On the day Bill Clinton was inaugurated in 1993, he received a letter from George H. W. Bush, the incumbent he’d defeated. Bush congratulated Clinton and acknowledged the peaceful transfer of power: “You will be our president…Your success is the country’s success. I am rooting hard for you.”
It doesn’t appear that Donald Trump, were he defeated, has any plans to behave in a similar fashion.
Not that anyone should be surprised. What he said yesterday is eerily similar to the chilling stuff he said back in 2016, when a fatal share of stupid or oblivious Americans inexplicably indulged him.
The exchange with a reporter yesterday went like this:
Q: “Win, lose, or draw in this election, will you commit here today for a peaceful transferral of power after the election?…Will you commit to make sure there’s a peaceful transferral of power after the election? “
Trump: “We’re going to have to see what happens, you know that. I’ve been complaining very strongly about the ballots, and the ballots are disaster.
Q: “Do you commit to make sure that there’s a peaceful transferral of power?”
Trump: “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful – there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation.”
How many times do Americans – even the cultists – need to get pounded with a 2 x 4 to get wise to what is happening here? As Tom Nichols, a former Republican and current professor at the U.S. Naval War College, points out, “We cannot let this one slide as just another crazy thing the crazy president crazily said…This is beyond norm-breaking or lib-owning. This one should be the red line for even the die-hards. This is the moment.”
But what’s truly disturbing is that 2016 was the moment, but too many Americans let it slide. What he said yesterday – throw out the ballots and we’ll have a “continuation” of power – was qualitatively no different than what he said during the third debate with Hillary Clinton, when he openly debased the democratic process.
Moderator Chris Wallace asked him whether he would “absolutely accept the results of this election.” This was his answer (I’ve omitted most of the lies and digressions):
“I will look at it at the time...If you look at your voter rolls, you will see millions of people that are registered to vote, millions of people that are registered to vote that shouldn’t be registered to vote…I talk about millions of people.”
Wallace followed up: “But, sir, there is a tradition in this country – in fact, one of the prides of this country is the peaceful transition of power and that, no matter how hard-fought a campaign is, that at the end of the campaign that the loser concedes to the winner…and that the country comes together in part for the good of the country. Are you saying you’re not prepared now to commit to that principle?”
Trump: “What I’m saying is that I will tell you at the time. I’ll keep you in suspense. OK?”
Those remarks alone – openly assailing the democratic process – should’ve consigned him to oblivion. And now he’s doing it again, except this time he’s holding power and the stakes are inestimably higher. How many times are people going to allow themselves to be played for saps? Wasn’t it bad enough that they ignored candidate Trump’s despotic instincts, his stated intention to do precisely what he has spent the subsequent four years doing? It’s not enough to blame Trump; it takes a village to kill a democracy.
Brian Klaas, an expert on authoritarianism, said it well this morning: “Humans have a stupid cognitive bias. We think nefarious activities are done in secret, so we assume that when people openly broadcast nefarious intentions, it’s somehow less worrying. Trump is telling us he’s planning to subvert American democracy to stay in power. Believe him.”