Donald Trump crossed another line
today in Ohio when he told a group of supporters:
"First of all, it [the primary season] was rigged, and I'm afraid the election is going to be rigged. I have to be honest. Because I think my side was rigged. If I didn't win by massive landslides — I mean, think of what we won in New York, Indiana, California 78 percent. That's with other people in the race, but think of it."
Last week in Iowa, Trump planted the same seed about the general election:
"Now we have one left, one left, one left, and in theory, in theory it should be the easiest, but it's a rigged system. It's a totally rigged system. The elections are rigged."
This is another reason -- if not the main reason -- that
every vote counts in 2016, even in safely red or blue states. There should be no thought of throwing your vote to a third party or writing in a name that no one will read, just to make yourself feel better or more politically pure this November. During the Democratic convention last week I heard one Bernie supporter from Utah being interviewed on the radio; she told the reporter that she was definitely going to vote for Jill Stein of the Green Party because her state was voting Republican no matter what she does; however, she said she might vote for Hillary if she lived in a swing state like Florida or Ohio, in other words, if her vote mattered.
However, in 2016 every vote counts in
every state. Try to imagine a situation where, like Gore in 2000, Trump loses a close electoral vote and wins a close popular vote. Would Trump, like Gore in 2000, leave the stage with grace and silence? Would he go back to his gilded penthouse with congratulations for Madame President Clinton? Or, more likely, would his speeches and press conferences and tweets and Facebook posts about vote rigging and "Crooked Hillary" rise to an unprecendented din? And how would some of his core supporters among the well-armed and poorly-educated conspiracists, white supremacists, Fox brainwashees, and "Bikers For Trump," react to his endless whines about unfairness? Would we want to find out?
It's safer simply to make sure that Donald Trump is buried by a vote count, both electoral and popular, that leaves no room for doubt.
