It’s official! Joe Biden has won the presidency. While this news may come as astounding to many individuals and minorities across the country, there are some that just refuse to accept Trump’s loss as fair.
According to an article published by The Hill, “Roughly half of Republicans believe Trump rightfully won the election, with 68 percent saying they had concerns about a rigged vote-counting process in favor of President-elect Joe Biden.”
The question is, where exactly are Republicans getting these allegations from? Is there really a legitimate reason as to why we should believe the results were “rigged,” or are these accusations simply being brought to the surface out of blind loyalty for Trump?
In a USA Today article, a statement from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency reads, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised. All of the states with close results in the 2020 presidential race have paper records of each vote, allowing the ability to go back and count each ballot if necessary. This is an added benefit for security and resilience. This process allows for the identification and correction of any mistakes or errors.”
It is apparent that extra security measures and precautions were in fact taken to ensure that this election was kept as equitable and fair as possible, despite Trump’s repeated maundering about a “rigged” election. In fact, Trump even fired the DHS’ cyber chief Christopher Krebs, claiming that he made a “highly inaccurate” statement by declaring the 2020 election to be the most secure in U.S. history. While the claim that the election was the “most secure in U.S. history” may not necessarily be true, this doesn’t constitute a viable ground to fire him.
Although Trump himself may believe the results were not fair and refuses to accept his loss, deflecting his anger onto others won’t solve his problems either. It’s ironic that Trump and the Republican party keep alleging that the election results weren’t fair, yet they have failed to provide any substantial evidence that suggests so. On top of this, the Republican party already came predisposed with opinions regarding the mail-in ballot system before the election.
However, what if the election results had been different and Trump had won? Would Republicans be so quick to speak of election fraud then?
Even Trump’s 2016 legal advisor Jenna Ellis called him an “idiot” who was also “boorish and arrogant,” a CNN Politics article states. Ellis then continued by saying that Trump’s supporters “don’t care about facts or logic. They aren’t seeking truth. … Trump probably could shoot someone in the middle of NYC and not lose support.”
Putting this into perspective with the results of the election, there are always going to be two sides to every story, like a he said, she said type of situation. Republicans will never accept that the election results were fairly determined and Democrats would never accept that they weren’t, even if there is eventually proof discovered that supports the Republican consensus.
In terms of Joe Biden himself, although he is the preferred presidential election winner for most Democrats, he should still be held to the same standards in terms of accountability as Trump. Every time Trump does something wrong, he is called out for it.
The same should continue to hold true for Biden.
Although Democrats may have won in terms of their preferred candidate getting elected, the fight is far from over. Between Trump and the Republicans who claim the election results were “rigged,” and the ever-changing state of the COVID-19 pandemic and other societal conflicts, we are at the crux of more potential conflict.
Article by Alexandra Doncheva of Richard Montgomery High School
Photo Courtesy of the U.S. Government