Editorial; George Orwell's America and the 2020 election
We try not to wade into national politics too often, but anyone who has lived in the United States for any length of time surely understands these are not normal times.
And let's be clear, what we're about to say is not a partisan position, nor is it anything particularly profound.
A substantial portion of the public seems to have drunk Jim Jones-style Kool-Aid that last year's election was somehow stolen from Donald Trump.
Based on what evidence? Apparently nothing other than the illusion that because Trump had been leading in the early voting, this was tantamount to election.
And why believe that? Because Trump more or less said so on election night. And because he had prepped for this scenario for weeks by warning against mail-in voting as if it were some sinister plot against democracy - even though there is scant evidence that mail-in voting has been subject to fraud to any substantial degree. In fact, Trump set the stage for this election night illusion by discouraging his voters from using the mails at the same time Democrats understood the electioneering benefits of doing just the opposite.
None of the spurious claims about the 2020 election have been supported by credible evidence. Zero.
Frankly, the only suggestion that is supported by evidence or common sense is that Trump is the one committing election impropriety. Even a year later, he refuses to acknowledge the election's outcome.
Much worse, legions in his party are going along with this sacrilege to our democratic way of life.
In irrelevant whataboutism, some of them respond that Hillary Clinton never conceded in 2016, apparently forgetting her gracious speech of Nov. 9 that year. Some see the necessary questions about Russia's undisputed interference in the 2016 campaign as somehow tantamount to challenging Trump's legitimacy.
Sad to say, we awake this morning in an Orwellian America, one in which partisans - and this applies to some degree to both sides - tell us the sky is orange and expect us to disbelieve our eyes.
And sadly, many of us have fallen victim to this color blindness.
A seditious travesty against our system of government was committed on Jan. 6. And now many partisans are trying to tell us that what we saw with our own eyes and heard with our own ears did not happen. The same partisans who refused to appoint a nonpartisan commission to investigate the siege now claim partisanship on the part of the House committee that that was established as the only alternative.
These are trying times. They are sad and disappointing times.
Elections are brewing. Candidates should be on notice to leave the Kool-Aid at the door. Our Editorial Board will be asking who won the 2020 election. We will suffer no fantasies.