We like to think of ourselves as a patriotic bunch here at Lede Progress. After all, what we do wouldn’t be allowed in most of the world.
America has never been a perfect place and it isn’t now. But, Americans have always strived to improve America -expanding freedoms, looking at our society in a critical way, to call out injustice.
And America is, today, a very rare thing in the world -a multiracial Democracy.
But one has to ask oneself, what is going on in the mind of someone like Republican House leader Kevin McCarthy, who is willing to call out Donald Trump in the hours after his attempted coup, to refusing to even admit that President Biden is the legitimately elected President?
Biden won highest share of vote for a challenger since 1932
This despite the fact that, as USAToday put it; “Biden finished with a record 81,281,502 votes nationally, defeating Trump in the popular vote by a sizable 7 million votes.
“With 51.3% of the national popular vote, Biden won with the highest share of the vote for a challenger of an incumbent president since Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932. Trump won 46.8% of the vote nationally.”
McCarthy’s refusal to state the obvious comes despite the fact that Trump and his team filed legal challenges related to the 2020 election 62 times and lost 61 times (in that one case a PA judge ruled voters had three days after the election to provide proper ID and “cure” their ballots). And that twice the Supreme Court, with a very conservative majority, refused to even hear the arguments that Trump and his cronies were making.
So, if Republican leaders are unwilling to stand up for our elections. And if they continue to appease Trump and the Big Lie that he won the election. And if Republicans themselves elect candidates (like Mastriano for Governor in PA or Jim Marchant for Secretary of State in NV) who would no longer recognize the will of the voters. Then what is the future of our nation?
‘Freedom’ without Democracy -so you mean like China?
Freedom is dependent upon the people choosing their leaders… just look toward China for a populace that has economic prosperity, but no Democracy and ask yourself whether that’s what you want here?
The 4th of July is a celebration of America and our freedom. You can’t have freedom without democracy and you can’t have democracy without recognizing the will of the people.
(This is part one of a two part post. Click here for part two, exploring Trump and the Supreme Court’s possible roles.)