The election blues – Richard Nixon and Al Gore – Trump’s claim to fame – Evening statistics
“I’m very depressed about the election” – such is the gist of the remarks I’ve been hearing from several friends today, and it must be confessed that they are not without cause. The current situation is certainly unpleasant. There have been a couple of articles coming out that compare President Trump to Benedict Arnold, a comparison which I think is rather unfair – to Benedict Arnold, who actually accomplished some genuine military achievements before he made the decision to turn traitor. President Trump is making no secret of his determination to subvert the democratic process, repeatedly seeking to halt the tallying of mail-in ballots in several states. As one who has himself cast a mail-in ballot, I look upon such efforts with extreme disfavor, although, considering the man’s character (or lack thereof) without any surprise.
There are two men of greatly different characters and political positions who made a conscious decision to avert scandal from the election process, not hesitating to place their country’s welfare over their own personal ambitions. In 1960, many legislators and journalists maintained that John Kennedy benefitted from vote fraud, and Richard Nixon’s campaign staff urged him to challenge the validity of Kennedy’s victory in several states, Illinois, Texas, Missouri, and New Jersey in particular. Nixon, however, refused to make such a challenge, conceding three days after the election, and he actively discouraged the journalist Earl Mazo from publishing a series of articles on vote fraud on the grounds that these would fuel a constitutional crisis. In the 2000 election, similarly, the tally of the vote count in Florida fell into dispute and an attempt at a recount was foiled by a suit from George Bush that was upheld by the Supreme Court. Al Gore disagreed with the Court’s decision, for obvious reasons, but once the decision was handed down he acquiesced rather than subject the nation to a long, painful legal debate that would have cast aspersions on the Presidential office: “for the sake of our unity as a people and the strength of our democracy, I offer my concession.”
By way of contrast, Trump makes no secret of his ambitions to foment a constitutional crisis and to undermine the strength of our democracy. He has desired to make his mark in history, and so indeed he shall, being ranged with worthies such as Arnold, Aaron Burr, Jefferson Davis, Robert Hanssen, and Aldrich Ames.
Today’s statistics as of 8:00 PM – # of cases worldwide 49,008,293; # of deaths worldwide: 1,238,812; # of cases U.S.: 9,917,232; # of deaths; U.S.: 240,946.