Monday, November 9, 2020

2020 Election Post Mortem IV: Don't "go to law"

 At least going into the weekend it was widely believed, as the Trump administration and its supporters were stating it, that they'll file an entire series of lawsuits this morning on the election.

They shouldn't.

They'll all fail, and rapidly. There will then be a push to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the Supreme Court is unlikely to take anything up and if it does, it isn't going to reverse the election anyhow.

Going to the courts, in these circumstances, would be an undignified way to leave office.  Perhaps for that reason, those close to Trump are urging him not to take this step.  Perhaps they'll succeed.

If they don't, as noted, the best thing that could result would be an undignified end to the Trump presidency, although that end would ratify the choice made by many Republicans and independents to vote against Trump in the election.  

But it'd do more than that.

For one thing, it would tarnish the already tarnished image of the law.  Suits that can't win don't serve a purpose in the long run but the lawyers still get paid.  To take on an attempt to secure the office judicially will come across by many as an attempted coup, and it'll look like lawyers participated in that.

If there are real irregularities anywhere, which there probably are and they're probably minor, they should be addressed.  But at this point, Trump should concede.  Right now, he remains the most powerful figure in the Republican Party and the election seems to have at least partially ratified his views on many things, while also expressing discontent with him personally.  A statesman would take the hint and proceed into the next stage, where he could still have influence.

Or at least opt for a dignified departure.

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