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Monday, November 09, 2020

Time to Bind Up the Nation's Wounds


Witch hunts have a long history. In Europe they go back to Roman times if not earlier. In the United States they go back to the Salem witch trials in the seventeenth century. Something would go wrong in the community—an outbreak of disease, a crop failure, a misadventure such as an accidental drowning, and members of the community would look for someone to blame. 

Maybe it would be an old woman who mumbled to themselves or had an odd-looking blemish on their skin. May it would someone against whom a community leader or a member of his family held a grudge. Whoever it was, would be accused of witchcraft, of consorting with the devil. They would be tortured and a confession wrung from them. They would then be put on trial, convicted of witchcraft, and then burned, strangled, hung, or drowned.

The community, however, might not be satisfied with their death. They would embark on a hunt for more witches. We no longer burn, strangle, hang, or drown witches. But we still go on witch hunts.

For the last four years President Trump has repeatedly accused of embarking on a witch hunt anyone to whom he has taken a dislike because they found or suspected wrongdoing during his presidency. Now President Trump is going on a witch hunt, making false accusations of election fraud because he lost the 2020 presidential election to his Democratic opponent. Having accused the Democrats of stealing the election from him, he is trying to steal the election from them, or at least spread a dark cloud over its legitimacy. He has teams of attorneys spreading out across the country, looking for election irregularities, real or imagined, and anything else that might be used to discredit the election of his Democratic opponent.

When I was a schoolboy, we called those who were on the losing side of a game and who refused to accept that they had lost and who accused the winning side of cheating sore losers and poor sports.

The only folks benefiting from President Trump’s response to losing the election are the lawyers who are collecting hefty retainers for their services and the enemies of the United States who are delighted when Americans squabble among themselves. They saw Trump as a gift from heaven, not because they, like some evangelicals, thought that he was a messianic figure but because he would make their task of dividing Americans against each other easier.

Trump loyalists are not benefitting from Trump’s response. Neither are other Republicans. During the remainder of his term of office things are going to get worse than they are already. Trump himself will make it worse. He is his own worst enemy. He runs a risk of further alienating those who he has already alienated.

Republicans have picked up seats in the House of Representatives. They look like they will retain the majority in the Senate. They have three conservative judges on the Supreme Court. They have a good crack at the presidency in 2024. Trump in sulking over his loss is spoiling it for them.

Joe Biden faces a far greater challenge than Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Depression. Republicans need to take a long view.

It is time for Republicans to move on and to bid Donald Trump adieu. It is time to let wounds heal and not to pick off the scabs and make them bleed again. A truly great nation is a nation that is united, not divided against itself, a nation whose people work together to forge a bright future for themselves.

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