Biden’s Crisis of Democracy
Here is a sneak preview of my forthcoming American Free Press article, published in full for my paid subscribers only. Please consider subscribing to AFP or me! -KB
Americans of all political persuasions agree: Our nation is experiencing a crisis of democracy. As a recent Wall Street Journal sub-headline put it, “Many Republicans believe that Trump beat Biden and that the next election will be stolen, while Democrats expect another GOP effort to overturn results.”
Most mainstream media, including the historically Republican-leaning Wall Street Journal, side with Biden’s claim that American democracy is in peril due to the antics of one man, Donald Trump. According to the Democrats, Trump broke with precedent, and betrayed American tradition, by contesting the outcome of the 2020 election.
But contesting election outcomes is not unusual. In 2000, Al Gore protested Bush Jr.’s alleged victory, essentially arguing that the Florida vote count had been rigged by Bush’s brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, and a cabal of Republicans. Gore took his case all the way to the Supreme Court and lost in what has been called “the Supreme Coup.” To this day, most people who investigate the issue agree that Gore won the presidency but was robbed by a fraudulent vote count in Florida.
Another Democratic presidential candidate who challenged an apparent loss—with less justification than Gore—is Trump’s 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, who bizarrely argued that Russia had somehow inserted Trump into the Oval Office. How did the Russians do it? Clinton and the other promoters of the Russiagate hoax essentially argued that by creating a few fake people on social media, Russia somehow swung the election in Trump’s favor. On the basis of that risible claim, Clinton famously called Trump “an illegitimate president.”
So Trump’s claims about 2020 are hardly unprecedented. What is unprecedented is the Democratic response.