Trump's whining about the "rigged" election feeds off GOP's longtime victim complex

Trump's whining about the "rigged" election feeds off GOP's longtime victim complex
For the right to cast themselves as history's victims is nothing new. But this time it's more dangerous than ever

By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
NOVEMBER 30, 2020 1:30PM


(Salon) Both the New York Times and the Washington Post were out over the holiday with deep dives into the post-election moves by Donald Trump and various players around the country as the president refuses to concede and one lawsuit after another is rejected by the courts. They are harrowing tales of a president (whom one source in the Post describes as "Mad King George, muttering 'I won, I won, I won'" ) and a group of lower-level Republicans and judges around the country who stepped into the breach to stop him from overturning the election results.

The Post's narrative takes us down the White House rabbit hole to show just how demented Trump has been ever since election night, when it became clear that his strategy to take advantage of the "red mirage" wasn't working. You may recall that Republicans had successfully kept certain swing states from counting mail-in ballots until the day of the election, the idea being that an early lead from in-person votes might give the impression that Trump had "won" at least 270 Electoral College votes and could declare victory on election night. This stupid plan was thwarted by the Fox News decision desk calling Arizona for Joe Biden, not that it stopped Trump from emerging at 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 4, to declare victory anyway.

His behavior ever since has been predictably daft, disseminating obscure voter-fraud conspiracy theories, empowering his maniacal personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani (whom the Post says Trump considers a "peer" ) and generally behaving like a spoiled, petulant child who simply cannot admit that he lost. Even after four long years of debasing our government and political culture, this would almost be a sad denouement — if he weren't also brainwashing tens of millions of Americans to believe that the election was rigged and cannot be trusted. Unless he wins, of course.

....(snip)....

Despite protestations from plenty of establishment voices, none of this is a sign that the "guardrails" worked. It's clear from both articles that the only thing keeping Donald Trump and the Republican Party from overturning this election through propaganda and backdoor political power plays is the fact that too many swing states were not close enough for their strategy to work. Nobody should be relieved by this outcome. It's only remarkable because the election wasn't that close. And this unfortunately gives Trump a platform to be a martyr. ........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/11/30/trumps-whining-about-the-rigged-election-feeds-off-gops-longtime-victim-complex/