This Is How Democracies Die

Donald Trump is dripping poison into American society with his accusation of election fraud. Republicans should not take part in this.

Trump is convinced that the presidential election was rigged. The proof: He lost. This result cannot have been achieved by legal means, of course. Therefore, all of the many ballots that were filled in for “Joseph R. Biden” must be “illegal.” And how can it be that Trump is suddenly behind Biden in some states if 97% or 99% of the votes have been counted? When only 30% or 31% were counted, he was far in the lead. Fraud, conspiracy, election theft!

One could find all of this ridiculous. Trump apparently has no idea how elections work in the United States and how ballots are counted. He’s behaving like a raging 4-year-old whose dad didn’t buy him a chocolate bar in the supermarket. But because Trump is the president of the United States and an adult (at least legally), he can go to court against this unfathomable cruelty.

So far, however, the judges to whom Trump’s people have presented their alleged evidence for the alleged election fraud have not been very impressed. What was presented to them was crude stuff, hearsay, and rage-tweets disguised as legal documents. It may well be that a few ballots are invalid. When 160 million people vote, errors happen. But there is not one indication of some kind of greater fraud that the prosecutor’s offices and courts ought to concern themselves with and that could call the legitimacy of the election result into question.

Cult of Personality, Fear and Election Tactics – A Toxic Mix for the Truth

This doesn’t bother the president. “Soon, quite soon, we will reveal the shocking truth,”* boasts the Trump campaign every day in a flood of emails that are sent out to supporters. Really.

But the situation is too dangerous to laugh about. Trump can think what he wants; in the end, that won’t prevent him from losing the presidency and from having to leave the White House. But it is no longer just the president who is spreading the lie about the stolen election. A major portion of Republicans are taking part in it. To use the aforementioned example once more, the situation is like this: It’s not just a 4-year-old whining at the cash register because he’s not getting any chocolate, but rather half the customers in the store are throwing themselves onto the floor with him and crying.

Why? Some Republicans actually believe what Trump is saying about the stolen victory because they believe everything that Trump says. Other Republicans know, of course, that the president is lying but they don’t dare object to these lies, or they have the Georgia Senate elections in January in mind and want to convert Trump supporters’ anger into votes. Whatever the case: cult of personality, fear and election tactics are always a very toxic mix for the truth.

If it is not stopped, this poison will ooze deeper and deeper into American society in the coming weeks. It will continue to break the already fragile string that holds this society together. Seventy million people voted for Trump, and now he’s convincing them that Biden cheated not just him, but also them. Every Republican who promotes or tolerates this lie is undermining trust in America’s elections. This is how democracies die.

*Editor’s note: Although accurately translated, the quoted remark could not be independently verified.