hudebnik: (Default)
hudebnik ([personal profile] hudebnik) wrote2021-01-11 09:54 am
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You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

From a New York Times article, interviewing a bunch of the participants in Wednesday's rally/riot:

"We are representing the 74 million people who got disenfranchised. We are still out here. We are a force to be reckoned with. We are not going away."

"Disenfranchised", as far as I know, means "denied the opportunity to vote," or perhaps "their votes weren't counted." The 74 million figure, however, is presumably a count of Trump votes. In fact, all those people were allowed to vote, and their votes were counted, obviously, or we wouldn't know there were 74 million of them.

"Disenfranchised" does not mean "on the losing side because more voters disagreed with you than agreed with you." If you can't deal with the latter, you need to either grow up or move to a country that doesn't even claim to be a democracy.

Apparently the remedy for 74 million American voters being "disenfranchised", in the sense of not winning, is for 81 million American voters to be "disenfranchised" in the same sense. I don't see how this is an improvement.

Mind you, that doesn't mean the country should accept widespread election fraud. But if you allege widespread election fraud, you have to back it up with evidence; otherwise it's just 74 million people demanding that their preferences override those of 81 million other people. And after hundreds of election officials of various parties in various states, and dozens of judges of various parties in various states, and dozens of lawyers who were paid to find such evidence, have all failed to find any such evidence, it's the duty of a patriotic, grown-up citizen to accept that no, there wasn't widespread vote fraud, and yes, (s)he really was on the losing side.

Fortunately for those on the losing side, an administration once elected is charged with representing all Americans, not only those who voted for it. And fortunately for those on the losing side this year, the President-elect (unlike his predecessor) actually believes in that charge.