Mitt (once upon a time)...

Once upon a time,

many of you voted for John McCain, for Mitt Romney, for others with conservative values, but who had intelligence and ideas and a sometimes maddening and intense consistency in matching their words with actions and policies.

Two boys exploring in the forest by a river

If these men were men of character and intellect at a high enough caliber to once vote for as leaders of the free world...how did they become disenfranchised radicals within their own party when they asked for that same moral consistency and reasonable discourse?

How?

Both lost their quests for the highest office, yet were respected by adversaries and colleagues across the aisle. And were their own party’s choice for President.

Even George W. and the Bush family at large: why was their opinion, their character, their voice so important when it was leading the GOP...yet marginalized when they spoke out against the increasing radicalization of their party by President Trump?

As a note: I refer to him as President because he is accorded that honor, that privilege, that place of service, according to the laws and voices of this land. He is our President.

When will President-elect Biden, elected via the same process, be afforded the same respect?

Don’t even start with this ‘massive voter fraud’ misdirection.

That’s what it is. The President knows it. The Administration knows it. Many of you know it. This is not about legally changing the results of a legitimate election. This is about laying the ground work for something else. And as a further aside: the 2016 election was not institutionally challenged on its merits; there was no widespread panic to call Trump’s win into question by Democrats or the Obama White House.

There WERE protests against his policies and what he stood for. Before and after election. I support my Republican friends’ rights to protest and speak out against Biden’s policies, though I may at times strongly disagree with you. Speaking out in protest about policies is vastly different from challenging the outcome of our election process.

Investigate!

There should be transparency about legitimate irregularities. Legitimate investigation should be pursued with non-partisan support and vigor, and WE MUST AGREE AHEAD OF TIME TO TRUST THE RESULTS WHEN WE TRUST THE PEOPLE AND THE PROCESS. We can’t simply change our mind about legitimacy when the result isn’t what we want.

Again, do not diminish our collective intellects by equating this - refusal to accept election results - with protesting policy and working to ensure those in power are held accountable. That is a NORMAL, ACCEPTABLE, and BELOVED part of what makes this country great. The ability to disagree freely and protest against those in power.

And the responsibility, as residents of this great nation, to uphold legitimate elections and their results. Even when we don’t like their results.

It is when those in power refuse to relinquish their power that the problem arises.

That problem has arisen. He has a name, and he has the power. But that power is going away and he is terrified.

There are long histories and examples in OTHER COUNTRIES about what happens when leaders refuse to relinquish their power when things don’t go their way.

That is not us.

Constitutional scholars, political journalists, historians, weigh in! Please. I am none of those things. I’m not asking for second-hand friends or family of those people to relay yet another unverifiable anecdote. Reading a Wikipedia article doesn’t make you an expert.

Bob Woodward, what are your thoughts?

It is clear, according to the same process we have gone through for almost 250 years, that Mr. Biden won the election.

Won with some of the same states and processes whose results Mr. Trump exultantly accepted in 2016.

As did we all. Half the country unhappily so. But ACCEPTED.

And to continue this aside: the Russia investigation was not a call to upend and overturn the election. It was an attempt, hampered and discouraged by Trump at every turn, to discover the role of a foreign government’s role in trying to disrupt and affect our election.

Not to overturn the election of Trump.

So if you’re the one posting evidence-free memes and “facts” right now about massive fraud, then just know I cannot take you seriously on any level in any conversation about “election integrity.”

Election integrity means taking voter fraud, voter suppression, voter disenfranchisement, and any interference in our elections, foreign or domestic, seriously.

Seriously.

And should the Vice President-elect expect to receive the basic respect level of having her name pronounced correctly?

How are the Republican voices, the voices from the many sectors often considered reliably Republican, why are so many of those voices dismissed as soon as they have spoken out with concerns about this Administration?

Why do their voices go from worth listening to - as long as they’re in lock step with the President - to some version of “disgruntled ex-employee” once they speak out?

I am talking about conservatives, Republicans, military, government in every branch at almost every level...whose voices suddenly are dismissed by Republicans as soon as they challenge principles or policies of the President.

Why? How? Shouldn’t and wouldn’t these be voices, once respected voices, be worth listening to according to the stated values of the GOP?

Sadly, it’s more of a rhetorical question at this point.

I have no patience for the kind of answer that requires a McConnellian diarrheatic implosion of upside down logic and moral acrobatics. An explanation that a six-year would plow a hole through in five seconds because it doesn’t make sense.

We have a President now.
His name is Donald Trump. He was elected. I’m not arguing otherwise.