President-Elect Joe Biden

We need to keep repeating the Joseph Biden was elected the next President of the United States and is the President-elect by any measure used to declare that in the past.  Every day another state certifies their vote and setting the Electors who will vote for him in December.  On January 20th at 12:01 p.m. he will be the President.  The reason we need to keep repeating that is because the current President, Donald Trump, is lying and he and his lawyers holding meetings and going on television claiming that there was massive fraud, that the elections should be thrown out and he should remain President.  The attacks from these people included lying about the company who contracted with some states for voting technology, poll workers and elected officials administering the elections in various states and even Republican governors.  Most recently one of the lawyers, a partisan hack for sure, called for the killing of Chris Krebs, the cyber security official who was in-charge of elections who was fired by the President.  He was fired because he released a statement that this was a secure election and no attacks or software changing votes.  This is where we are.  

Now this is totally on brand for President Trump.  He has lied to people his entire life.  Since coming down the escalator 5 years ago he has been a fire hose of falsehoods that have flooded the American conversation.  So as you look at social media in the last three weeks you will see ordinary Americans repeating the falsehoods of the President as if they are fakes, even in light of evidence.  The most recent was the President's spokesperson, who has the title of Press Secretary but acts as a campaign spokesperson, responded to the announcement that Joe Biden appointed an all-woman Communication Department by saying the President already has that.  The White House website proves that to be a lie, there have always been men on that staff for Trump.  The Trump supporters simple dismiss that fact because they would rather believe Trump than reality.  I am not sure how that could ever change.  There will always be followers of someone who can see them doing no wrong.  It is easier to believe conspiracies when they help you feel important and right.  But that is dangerous for the country.  Creating election skepticism and de-legitimatizing the government can only lead to problems moving forward.  It will handcuff the Biden administration and either consciously or unconsciously will push policy in a direction. 

But what is most troubling is the Republican leadership who is bolstering the President's nonsense and creating a real sense of them living the same delusion gives support to the people who want to believe in the non-existent fraud.  People who even were re-elected in this cycle claim there was enough fraud to overturn the will of the people.  Lindsey Graham, a former critic of the President, tried to tamper with the process of counting votes in at least two states and when asked if Trump will attend Biden's inauguration said he hoped Biden would attend Trump's.  This is delusion but we have heard it from several Republicans since the election.  Members of the cabinet, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, the man representing the US to the world, made a similar statement.  Most Republicans are hiding behind the Electoral College vote (suggesting that Biden didn't win until they vote) but they have never had that standard in the past.  Others are just not answering the question when asked if Biden is the President-elect.  Any member of the party who does stand up for reality is attacked.  So an entire party is putting American values in jeopardy to sooth a man who is either living in his own world or doesn't care about the country.  President-elect Joe Biden continues to move forward even with these feckless republicans trying to make it seem like it is in vain.  

So I have a suggestion for the media. If you have a Republican near a microphone, do not let them say anything unless they answer the question of whether Joe Biden is the President-elect.  If they have changed their position from the past, then don't let them speak about anything else.   

As for us, every Senator has a twitter feed.  Get on it and simple ask as a constituent  I want to know, do you see Joseph Biden as President-elect.  If not why not?

We need to get back to reality.  The President and his mouthpieces are lying and hurting our democratic standards and his party is too scared of him to stand up for the country.  It will take us to show them they are on the wrong side of history.  President-elect Biden needs the country to help him get through the pandemic, the economic fallout it produced and continues to, and to bring our country back to a good standing in the world.  Let's be the country that we aspire to be.