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As you sow, so shall you reap: Why Democrats can’t blame Trump supporters for undermining faith in the US election process

In the event of a defeat for Donald Trump, it is unlikely that the sentiment of disenfranchisement, that is no doubt rampant among vast sections of the Trump support-base, will fade quickly.

Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden appears set to win the US Presidential Elections 2020, however, uncertainty still looms large over the results. Donald Trump has made it clear that he will approach the Supreme Court over the matter. Widespread claims of voter fraud are doing the rounds, much to the chagrin of Democrats, and while many of them have been debunked, there is a persistent feeling among Trump supporters that the election was stolen from their favoured candidate.

There is good reason for this, of course. Democrats have undermined faith in the US election process ever since the 2016 presidential elections. An FBI investigation was initiated into alleged links between Trump associates and Russian officials to determine “whether individuals associated with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign were coordinating, wittingly or unwittingly, with the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election”.

That eventually translated into spying into the Trump Campaign and approval for it came from the very top with Joe Biden and President Obama themselves believed to have played a part. All of this was unprecedented. A sitting president ordering an FBI investigation into a political opponent is unheard of. A review by Department of Justice Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz determined that the FBI had made 17 errors or omissions while applying for FISA warrants at the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA Court).

Recent declassification of intel revealed that according to Russian intelligence, Hillary Clinton “had approved a campaign plan to stir up a scandal” against Trump by “tying him to Putin and the Russians’ hacking of the Democratic National Committee”. The report does not say whether the US intelligence agencies verified the information but the declassification of the information did reveal that the intelligence agencies forwarded the information to the FBI. The events that have followed since then makes the motivation for the Russia allegations against Trump abundantly clear.

The conduct of disgraced FBI agent Peter Strzok and others revealed quite clearly there were elements within the intelligence agencies that were effectively trying to enforce a coup against a democratically elected president of the United States. Throughout all of this, the media pretended that there was absolutely nothing untoward happening at all. If Donald Trump believes that he is the victim of the biggest witch-hunt in history, then he would be correct in believing so.

The Democratic establishment, unable to digest the results of the 2016 presidential elections and in severe need of a scapegoat to continue to remain in control of the party amidst a rebellion from the Bernie Sanders faction, decided to invent the Russian Collusion hoax. They could always rely on their friends in the mainstream media to peddle their favoured narrative and journalists did not disappoint.

Despite an utter lack of evidence, they continued on their fact-free treasure hunt and in the process, had half the country convinced that Donald Trump won the 2016 presidential elections only because Russia interfered on his behalf. The collusion hoax led to a Special Counsel investigation by Robert Mueller and his team. Between 2017 and 2019, during which period the investigation was run, the mainstream media exposed its viewers to a barrage of propaganda and the viewers were convinced that Mueller had hit the jackpot in terms of evidence.

But the Mueller report came and went by and no evidence was ever found to prove that Donald Trump and his campaign had colluded with Russia. That did not stop the Democrats or the media to give credence to the hoax. In one of the lowest points during the whole saga, leading MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow suggested that Russia might attack the US power grid and leave its citizens freezing in the cold.

It is bizarre but the Democrats and the mainstream media did have half the country convinced that Donald Trump was a Russian puppet. Soon enough, everything began to be blamed on Russia and every political opponent of the Democratic establishment was deemed to be a Russian asset. Tulsi Gabbard, a serving veteran in the US Army Reserves, was accused to be one too and during the Democratic primaries, intelligence agencies informed presidential aspirant Bernie Sanders that his campaign was being helped by Russia.

There is nothing that the Democratic establishment wouldn’t blame Russia for. One Democratic Senator suggested that the media should not cover the allegations of corruption against Joe Biden because the Hunter Biden emails were supposedly Russian propaganda and it was a claim that was peddled by several other Democrats, without a shred of evidence of course, but the media duly complied.

Throughout all of this, Democrats and the media branded Donald Trump a fascist and ignored the brutal attacks on Trump supporters. Simultaneously, widespread looting and rioting in the wake of the death of George Floyd was either ignored or justified. CNN described the rioting as ‘mostly peaceful protests’, which has since then become the butt of many jokes. People could see with their own eyes that there was widespread violence but the mainstream media continued to gaslight its viewers and pretend that these protests were peaceful.

That was not all. The media blamed supporters of Donald Trump for violating Coronavirus restrictions while continuing to celebrate the massive gatherings at anti-racism protests. At least public health were a lot more honest. They claimed that the racism was a greater health-risk than the Coronavirus and justified the massive public gatherings during a pandemic. The political partisanship at every public institution was at insane levels.

Then, there is Big Tech. It began with the censorship of renowned conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. He is perhaps the most banned person on the internet today. And why was he banned? For apparently spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories. If that is the standard to go by, then none of the mainstream media news networks and the journalists associated with them should have a platform on the internet. Because they have spread the single most devastating hoax in the history of the United States: the Russian Collusion Delusion.

Since then, social media giants have done absolutely nothing to address the concerns regarding censorship. And it is always conservative voices on the internet that suffer. Twitter does not even attempt to hide their partisanship. They have gone to the extent of censoring the United States president for promising to enforce law and order in the wake of widespread rioting across the country. They have also censored the New York Post for its reports on the alleged corruption by Joe Biden. This is direct election interference.

Now let us look at things as they stand. There have been reports of dead people voting for Joe Biden in the presidential elections. There was a software glitch in Michigan which was later fixed that counted votes cast in favour of Republicans for Democrats. The error was later fixed but since then, the state Republican Chair has claimed that the same software was used in 47 other counties and she has demanded a reexamination of votes. In Pennsylvania, Republicans claimed that they were not permitted to watch the counting of votes.

All of this does not inspire faith in the election process. In the end, rigging may not have contributed at all to Joe Biden’s victory or even if voter fraud did occur, it might not have been significant enough to alter the results to any significant degree. But how does one convince the Trump voter-base that there was no widespread fraud during the entire process? In a democracy, it is not enough to have a fair process. People must be convinced that the process is fair.

Towards that end, it is essential that there are public institutions that the masses trust. Who should the Trump voter-base trust now? The mainstream media that has been lying continuously since 2015 in order to take down Donald Trump? The election process that Democrats claimed was interfered with by Russia? Normal functional human beings would find it hard to believe that an election process that could have been interfered with by Russia cannot be rigged by a domestic political party.

Similarly, normal functional human beings cannot trust the same people who have been feeding them nothing but lies for the past four years. In their thirst for power, the Democrats might have damaged public faith in the election process for good. The conduct of Democrats does not inspire faith either. Vast sections of Democrats, at least, truly believe that Donald Trump is a fascist. Wouldn’t you do everything in your power to defeat a fascist? Rigging elections is perhaps a low hanging fruit in that department.

Moreover, Democrats have spent the past four years in attempting to overturn the results of the 2016 elections. They have amply demonstrated they will stop at nothing to bring down Donald Trump. The Russian Collusion hoax and the impeachment saga are only two of such instances. The manner in which they tried to destroy Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s life illustrates abundantly their lust towards ruining the Trump presidency.

The core of the problem is that there is every public institution has been so dedicated against Donald Trump and his support base that they have destroyed public faith in themselves for good. Even if there was no voter fraud at all, or nothing significant for that matter, they would have a hard time convincing the Trump support base of it. People cannot just take your word for granted if you have been gaslighting them for the past four years. As Michael Tracey said, a Trump defeat is a “win for the lunatics who’ve spent four years subjecting the rest of us an unceasing tsunami of freakish nonsense.”

There is no easy solution to this. The Supreme Court will likely get involved in the process. Donald Trump has been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to make three appointments to the highest federal court in the country and it appears inevitable that should the apex court decide in Trump’s favour, the other side will believe that the election was stolen for them. In short, there is unlikely to be a scenario where both sides are convinced of the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential elections.

American institutions can blame no one but themselves for the lack of legitimacy they suffer from. The seeds for it were sown by Democrats and they will suffer for it. Fortunately for them, they have the Big tech in their favour so they can control the flow of information. They also have the unyielding support of Big Business, the entertainment industry, the military-industrial complex and every other major cultural and public institution. Therefore, they may not have much to worry about in that regard.

In the event of a Trump defeat, it is unlikely that the sentiment of disenfranchisement, that is no doubt rampant among vast sections of the Trump support-base, will fade quickly. Joe Biden has campaigned as a reconciliation candidate but the far-left section of his party is already drawing plans to punish Trump supporters for exercising their democratic right. Thus, it could very well be that Joe Biden ends up fighting Democratic socialists as much as he fights Republicans.

In any scenario, things look extremely tumultuous for the USA in the short term. Business owners had decided to board up their property in anticipation of riots prior to the declaration of results and it appears that they will have to continue boarding them up for some more time. Trump supporters were stabbed in Washington DC as results continued to pour in. And things could devolve into something much more devastating very quickly.

Ayodhra Ram Mandir special coverage by OpIndia

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K Bhattacharjee
K Bhattacharjee
Black Coffee Enthusiast. Post Graduate in Psychology. Bengali.

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