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EDITORIAL: The heated post-election rhetoric needs to be turned down

3 min read
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A leader in the Ohio Tea Party has called on President Trump to declare martial law, suspend the Constitution and order a re-do of the 2020 presidential election.

One of the lawyers working to overturn the election results has suggested that Christopher Krebs, the former head of U.S. election security, should be “taken out at dawn and shot” for saying that the election was the most secure in the country’s history.

There have been calls on social media for a 20-year-old election worker in Georgia to be tortured and killed after false claims that the worker manipulated election data. And this follows outlandish claims that the governor and secretary of state in Georgia, both of whom are Republicans, were part of a nefarious plot to tip the election in that state to Joe Biden.

This week, Gabriel Sterling, a voting systems manager in Georgia, stood before reporters in the state capitol building to state the obvious: “It has all. Gone. Too. Far.”

Referring to the elections worker, who has since gone into hiding, Sterling said, “This kid took a job. He just took a job. And it’s wrong. I can’t begin to explain the level of anger I have right now over this. Every American, every Georgian, Republican or Democrat alike, should have the same level of anger.”

Whether it’s out of a desire to put salve on a bruised ego, make life harder for Biden or raise money, Trump and some of his allies have been trumpeting claims in the month since the presidential election wrapped up that it was rife with fraud. The president and his supporters have produced no convincing evidence to buttress these claims, have lost repeatedly in court and been contradicted by many leading Republicans. This week, Bill Barr, the U.S. attorney general, told the Associated Press that he saw no evidence of widespread voter fraud. The baseless claims of fraud have been damaging, undermining faith in our electoral system, the cornerstone of our democracy.

In this area, Natalie Mihalek, a Republican state representative whose district includes Peters Township and other communities in the South Hills, has been harassed by constituents who are upset about the way the election turned out. Some have been turning up outside her home, while others have been terrorizing and bullying her staff. A Peters Township man has been arrested after stalking her.

Mihalek said, “The handful of individuals inspiring this conduct must understand that words have consequences, especially when they create an atmosphere conducive to illegal acts. It is time to tamp down the rhetoric before someone is injured.”

We’ll second that.

Though Trump’s election loss was not preordained, it wasn’t entirely surprising. The president lost the popular vote in 2016, and never attained 50% approval during his whole storm-tossed tenure. And it’s not like voters never decide to turf out incumbent presidents. Trump is the fourth incumbent to be defeated in the last 45 years, following Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush. And no one believes they lost due to fraud.

If Trump’s supporters believe he should be president again, they’d be better off making the case to voters over the next four years, rather than continuing to fight the 2020 election. After all, November 2024 is not that far away.

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