A full four weeks after the election of Joseph R. Biden, Jr. to be the 46th President of the United States, we remain in the throes of an absurd coup attempt to overturn the will of the electorate. Donald Trump continues to send teams of lawyers into courts on impossibly quixotic errands. He is orchestrating a growing chorus of wingnut media "pundits" and internet "influencers" to broadcast increasingly outlandish conspiracy theories and disinformation, and persists in exerting pressure on Republican elected officials, most recently issuing a call for Governor Brian Kemp of Georgia to use his "emergency powers" to overturn the election results.
Institutionally, this coup is a zombie. With each new defeat the possibility of changing the outcome of the Electoral College vote when that body meets on December 14 recedes further, and once that vote is cast Joe Biden's inauguration becomes a virtual certainty. But culturally, the Trump Coup continues to retain momentum. About half of Republicans believe that the election was "stolen" from Donald Trump, and the coup's supporting multimedia complex online, in print, and on air grows like a whirling gyre drawing more and more new forms of propaganda into its mass.
This is a moment virtually without precedent in the history of American democracy. For a sitting president to be orchestrating a baseless and wholly gratuitous campaign against the public's trust in the integrity of our elections would have been unimaginable not so long ago. The situation poses real peril to our system of government and our way of life.
What, then, should the response of Joe Biden be to this assault on our Republic? That is a complicated question. Up until now Biden has been very restrained in his comments on Donald Trump's malicious activities, going only so far as to call them "irresponsible." This is very much in keeping with the tone of his election campaign. Biden promised to be a leader who would bring people together and lower the temperature of our discourse, and his cool restraint in the face of Trump's wild provocations presents a welcome contrast to the chaotic leadership of the last four years.
There is, however, merit to the warning that leaving Trump's lies unanswered risks allowing the distrust they sow to fester. Zombie or not, what Trump is continuing to execute is an antidemocratic coup. Past authoritarians who have made such moves tend to gain in power and influence if their provocations are ignored or undeterred.
Though this caution is valid, the institutional climate in which we are operating creates special conditions. The arcane mechanisms of the Electoral College system provide Trump with his last, slim chance of undermining the election. Right now the machinery of the electoral process is grinding predictably toward Biden's inauguration. If Biden responds robustly to Trump's attacks before December 14, he risks creating the impression, if only in a few key figures, that there is something to fear in Trump's desperate maneuvers. If this tempts one or two unscrupulous functionaries to shirk their duty or abandon norms, it could start a cascade of betrayal. As long as Trump's efforts are having no impact, the wisest course is to let the process play out under its own steam.
The situation after December 14 is different, however. At that point, Trump's attack on the electoral process itself will be truly toothless, but his attack on the deeper, long-term foundations of democracy will remain toxic and corrosive. In that moment, there will be nothing at risk and everything to gain for Joe Biden to make plain declarations and issue straightforward demands: Trump is a liar. His accusations of fraud are baseless and unpatriotic (if not treasonous). He must concede the election to Joe Biden.
Trump's concession has no legal force and his refusal to concede will change nothing, but it is traditional and fundamentally right that he should do so, and he should be told as much. Trump will brazenly carry his lies to the grave, his vicious contempt for our democracy and its norms is total. Nonetheless, it is proper for Joe Biden, the authentic president, to be as forthright in his articulation of what is just as Donald Trump, the pretend president, has been shameless in his dissemination of falsehoods.
Trump lost the election. He must concede. That is the truth. I would like to hear our President-elect say it. If nothing else, hearing the truth from one of our leaders would be such a refreshing change.
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