Ugly Threats Against Fellow Americans
Part 3 Dec 17 2020President Trump's relentless assault on the American democratic process, his insistence that he won the election, that it was stolen from him, has stirred rage among his loyalists who are disinterested in ascertaining whether there is any evidence to back his claims. Around the country they are showing up, often armed, at the homes of election officials, as in Michigan where one woman ranted:
"We will not stand down. We will not stop. We will continue to rise up. We will continue to take this election back when a president that actually won it by a landslide…", etc.
They have left death threats in voice mail, on cell phones, and have threatened to kill officials' children and pets. Protesters in Idaho surrounded the house of an official with only her 12-year-old son inside; she was filmed in a meeting apologizing for leaving for home, frightened and in tears. A Black Michigan lawmaker received lynch threats in voicemail. Dozens of Trump zealots showed up at the Michigan secretary of state's home demanding an audit of the state's vote as if unmindful that Biden won by insurmountable 154,000 votes. The secretary's transgression was to say, "We have not seen any evidence of fraud or foul play". A Republican official from Pennsylvania said that if she told the truth about Trump's invalid election claims, "I'd get my house bombed tonight". Many are quoted in media reports as was Jennifer O’Mara, a Democratic state representative in Pennsylvania. To the Times she said, "They’re getting more angry, and we’ve been getting emails all the time, all hours of the day and night.” Gabriel Sterling, a top Republican election official in Georgia, was the rare Republican apostate, imploring the president and senators to stop attacking the voting process, saying it prompted threats against officials and poll workers.
"Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence. Someone's going to get hurt, someone's going to get shot. Someone's going to get killed. Senators, you've not condemned this language or these actions and all of you who've not said a damned word are complicit in this!".
The Arizona Republican Party posted on its Twitter account , "This is what we do, who we are. Live for nothing, or die for something", with a photo of a man facing a bow with an arrow primed an inch from his forehead. A right-wing activist named Ali Alexander tweeted, "willing to give my life for this fight".
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Democracy depends on losers’ consent.
Every election has improprieties. In the past, it has been deemed better to turn a blind eye to them for fear of sowing too much doubt in the public mind – even when it was as egregious as Mayor Daly’s Chicago of the 1960s.
But today, when half the electorate thinks something is fishy, nothing short of a rigorous public inquiry will restore confidence, and with it losers’ consent.