by Richard McCarty
Democrats who are unhappy that Republicans are skeptical of the 2020 election results have no one to blame but themselves. Democrats cannot understand why Republicans would question the election results in spite of the fact that Democrats sought to undermine anti-voter fraud measures in the run-up to the election; that Republican observers were not allowed to observe vote counting; and that massive numbers of Biden votes were counted in the middle of the night while no Republican observers were present. Of course, in recent years, Democrats have repeatedly disputed unfavorable election results, pushed wild conspiracy theories, and lied about their opponents. A quick review of recent political history seems in order.
When George W. Bush defeated Al Gore in 2000, Democrats claimed that Bush had cheated and was illegitimate. In the ensuing years, they bitterly complained about the election and questioned the trustworthiness of Diebold voting machines because Diebold’s CEO was a Republican, among other things. Seemingly, no conspiracy was too wild for Democrats who accused Bush of having foreknowledge of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, profiting from the Iraq War, and fighting the war for oil.
When Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012, Republicans – though bitterly disappointed – mostly accepted their losses and moved on. Those who did not accept Obama’s 2008 victory as legitimate were largely those who doubted whether he had been born in the United State and was eligible to run for president. Rather than do the reasonable thing and publish his birth certificate in 2008 (or even early 2009) to address those concerns, Obama had to be goaded into releasing the certificate in 2011 by Trump. Once the certificate was published, the issue all but disappeared. It seems that Obama liked having “birthers” question his legitimacy so he could portray his opponents as crazy.
In 2016, Democrats laid the groundwork for their assault on President Donald Trump’s legitimacy by concocting the Russian collusion hoax and paying for the garbage-filled “dossier.” When Trump defeated Hillary Clinton, Democrats quickly claimed that Russians had stolen the election and refused to accept that Trump had won. For the past four years, Democrats have claimed that he is a Russian puppet, have vowed to resist him, and have harassed and have threatened Administration officials for doing their jobs. Before Democrats even seized control of the House, they sought to find an excuse to impeach Trump. When the Mueller report failed to provide sufficient grounds for impeachment, Democrats simply invented another.
If, as expected, there is a Republican objection to Electoral College votes when Congress convenes to count and certify them on January 6th, it will be the first time that a Republican has done so since the passage of the Electoral Count Act of 1887, which lays out the process for counting electoral votes. On the other hand, Congressional Democrats have repeatedly objected to electoral votes. After the 2000 election, 14 House Democrats objected to electoral votes, but their objection went nowhere because they failed to find support from a Senator. After the 2004 election, both a House and Senate Democrat objected to the awarding of Ohio’s 20 electoral votes to Bush. Because both a House member and a Senate member objected, a debate and a vote on the objection were required in both houses of Congress, which delayed the vote-counting process. The Democrat scheme failed; but had the electoral votes been switched, Democrat John Kerry would have defeated Bush. In addition, after the 2016 election, seven House Democrats objected to electoral votes but failed to gain a Senator’s support.
Given the refusal of Democrats to accept their losses along with their constant lies and scheming to undermine our election laws, they have no right to complain about conservatives who question the fairness of the 2020 election. If Democrats truly want the country to heal, or to ever be believed again, they first need to stop lying.
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Richard McCarty is Director of Research for Americans for Limited Government Foundation.
