Donald Trump is behaving like a thug in a small Banana Republic south of nowhere. Like a loser in a fake democracy, he is already screaming that the race for president is rigged for Hillary Clinton to win. Is this a problem? Yes, and it’s a very serious problem.
We have many dangerous groups of racists and other extreme right-wingers who usually stay hidden, playing soldier by forming militias, communicating their sickness to their own kind, waiting for some signal to rise up. Once in a great while, they make some noise and once or twice, some seriously insane members get their hands on a bomb and do some serious damage (as in Oklahoma). But we have been fortunate that such behavior has not happened often in our society.
But now we have Trump who is encouraging the crazies by claiming that the election is being stolen from him. In his ignorance, he is challenging sick, deranged people to take action against the winner or try to take control of the government by force. He has already demonstrated his acceptance of many racists groups in our society and he has the support of many others.
In a democracy, when you lose, you congratulate the winner and do everything to make the transition to power simple and easy for the new party. That is why Gore walked away from challenging the results even though he had a good case that the Supreme Court stole the election. Accepting your loss is what makes a democracy work as a democracy. Without the ability to say I lost fairly and congratulate the winner, the democracy is doomed to become a coup d’etat-tending Banana Republic.
Donald Trump must lose this election and he must lose it in a great landslide that will discourage any other crazies in America to think they can run for the office of president and cheat their way to winning. Our democracy will only work with leaders that follow the rules. The rules are based on decency and fair play and most importantly, on telling the truth. Trump has failed in all these areas.
America has been teetering on the brink of losing its democracy since the Republicans in the last election stated before the president took office that they would oppose any and every bill submitted by the new president to congress, regardless of what it was. Democracy can only work with compromise. If you lose, you have to embrace the winner. You cannot lie by saying the election was won by cheating and keep the democracy viable.
We now have a chance to repudiate Trump so that no other crazy will dare to think he or she has a chance of winning by using his tactics. Trump must lose and lose by a great number. He must be severely humiliated for the sake of our democracy!