate ramblings of a supreme narcissist who, seeing his world beginning to crumble, would rather destroy everything than submit to a reality which doesn’t fit his narrative. We’ve moved beyond electoral politics into grotesque theater.

In around 15 minutes, the President of the United States managed to claim that the country’s election process -- the process on which his authority rests -- is corrupt. That the counting of legally cast votes should be stopped (except in Arizona, where there’s still a chance that he could chip away at Biden’s current lead).  That the polls predicting a big Biden win constituted voter suppression (evidently this was no problem in 2016).  That votes for his opponent are illegal.  That this was all perpetrated by “big media, big money, and big tech.”  That bursting pipes and nonexistent “secret counting rooms” have been engineered by a corrupt Democrat machine to steal the election.  This is gaslighting taken to its more extreme and most dangerous.

Meanwhile, one by one, Trump’s enablers turn their backs on him.  Fox News, whose coverage of this election has been commendably fair and critical, stuck by their decision to call Arizona for Biden, despite Jared Kushner’s frantic phone calls to Rupert Murdoch. Twitter, long the vehicle for Trump’s most specious and inflammatory rhetoric, began flagging his posts as false and misleading.  GOP leadership, realizing that Trump has outlived his usefulness now that certain congressional districts have been retained, refuses to parrot his conspiracy theories.  His inner circle has dwindled to a smattering of sycophants and immediate family members.  

It almost makes you feel sorry for the guy.  Almost.

This election could still go either way.  As I write this, Trump leads in Georgia by less than 500 votes.  Biden’s lead in Nevada is less than 9,000.  I honestly have no idea what will happen over the next two months.  Yet I am given some confidence and hope by the people, Republicans and Democrats, who are actually administering the election process.  Public servants in department store clothing who are discharging their duty, capably and seriously.  People like Joe Gloria in Nevada,  Gabriel Sterling in Georgia, Jocelyn Benson in Michigan, Kathy Boockvar in Pennsylvania.  These are the people who give me some hope that my home country might be able to pull through this in one piece.  May God keep them safe.