Cal Thomas: For the good of the country

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Today is Thursday, June 20th, 2024. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Myrna Brown.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: And I’m Mary Reichard. WORLD Commentator Cal Thomas now with what threatens the United States from within.

CAL THOMAS: It used to be that after an election the losing side would at least formally usually accept the results and give initial support to a new president during what was then called the “honeymoon” stage. Richard Nixon conceded to John Kennedy in 1960, although he believed the election was “stolen” by Kennedy operatives in Cook County, Illinois. Al Gore conceded to George W. Bush in the razor-close 2000 election. Hillary Clinton conceded in 2016, though she still claims the election was stolen from her. Donald Trump is still in denial that he lost 2020 by more than 7 million votes.

The days of concession “for the good of the country” are gone. Not only is there no honeymoon, the “divorce” now occurs first.

While claiming that Donald Trump would be a “threat to democracy” should he win in November, Democrats are already plotting how to oppose his every policy, including Trump’s plan to deport millions of migrants.

One might arguably conclude such behavior makes them the real threat to democracy.

A New York Times story reveals their strategy, including lawsuits to prevent deportations and Democrat governors who are stockpiling the abortion pill. What is it about Democrats and abortion?

Let me see if I have this right. If Trump wins, he will be a threat to our Constitution, the law, the environment and just about everything else. We are a constitutional republic, not a pure democracy, but since Democrats keep using the word, listen to its definition on Dictionary.com: “government by the people; a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system.”

Are Democrats saying that if a majority of Americans vote for Trump and/or a majority of electoral votes go to the former president, that is not democracy, but if Biden wins, that is democracy? Those are contradictions, aren’t they?

This is the arrogance of the left which believes it has a divine right (if they believed in the divine) to rule perpetually regardless of the outcome of an election. Yes, we witnessed the same attitude demonstrated by some Trump supporters during the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but those people, many of whom were arrested and sentenced to prison terms, do not seem to be plotting lawsuits and other strategies to thwart a second Biden term.

In the not-too-distant past, the losing side in an election would lick their wounds, study what went wrong, and live to fight another day. Those days are over. It’s now year-round warfare. It is not good for the country and it emboldens our adversaries.

Perhaps the example of our first president would be worth remembering. In the popular musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, there’s a scene where George Washington calls Alexander Hamilton into his office to tell him that Thomas Jefferson is resigning in order to run for election. Hamilton wants to write a speech attacking Jefferson, Washington tells him to draft a farewell address instead.

In the song “One Last Time,” Hamilton asks why Washington wants to step down and say goodbye…Washington replies, “If I say goodbye, the nation learns to move on. It outlives me when I’m gone.” 

Elections can’t be legitimate only if your side wins and illegitimate if the other side is victorious. And when the voters make their choice clear, spending years undermining their choice is by definition undemocratic. That attitude is the fastest way to undermine the United States into divided states and a perpetually divided people.

I’m Cal Thomas.

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