Reps fear Trump’s reprisals

Bryce Luchterhand

Unity

Editor:

Free and unencumbered elections provide one of the most basic pillars of a free society and democracy itself. I hoped President Trump would accept defeat graciously after losing the popular vote by more than seven million votes and the Electoral College by 74, but he hasn’t. Instead, he continues to flail about, making wild, unfounded and often bizarre assertions the election was rigged and he actually won. This is very dangerous because it undermines people’s confidence in our system of voting and casts a shadow of illegitimacy over the incoming Biden Administration at a time when trust in government is critical.

I understand that Trump’s narcissistic proclamations are often unfounded and irrational. I do not understand why Senator Johnson, Congressman Tiffany, and over a hundred elected Republican members of Congress would lend support to these unfounded attacks on the fundamentals of our democracy.

The only explanation for Republican inaction in the face of obvious lies is the fear of reprisal by Trump. Shortly after the election, Senator Johnson admitted privately that Biden had won the election but saying so publicly would be “political suicide.” When Republican members of Pennsylvania’s state legislature petitioned their congressional delegation to nullify Biden’s 81,000-vote victory there, the Republican majority leader was asked if she would also sign the petition. Her reply was, “If I would say to you, ‘I don’t want to do it, I’d get my house bombed tonight.’” Congressman Tiffany has never shown any backbone, vowing early to follow Trump’s lead on all matters. He justified his support for the suit initiated by the Texas Attorney General by saying, “Every legal vote must be counted, credible complaints of fraud and irregularities must be investigated, and legitimate legal challenges must be heard.” The problem with that reasoning is that Tiffany knows all the legal votes have been counted, there are no credible complaints of fraud or irregularities and Trump’s attorneys have had their cases rejected more than 50 times by judges across the nation. The Wisconsin Elections Commission had already certified the results of Wisconsin’s election. And, incidentally, the Wisconsin election was held under some of the strictest guidelines in the nation that Tiffany voted for when he was a state senator.

The refusal of our representatives to defend one of the most basic tenants of the democracy they profess to serve while emboldening the baseless rants of a tyrannical bully is shameful at best and demonstrably unpatriotic at worst.