Connecting the dots always helps figure out what is going on. In this essay, I will hit some of the main dots. Everything below can be confirmed by internet search.
First, Donald Trump falsely declared, after losing the 2020 election, that the election was rigged. Second, he falsely blamed Joe Biden for the rig. Trump knew, before the election, that he was going to pull off this “Heads I win, tails you lose” gambit because he said as much in public interviews before the election. After he lost, he used the “rig” claim as a basis for a legal challenge to the election outcome. Third, a large fraction of his followers totally believed what he said. Really? I think they believed it because Trump “strongly and forcefully” presents a lot of “big noise” in a way that makes it look like substance. Trumpers hear it as music. But, after some two years of investigations, big defamation court cases, neutralizing the fake electors and the fake electoral certificates, many recounts and even the contrary assertion by many very respectable Republicans that the 2020 election was normal and the outcome OK — plus, a felony conviction on Trump — we got the fourth dot. The election deniers still thought the election was stolen and that Trump walks on water! The logic they used seems to be: “I like the false story better than the true story; therefore, the false story is true.”
The violent “Jan. 6, 2021” riot — another dot — was meant to interfere with Mike Pence’s role in the final steps of the election process before inauguration. Dated Dec. 22, 2022, is the “Final Report of the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capital.” It is a free-to-download, very large document (845 pages) off the govinfo.gov website. Seven of the eight chapters give extensive details on each of the seven steps of Trump’s coup plan. I take this as definitive proof that Trump was the central figure behind the attempt to overthrow our Constitution by overthrowing the 2020 election.
Now, the next “dot” is that the Trump rigged-election “bamboozle” is still rolling forward, growing and in the process of neutralizing all his court cases. Wikipedia has an article titled, “Republican Party efforts to disrupt the 2024 United States presidential election.” It is fairly long and has 74 links to references and sources. Another significant article is titled, “Yes, Democrats Have Called Some Elections Illegitimate. GOP Election Denialism Is Far Worse. It’s not even close” (cato.org/commentary/yes-democrats-have-called-some-elections-illegitimate-gop-election-denialism-far-worse) on a libertarian website. And libertarians are not Democrats! They have some lines of thinking actually closer to that of conservatives.
An internet search on the keyword string, “Trump Heritage 2024 illegitimate,” will bring you to numerous links to recent articles about Trump allies at the right-wing Heritage Foundation who have already declared the 2024 election illegitimate before voting has even started! This dot and all the other dots — taken together — imply that the gears and wheels of the coup process are still turning, and this time around, they will try harder.
Arthur E. Sowers
Harbeson
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