The Delegitimization Of The American Presidency

The spin zone is rotating out of control regarding the "Russian effect" on this year's U.S. Presidential election. It's so bad that leftist Democrats are using anew kind of political spin, the idea that a new president (In this case Trump) of the opposite party is not only wrong, but that he or she actually holds the presidency illegitimately. Yep! The spin is so crazy that a recent poll of voters showed that 51% actually thin that Russia hacked into voting machines and changed votes in Trump's favor.  Never mind that it is physically impossible, Voting machines here are not connected to the internet. They are plugged into the wall like your toaster, and therefore not subject to being hacked.

Americans of both the Republican and Democratic party have always argued that ideologically opposite politicians are wrong, or perhaps unqualified. That's a legitimate perspective and anyone who says that Trump is both should not be challenged on their opinion. But the idea that the presidency was gained through trickery or subterfuge keeps gaining momentum in the U.S. as political parties count on their uneducated backers to accept every charge the party makes, even when it is as absurd as "The Russians elected Trump".

What the Russians may have done by hacking E mails of leading Democrats was to add more information to the public knowledge base about the candidates.  They simply put information out and let the public digest it, which is far less nefarious than the actual hacking of vote machines.  In fact, on Election Day, there were few voters that didn't know Russia was trying to influence the election through the release of the E mails. What they did know is that the Democratic party and their candidate's own words, from their own E mail showed that they were not trustworthy or honest with them.

This idea that the new president is not legitimate has taken hold on the last three elected, Trump, Obama and Bush. It began most notably following the 2000 election, when Democrats convinced themselves that George Bush actually lost  the vote in Florida, and thus the election. It was a fantasy of the Democrats needed to make a case that Bush was "not worthy" to be president. When they litigated and the Supreme Court ordered a recount of the Florida vote, and that result was by many sources in 2001 it confirmed that Bush  won as the first count reported.  Further, he would have won almost any recount. But left wind Democrats and an increasing number of regular ones under the spell of the crazies liberals still hang on to this fantasy today that Bush was not elected fairly.

When Obama was elected in 2008, the right wing Republicans applied the same strategy by claiming that "Obama was not elected according to the rules". Throughout Barrack Obama's presidency, Republicans pushed the idea that Obama was not born in the United States, and thus was ineligible to hold office. This ridiculous charge has never been proven to be true. Ironically, Trump was an advocate of the Obama is not legitimate nonsense. It's a delicious revenge that now the opposite side is claiming he is not legitimate.

The genisis of this deligitimazation process that the two parties use is probably a reflection of the decay in each party and the lack of education of the party members, who think their social media is the font of truth about all things political and not. In short, it's easy to brain wash your party members to believe idiocy when they are both upset with politics and uninformed about the truth of  government. This latest stupidity, that the Russians elected Trump and Clinton was cheated is all illusion that will eventually be dismissed by intelligent and informed voters.

What voters of both parties should focus on is what Trump actually does in the presidency. If they stop creating lies and hysteria about what he "will do" and hold him to what he does, there may be able to find enough ammunition to make a case to elect someone else in 2020.