My Late Republican Mother Would Weep at Today’s Trump Republicans

Dear Mom: It has been almost three years since you departed this world, and I think of you so often. But especially now, I think of you daily.

Why especially now? Because we just had a presidential election and the loser, the Republican incumbent, refuses to concede to the Democratic winner. Moreover, this sore loser is, as I write, going full-bore taking all sorts of undemocratic actions, mainly legalistic, to invalidate the election result as fraudulent. And get this, Mom: He even invited the top two Republican state legislators from Michigan, a swing state, to the White House — and no way was this visit about tea and scones. Clearly he wanted them to defy their state’s popular vote and switch to him. Reportedly this visit went pro-forma, but: This loser’s intent is all.

I can hear you now, Mom, I can. You would say: “WHAT? That is so wrong!”

I can also hear you say: “That’s not democracy! That’s what they do in dictatorships!”

Right: That’s what they do in dictatorships — hold elections, to make things seem right and proper, then fiddle with the ballots, so that the “dictator” can claim he was elected by The People, even if more of The People voted for his opponent. Yes, I knew you’d be “aghast,” one of your favorite words, to hear about this…