How much more damage can Trump do? Expect the worst.
If the president of the United States, Donald Trump, ends up losing the election - as it seems he will - the question is how much more damage he can do before he is dragged out of the White House in tantrums (or fuss). Judging from his behavior this Thursday, I'm afraid we should expect the worst.
First he tweeted "STOP THE COUNTING!", Then "STOP THE FRAUD!" His demands were as undemocratic as they were counterproductive: At the time, Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee, was leading in enough states to garner all 270 Electoral College votes and thus the presidency.
Rabid Trump supporters obediently gathered outside buildings where votes were being counted in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Las Vegas and other cities, demanding that the electoral process be stopped. It was shocking to see Americans openly calling for the votes of other Americans to be annulled, but in the Trump era it is not surprising.
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Later that night, Trump made erratic statements in person that could read like badly written science fiction ... if they weren't so dangerous. He accused Democrats of perpetuating a massive fraud by saying, "Our numbers began to drop miraculously and secretly," painting the count of absentee or mail-in votes - totally legal and democratic - as a monstrous conspiracy; he also claimed that the polls that did not favor him were an attempt to discourage Republican participation in the elections. These are lies, told with the explicit purpose of denying their rights to Americans who did their best to fulfill their civic obligations under extraordinary conditions.
In this tense period of uncertainty about the final result, it is worth remembering why the counting has been so slow and why those votes that are being counted at the end are so crucial. A never-before-seen number of voters chose to mail their ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and those postal ballots take time to be certified and counted. As if to illustrate the risks we are talking about, on Wednesday the United States registered more than 100,000 new cases of COVD-19, a new record.
But Trump made the coronavirus and the politically neutral process of voting by mail a question of political affiliations, in a way that is as cynical as it is tragic. The result: Democrats opted for absentee or mail-in voting options, while more Republicans opted to vote in person. In states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, Republican-dominated legislatures refused to allow election officials to start counting mail-in votes before Election Day.
The predictable result was a "red mirage." Rapid counting of face-to-face votes gave Trump and Republicans an early advantage, which slowly eroded as mail-in votes were counted. And that process continues.
When it comes to Trump, God knows anything can happen. Just look at the 2016 result, which caused us many symptoms of PTSD. But the fact that he will likely lose is exemplified in the demands his team is making in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia, contesting how - and even if - some votes are being counted. Whatever Trump said Thursday about the legal proceedings his team is bringing, candidates who are sure of his victory are not running to court, especially not with lawsuits like these.
Trump's complaints appear to have little merit. He wants the count to stop in Michigan, but the count is over there and he lost. He exercised his right to request a recount in Wisconsin, where he lost by 20,000 votes, a margin that has almost never turned the results around in a recount.
But Trump's stratagems do threaten to further delay what this bitterly divided nation needs: an end result and a certainty that we should all accept.
It was impossible not to remember the traumatic election of 2000, when the outcome depended on Florida and the country endured weeks of legal squabbles. The Supreme Court finally gave victory to George W. Bush. His opponent, Democrat Al Gore, awarded him the victory with decorum, despite the fact that his followers believed he would have won if all the votes had been counted. Does anyone imagine that Trump is capable of such a patriotic gesture? I definitely don't.
It is far more likely that whatever happens in court, Trump will refuse to acknowledge that Biden defeated him cleanly.
If Biden is certified as the winner, Trump will certainly walk away. But everything in his story leads me to hope that he is going to make Biden's victory look illegitimate and unfair. For his legions of staunch followers, this supposedly "stolen" election will become a new "lost cause" to avenge.
Biden is going to end up winning the popular vote by nearly four million votes, but this means that more than 68 million Americans voted for Trump, while 72 million elected Biden. In a year with record participation, the country is almost cut in half. A statesman would do what Gore did and call the unit. Trump is many things, but not a statesman.
In the time he has left as president, and even beyond, my expectation is that Trump will do all he can to deepen the divisions in our society rather than heal them.
Soon, I hope, he will go away. And we can reclaim the time and attention we've spent feeding his voracious ego.
