Gannon prof: 'Big lie' of stolen election imperils our American democracy

"Your president is as good as mine." And with that, my grandfather delineated the difference between sports and politics. In my first-ever presidential election, my candidate had prevailed. His candidate had lost. Exhilarated, I gloated. Instead of engaging me in playful banter, he taught me an important lesson about democracy. Elections are not a game. Just as there is no crying in baseball, there should be no gloating or lying when it comes electoral outcomes. The stakes are simply too high.

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In sports, part of the fun (heck, most of the fun) is the heckling of friends who root for teams that lose. Part and parcel of razzing friends is to blame referees and second-guess a coach. In this ritual, fans essentially argue, "Our team did not really lose." If not for a boneheaded penalty or a dunderheaded play call, our team would have and should have won the game. This is how Cleveland Browns fans manage the pain of constant, incessant losing. Denial is neither a river in Egypt nor a lake in Ohio; without denial, no Browns fan could live with the "factory of sadness" that is their team. But politics is not a football game.

"Your president is as good as mine," was my grandfather's way of cutting that Gordian knot. Losing hurts. We Americans invest much emotional energy into presidential campaigns. American presidential campaigns are brutal slogs that last the better of two years. One part popularity contest and one part Jeopardy game with a dash of an ultra-marathon, presidential campaigns are a Super Bowl, World Series, and MMA Cage fight rolled into one. As such, the emotional stakes of a presidential race make the Flyers-Penguins rivalry seem puny and inconsequential by comparison.

Deeply influenced by my grandfather's love for politics and country, I earned a Ph.D. in American political history. As someone who studies, teaches, and writes about contemporary American politics, I observed Donald Trump's campaign, presidency, and post-presidency with increasing concern. Acting more as corner hype man than world leader, Trump amps his crowd with audacious, martial bombast that creates strong emotional bonds with supporters. But making a dangerous situation even worse were the Democrats. By reactively and, at times, hyperbolically responding to nearly every Trump utterance and maneuver, Democrats raised the political temperature at every turn. This is what President Trump wanted, because it bonded supporters to him ever more strongly. It was this transformation of Trump supporters into "Trump Nation" that has had such dire political consequences. Many Pennsylvanians have now formed an emotional attachment to the former president that leads them to accept comforting lies over the hard facts.

As Founding Father John Adams sagely observed over two centuries ago, facts are stubborn things. Here are the facts: Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump. Besting the incumbent by more than 7 million votes nationally, Biden defeated Trump by 80,555 votes in Pennsylvania. Despite scads of accusations, even Trump's own lawyers admit they cannot locate any voter fraud on a scale that would overturn the results. Trump lost. Biden won. Game over.

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The great majority of Republican voters and officeholders are honest and decent Americans, who believe in free and fair elections. Sadly, they are being hoodwinked. The January 6th Select Committee has revealed President Trump's role in a criminal conspiracy to subvert the 2020 election. Despite the counsel of every reputable campaign adviser, White House staffer, Trump family member, and 61 judicial rulings, the president falsely declared victory and electoral fraud. Through this, the president gave birth to the "big lie." Following that, he issued a call for a Jan. 6th rally in which thousands of unwitting supporters were manipulated into abetting a coordinated, illegal, and unconstitutional violent gambit to overthrow a free and fair election.

Even after the Jan. 6th insurrection failed, President Trump has maintained the "big lie." In this, the "big lie" has become even more deadly to democracy. Following Trump, the Republican Party is placing Trump "loyalists" into state and local positions that oversee elections. Even worse, a slew of GOP candidates are running for office on an implicit promise to do Trump's bidding in 2024 ballot counts. This year, Pennsylvanians are electing a governor. It is the governor who appoints the secretary of the commonwealth to oversee state elections. Republicans have nominated a candidate, Doug Mastriano, who embraces the "big lie." One can easily imagine the chaos of a 2024 election that is managed by the Mastriano administration. But Pennsylvania is merely one of many states in which candidates are promising to run future elections in a manner that are not free and fair.

In political seasons, the stakes are high. Emotions run hot. The winner greatly matters. But my grandfather understood that democracy only works when "your president is as good as mine." When it comes to an election, we must play by the same rules, accept the results (especially when it hurts), and never lie. The stakes simply could not be higher.

Jeff Bloodworth is a fellow with the Washington, D.C.-based Truman National Security Project and a professor of American political history at Gannon University.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Gannon prof: stolen election big lie imperils our American democracy