Trump frames election as a coin toss he can't lose
A coin flip, if the rules are manipulated, can become unfair, even using a coin as beautiful as this 1879 Morgan silver dollar, the “LIBERTY” in her headband a subtle reminder of what is at stake.
Neil Steinberg/Sun-Times
Let's play a game. Doesn't matter what — checkers, chess, heck it could be a coin toss. Let's go with that, for simplicity's sake.
A game needs rules. So here's how we'll play. We toss a coin — let's make it a Morgan silver dollar; they're beautiful. If it's heads, I win, and you give me $20. If it's tails, I still win, because you must have cheated. You give me $20. I don't have to provide any evidence of cheating, though I can air some theories: The coin wasn't flipped properly. The wind affected the throw. The coin was loaded. Doesn't matter. You still give me $20.
And if for some reason you balk at handing over the money, insisting the game was indeed fair, I reserve the right to punch you in the mouth and take your $20. Violence is always an option. For me. Not for you.
Would you play under those conditions? Would anybody? Why not? Because my coin toss scenario is the essence of the dire situation the United States of America finds itself heading into the presidential election of 2024. With far, far more at stake than $20.
What amazes me is how transparent this all is. Nothing is hidden. The putative Republican candidate, Donald Trump has a long, well-publicized history of loudly declaring that any contest he might enter into is rigged against him, ahead of time, as insurance in case he loses. Fluffing the pillows in case he needs to swoon into them.
The Emmys were "all politics" because Trump's TV show, "The Apprentice" didn't win one "many times over."
When he ran in 2016, he declared that the caucuses were rigged. When he cut through a field of Republican mediocrities to face Hillary Clinton, he saw cheating everywhere.
"The election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing Crooked Hillary — but also at many polling places - SAD," Trump tweeted.
The imaginary fraud only intensified in the general election.
"Of course there is large scale voter fraud happening on and before election day," Trump tweeted. "Why do Republican leaders deny what is going on? So naive!"
Republican leaders have certainly lined up now. A chorus of denial, particularly those hoping to be Trump's vice presidential choice, parrot Trump's lies about the fidelity of the election, as a kind of audition. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott was grilled on "Face the Nation" whether he would accept the election results, however they turn out, and resolutely refused to do so. Heads I win. Tails, I also win.
When Trump lost by seven million votes to Joe Biden, the accusations went into overdrive. The Jan. 6 Capitol attack was the societal version of a punch in the mouth after the coin toss loss. I fear worse in 2024.
Faith in the electoral process — the cornerstone of American democracy — is in decline, after years of relentless assault. Lacking any evidence of widespread fraud, many Trump-supporting Republicans try to change the definition. Mail-in voting is fraud. Early voting is fraud. Accessible polling places are fraud.
And anything Trump doesn't like is an illusion.
"His job numbers are fake, they're totally fake," Trump told a New Jersey rally. "They're fixed numbers. They're rigged numbers. Everything about them is rigged, from the elections to the economy."
An outside observer might ask — if you are so certain of cheating, why run? What is going to prevent the same nefarious outcome that you insist happened last time?
The answer is that the accusations are insincere, a ruse. A ploy to grab the $20 — or the presidency — whether you win or not. Saying the system is rigged is a ploy to rig the system. The kind of hall-of-mirrors gaslighting that millions of Americans can't see through, apparently. Some Republicans might have fallen for Trump's lies, sincerely, but that doesn't really matter, any more than it matters whether the guy stealing your money online really considers himself a prince.
Here is the part of the column where I like to dangle the possibility of hope, of a solution. But frankly I don't see one. If I approached you with a $20 bill in one hand and a silver dollar in the other and laid out the rules outlined above, you would snort in derision and walk away. But there is no walking away from the looming election. Nov. 5 is coming, and nobody knows what's going to happen.