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For four years, Trump has been said to pose a threat to democracy. But the system is robust, a little less hysteria would be appropriate.
Donald Trump made his first major appearance since the election. Democrats had “tricked and manipulated” him, he was still convinced that he was the winner of the vote, the president said in Georgia. Mister Trump is still in campaign mode, his event seemed a bit surreal. The president wanted to know about the thousands of unmarked Joe Biden ballots that had been shuffled through the crowd without the Democratic poll workers noticing during the count. It is an accusation that many Republicans now consider unrealistic. Such a coup may be possible in Belarus, but hardly in the United States.
In principle, exactly what the anti-Trump army had warned beforehand has happened. The president refuses to admit defeat. Take every opportunity to sow doubts and dispute the result. But many things that the hysterical machine around left-liberal flagship candidates Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been warning about for more than four years has not happened. Donald Trump has not brought the world and its most important democracy to the brink. It did not destroy the political system of the United States. And under his command neither civil war nor a third world war broke out.
Without a doubt, Trump provokes, and tests the strength of American institutions like no other president before him. But where is it really written that a fully developed system depends on a loser’s ability to admit defeat? No one can force Trump to do it, and that’s okay. The authorities do their job, as do the courts. The constitution stipulates that states officially certify the results in December and that voters then present their votes to Congress. Until then, everyone is free to question the preliminary result, and that makes sense too. It has become common practice for the media to proclaim the winner of the election on or shortly after election night. But they should not have the last word in a developed democracy.
A little less enthusiasm would be appropriate, also on the part of Trump’s opponents. In fact, some reviews of the results have discovered abuses that should not have existed this way. In Floyd County, Georgia, the election supervisor was fired after the count revealed that 2,600 legal voting cards had not been considered. Biden’s advantage in the state decreased by 1,200 to about 12,000 votes. The fact that only 0.03 percent of voting cards are invalid in Pennsylvania, compared to more than one percent four years ago, is at least questionable. The many demands of the Trump campaign are unlikely to change the bottom line. But the president has the right to want all irregularities cleared up, no matter how small.
