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Trump’s Parting Shot at Democracy
Attacks on the legitimacy of American presidents are not new — but what Trump is doing now is unprecedented and destructive
Two weeks after Joe Biden gave his acceptance speech as President-elect of the United States — recognized by all major media organizations, most foreign leaders, all American Democratic politicians and several prominent Republicans — current President Donald Trump, the loser of the 2020 election, refuses to concede, continues to block the transition, and is still (along with most of his supporters) claiming that he has a path to victory by challenging the results.
Those of us who see this as a destructive course of action and a vindication of all the warnings about Trump’s danger to American democracy — which is a lot of us — are often met with ripostes along the lines of, “So it’s just like when the Democrats claimed Trump was an illegitimate president” or “How is that different from Democrats claiming George W. Bush stole the 2000 election?” (Somehow, this whatabouting always leaves out Republican attacks on the legitimacy of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Ahem.)
The answer is: Yes, the habit of delegitimizing presidents from the opposing party under one pretext or another is not new. (As far as I can tell, the GOP started it…
