About Us
If the past election has taught us anything, it is that the Republican party is lost. The supposed “Party of Lincoln” has entangled itself with elected officials who bear as much decency as their beloved Donald Trump these days, as they are ever-so-quiet about the results of the recent election. But if we accept this silence, it will result in a dangerous distrust of our electoral process.
As of the time of this article, only nine Republican senators have publicly acknowledged Biden’s victory and referred to him as the president-elect, while two others have somewhat acknowledged it. One has to wonder, why is the number so low? One would hope that Republicans would finally break from Donald Trump, but it appears that the majority of GOP senators quietly stand by the president. I will not even bother to acknowledge or thank these senators for doing the bare minimum by acknowledging Joe Biden’s victory. My own senator, Pat Toomey (R) accepted the results of the election early on; however, this break from Trump means essentially nothing as he is retiring at the end of his term.
What are these Republican senators afraid of? Whether they like it or not, Donald Trump will depart from the White House on Jan. 20, 2021. A common theme of the past four years is that the Republican senate has been afraid to criticize Trump in any manner. What these senators need to realize is he will no longer be the center of the party. Senators like Mitt Romney and Susan Collins have acted in a neutral, democratic manner, while Mitch McConnell and Lindsey Graham have done anything but.
Recently, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked by reporters about Trump’s recent antics and if he considered Joe Biden to be the president-elect. His response? In typical McConnell fashion, it was nothing. Every day that this election goes on, more and more doubt is cast into our democratic process. This will have everlasting effects, not only Biden’s presidency, but on the voting process as a whole.
Senator Lindsey Graham has once again shown that his true allyship is to Donald Trump. He has lost sight of the democratic process as he continues to defend the indefensible. He took it upon himself to actually call state election officials in key battleground states to interrogate them about their process on validating signatures. Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger told CNN that Graham had called him, essentially inquiring on if there were any ballots that could be thrown out. Graham, in turn, denied this, yet the Republican secretary of state has maintained that his claim is true. Regardless, the very idea of a sitting senator calling multiple states in order to interrogate election officials is absurd and outlandish, even for Lindsey Graham’s standards.
It would be one thing if there were any legitimate claims of voter fraud, but there has been no evidence whatsoever. The Trump campaign has won zero out of 32 lawsuits since they started their charade on Election Day. It has been over a month, and this nonsensical legal battle has offered no concrete evidence. Rather, this act, which was stirred up by Trump and elevated by Rudy Giuliani, has resulted in widespread confusion, fueling distrust among Republicans.
A Reuters Poll conducted from Nov. 13-17 showed that 52 percent of Republicans polled believe that Donald Trump had “rightfully won” the 2020 election. This is troubling beyond belief. Biden has already clearly won this election by Nov. 7. This right here, is why GOP senators should have risen to the occasion and publicly declared Biden the president-elect of the United States.
To the Republicans who claim that the system is rigged, you simply cannot have it both ways. You cannot boast victories on down-the-ballot races while claiming that the presidential election was rigged. Was half a ballot illegitimate? No. Once again, there has been no evidence that this was an unfair election. You can file for all the recounts you want, the result will stay the same. Biden is going to be the next president of the United States.
One has to wonder whether or not all this chaos will have an impact on the Georgia senate races in January. Could McConnell’s deplorable reign as Senate Majority Leader be facing its much-needed end? If either Kelly Loeffler or David Perdue win, the senate will maintain its Republican majority. But, in the end, Republican in-fighting over the results of the election and Trump’s schemes could be disastrous for Republicans. We will have to wait and see.
To the silent Republican senators, I ask that you please grow a backbone and stand up for our democracy. Even those who have spoken up and acknowledged Biden’s victory, you must do more. This is more important than Trump’s ego -- this is about the bedrock of our democracy. We cannot afford to cause more divisiveness in this country over baseless claims of voter fraud. We must move forward and seek to unite, not divide each other. Finally, to the Republican senators who refuse to accept these results, please, for the sake of our country, give up, and quite simply, grow up.
Doing college, amongst other things.
