President Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election fair and square.
It’s time set aside the lies of a deluded egotist with a limited understanding of the U.S. electoral process. From mealy-mouthed whining to spouting outright lies, too many Republicans think that casting doubts on the validity of the government in which they serve plays the proper political tune to the fascist wing of their party.
People so economically shortsighted about our future might be expected to be equally memory-deficient. There were no baseless accusations about massive voter fraud until 2016, when a Republican candidate won the electoral college vote – and the presidency! — though 10 million more people voted against him than for him. (Three million more for the Democrat and another seven million for the Libertarian).
These results inflamed an infantile ego that insists that his popularity is far greater than anyone – ever, ever, ever!
For those who choose to remember, the Younger Bush in 2000 finished second in the popular vote to Al Gore. The way the electoral college works (and with help from a governor brother and a GOP Supreme Court), Bush II was declared the winner. He did not rage about millions and millions of uncounted Bush votes.
But, after 2016, the myth of massive voter fraud became the latest in a series of inflammatory issues pushed by the GOP to divert attention from its corporate socialism. And, a sore winner with hurt feelings was the most vocal spokesman against this non-existent fraud – giving Republicans the impetus to try to purge voting rolls and suppress minority voting.
Four years of constant lying set the stage for denying the outcome in 2020 and the attempted coup d’état of Jan. 6. And, the question to ask Republican legislators who ignore this insurrection is: How many times will you vote to please and placate the murderous fascists who invaded the Capitol before you look in the mirror and see what you have become?
The past president is as ignorant as he is arrogant. Maybe he doesn’t understand the way the electoral college works. States get electoral votes based on the number of their representatives and senators. Five congressional districts plus two senators gives Oklahoma seven votes.
This weighs the electoral college heavily toward the influence of states.
The population of the Houston metropolitan area is about 7.1 million people. There are five congressional districts in Houston’s Harris County and a few more on the outskirts. People in those districts represent one electoral vote each – which might be voted against their wishes if the statewide majority votes otherwise.
In Wyoming, with fewer than 600,000 people, those voters are assured that their state-wide congressional district wishes are carried out – and they get two more electoral votes for their senators. Both Dakotas and Montana are similarly allocated. Nebraska has three representatives and Idaho, two. The Houston metro has more people than those six states combined.
A person can pick up a good chunk of electoral votes by winning even close races in sparsely-populated states. Losing districts by large margins in high population areas can tilt the popular vote the other way – with no effect on the electoral vote. Maine and Nebraska are the only states that give congressional districts the power to choose their own electors. It is winner take all elsewhere.
So, you can carry those six states and win up to 19 electoral votes. You can carry the Houston metro, with more people, and garner no electoral college votes.
Simple civics. Simple math. No fraud – except for fraudulent claims to the contrary.
These frauds start with a person who has voted by mail most of his life – this year included – condemning such voting while also sending a minion to try to destroy the U.S. Postal Service and includes Oklahoma Republican legislators urging counterparts in Arizona to reject the presidential results there – where the elections were run by Republicans!
Oklahoma’s five GOP representatives continued this deadly farce when they voted against accepting the electoral college results after being forced into hiding by an armed mob. Sen. James Lankford learned his lesson about endorsing idiocy – scared straight, so to speak. Sen. Jim Inhofe had stood by the Constitution from the start.
In order for the two parties to work together for the betterment of this country, they must share the same reality. Part of that reality is that there was no massive voter fraud.
It is time for Republicans to renounce the fantasy world of alternative facts, kookazoid conspiracy theories and the more than 30,000 other outrageous lies they’ve swallowed over the past five years. (Denouncing the fascists among them would be nice, too.) We need them working on real problems in the real world.
(Gary Edmondson is chair of the Stephens County Democratic Party: scdpok.us or facebook.com/SCDPOK/.)