Elections Require Faith

For John, BLUF:  I am with the 2016 Hillary Clinton, who The Washington Examiner described as saying:  "Her official Twitter account said later on Oct. 24:  'Donald Trump refused to say that he'd respect the results of this election.  That's a direct threat to our democracy.'".  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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"Why Democrats Should Not Call the Georgia Governor’s Race 'Stolen'/There are three important reasons to cool this rhetoric..."

Here is the sub-headline:

"... despite Brian Kemp’s odious voter suppression efforts," cautions lawprof Richard Hasen (at Slate).

From Althouse, by Retired Law Professor Ann Althouse, 19 November 2018.

The 3 reasons::

First, rhetoric about stolen elections feeds a growing cycle of mistrust and delegitimization of the election process, an attack pushed by President Trump and other Republicans who have been yelling “voter fraud” every time they are behind in the count.  I’ve already set out my fear that Trump could refuse to concede the 2020 presidential election if he is ahead in the count on election night and then ballot counts inevitably shift toward Democrats as the counting continues….

Second... Saying Kemp tried to suppress Democratic votes and saying the election was stolen are two different things, and making charges of a stolen election when it cannot be proved undermines Democrats’ complaints about suppressive tactics.  If Democrats can’t prove it, some people will think the suppression is no big deal when it really is….

[Third] It focuses attention on the wrong question: whether there was enough suppression to change election outcomes....

And ADDED by Professor Althouse:

Let me expand on Hasen's first point: Fomenting cynicism about elections might hurt Democrats more than Republicans. Democrats are the ones who need to mobilize more of the people who are inclined to sit things out, and the idea that the everything's fake and rigged isn't going to motivate people to participate.

I think the issue of cynicism is very important.  How do we encourage voting when cynicism is suppressing motivation.

Either we accept elections or we have civil war.  I opt for accepting elections.

Regards  —  Cliff