By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times @mikemcgannpa
In the last few days, Chester County has become famous — just maybe not in the way most of us would like.
In the fevered dreams of some, Chester County’s officials are part of a vast conspiracy to prevent Donald Trump from being reelected President. Social media is roaring — people from thousands of miles away lecture me on what happened in my home county, insta-experts on something they know literally nothing about.
So let me set the record straight: Chester County ran an efficient, clean election, manned by honest, hard working people — folks who are your neighbors, your friends, maybe even your family. They had one goal: get the count right and get it done as quickly as possible.
They busted their butts, worked late into the night and got the job done.
There was enormous transparency — much of what happened was open to the media and observers from both parties were on hand to watch what transpired.
I’m going to say the same thing for pretty much every county in Pennsylvania. Despite the best efforts of Republicans in the state legislature to provoke chaos, our local county officials and staffs stepped up, and got the job done, fairly and professionally. Yes, the definitive vote for Joe Biden came in days after the election, because the Republicans in the state legislature refused to allow counties to count or canvass ballots before Election Day.
There were almost 7 million votes cast in the state, so it is impossible to say that every last one was counted correctly and that there were no errors. But the safe bet is that few ballots were impacted by errors and far less by fraud — these folks are that good at what they do. Trump lost to Biden by more than 47,000 votes (and counting) in Pennsylvania. To date, the lone cause of proven voter fraud is a Trump supporter who tried to vote his late mother’s mail in ballot. The claims of the Erie postal carrier, who recanted his claims to Postal Inspectors, then recanted his claims in the media, is not credible (lying to the media is not a crime, lying to Postal Inspectors is).
But we have the likes of Rudolph Giuliani coming into our state and lying — I’m going to say knowingly lying and pushing to file what he knows to be frivolous and fraudulent lawsuits, just to gum up the process and damage faith in Biden’s election. Giuliani — under investigation for his possible collaboration with Russian Intelligence to put out misinformation — deserves to be disbarred, although I suspect worse is coming for him in the coming months.
The cry of “legal votes only” is code for “only votes we like — not minorities, not Democrats, just us.”
We have local members of the state legislature — apparently supported by local legislators like Steve Barrar, Tim Hennessey, John Lawrence and Tom Killion, whose silence is deafening — who are demanding an already agreed-to audit of the vote and making dark threats about ignoring the will of the voters and appointing their own electors.
In other states, Republicans are trying to throw out the votes of active-duty service members — because they’re stationed outside of their home state. That’s pretty much the least patriotic thing I can think of.
The fevered lies of Trump supporters are in deep contrast to four years ago when Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by a much smaller margin. While Democrats were mortified, few claimed the election was illegitimate and a full transition process began immediately after election day. History suggests, frankly, Democrats would have had a better argument to complain as revelations of Russian interference in the 2016 race came to light.
They sucked it up, accepted the results of an election and coped the best they could because at heart, they believe in democracy and America.
Now, though, when their guy lost and lost by a solid margin, Republicans are screaming how “unfair” or “rigged” the election was. Trump is leading these claims — a sore loser and serial liar. Those backing this play — even those just giving it lip service — are not about democracy and America, but about power at any cost.
These same folks wrap themselves in the flag, yet stomp upon that which makes America, America: free elections in which your side loses sometimes. But increasingly, over the last couple of decades, Republicans have come to see any election in which they lose as somehow illegitimate, that Democrats are not allowed to win.
I recall being a freshly minted Democratic Committee Person in Pocopson where I was literally spit upon and told “since when do we have Democrats in Chester County?”
Almost two decades later, not only do we have Democrats in Chester County, they are the dominant party and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future, no matter how much Republicans whine, cry — and yes, try to cheat.
When your party offers no ideas beyond political terrorism, it is inevitable that you will lose in the long run.
What we are seeing now, locally and nationally, is a real-time self destruction of a political party.
Good riddance.
