On CNN this weekend, former CIA operative Robert Baer makes the case for a new presidential vote:
“The Russians, it looks like to me did interfere in our elections. We’ll never be able to decide whether they changed the outcome, but I’ll tell you having worked in the CIA if we had been caught interfering in European elections, or Asian elections, or anywhere in the world, those countries would call for new elections. Any democracy would. I mean, I don’t see it any other way.”
[...]
“When a foreign country interferes in your election and the outcome is in doubt and the legitimacy of the government. I don’t know how it works constitutionally. I’m not a lawyer, constitutional lawyer, but I’m deeply disturbed by the fact that the Russians interfered, and I would like to see the evidence, because if the evidence is there, I don’t see any other way than to vote again.”
The legitimacy of this election has been irreparably broken, and the only path forward is to reclaim our democracy. Demanding a new election may not succeed, but demanding nothing means accepting that this is normal. This is not normal. In the words of Howard Zinn: You can’t be neutral on a moving train.
I am done thinking, We can’t do that.
The unthinkable has already arrived. To defend democracy we have to start imagining the unimaginable.