Trump Tries to Wreck the Political System
By Eugene Robinson
August 12, 2016
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Speaker Ryan and all you other reluctant Trump supporters, you know as well as I do that he's not going to change. Not ever. You will recall that this was supposed to be the week when Trump turned to the economy. He even gave a teleprompter-aided speech Monday that was generally praised by conservatives, who clearly are willing to grade their candidate on an absurdly generous curve. But within a day, Trump was back to setting new lows in the history of modern presidential campaigning. If there is a trophy for Most Dishonest and Destructive, Trump is determined to retire it.
He is also determined, apparently, to rationalize his likely defeat by claiming the election was stolen from him.
The other trope he keeps returning to these days is that the election is somehow being "rigged." He claims that the striking down of discriminatory voter ID laws in North Carolina, Wisconsin and elsewhere would make this possible. He fails to explain why Republican officials -- who administer the voting process in most states -- would want to steal the election from their own party.
The point isn't logic, of course. It's emotion. Trump strikes a chord with Republicans who cannot bring themselves to admit they were beaten fair and square by Barack Obama, not once but twice. Trump has long sought to delegitimize Obama by refusing to disown all the "birther" nonsense and insinuating that the president has some sympathy for jihadists. Now Trump seeks to delegitimize the likely next president as well by claiming the election will be rigged.
In 2000, after the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Florida recount must cease, Al Gore graciously conceded to George W. Bush. Gore said he was doing so "for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy."
Can anyone imagine Trump ever giving such a speech?
Trump wants to stoke anger, resentment and victimhood. He abases our democracy -- and Republican elected officials abase themselves by supporting him. History will have no mercy for Trump's enablers.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2016/08/12/trump_tries_to_wreck_the_political_system_131487.html
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