The silence hovering over the Republican Party into the second week after Donald Trump’s loss may be working in Washington, but in the rest of the world, it is simply exposing the country’s claim to democracy as a sorry charade.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on November 16, 2020.

OTTAWA—America is losing its lustre as the global beacon of democracy.

It could be difficult to promote democratic principles elsewhere when most senior Republican politicians do not respect it at home.

The parody of the Trump-Biden stalled transition started off as a bit of a joke. Most people thought the Republicans were simply willing to give U.S. President Donald Trump a few days to let the defeat sink in.

But his promotion of the notion of a rigged election is shining a light into the inner workings of the Republican Party.

All senior members of the party are backing the president’s bizarre lie about who won the election.

Four years of Trump’s isolationism may have made a negative mark on the world, but it has not affected his popularity at home.

Like president-elect Joe Biden, Trump increased his own vote, and continues to claim that he won the election, but that officials stole the result by refusing to end the count.

The code of silence hovering over his party into the second week after the loss may be working in Washington but in the rest of the world, it is simply exposing the country’s claim to democracy as a sorry charade.

The president’s attack on Fox News and his claim of a stolen election has penetrated his base, with supporters across the country brandishing signs demanding that officials “stop the steal.”

Trump continues to claim illegality in states like Pennsylvania and Georgia even when their Republican officials deny any illegitimacy.

Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt was adamant that there was no skullduggery in his city. He was immediately attacked by name, by the president.

But Schmidt did not back down. Instead he publicly questioned why people would so easily swallow lies about a fraudulent election.

Local Republicans like Schmidt and those who are distant from Washington seem the most likely to throw cold water on Trump’s illegality claims.

Former U.S. president George W. Bush congratulated Biden on his victory shortly after the result was called by several media organizations on Nov. 7.

But the silence on Capitol Hill was deafening. Mitch McConnell led the revisionism charge, claiming that Trump had every reason to refuse to concede as long as the results had not been certified.

But almost two weeks after the vote, courts have found zero evidence of widespread fraud. Last week, the Republican lieutenant-governor of Texas offered a million-dollar reward for any evidence of malfeasance. This is the same politician who said grandparents were willing to die during the pandemic in support of the economy.

The Georgia recount is automatic since the margin of victory is less than 0.5 per cent. But with 99 per cent of the vote in, Biden was ahead on Nov. 12 by 14,005 votes even though the vote differential was only 0.3 per cent.

In my own political life, I underwent a recount in my first provincial election which was lost by 15 votes. In those days, a difference of less than 25 votes resulted in a judicial recount. In the end, I ended up gaining one vote in the recount, legally losing the election by 14 votes.

The chance of turning thousands of votes around in Georgia is virtually impossible.

Back in 2000, the difference in the American presidential vote in Florida was little more than 500 votes. The finalized counting process took more than a month, and ultimately did not displace the initial victor, George W. Bush.

But Trump is not about to let the facts stand in the way of a good lie. And his legion of supporters in the Republican Party are listening.

Polls show that 70 per cent of Republicans now doubt the outcome of the election. That number has doubled since election night. The vast majority of them refuse to concede that the Democratic U.S. president-elect was chosen by the majority of voters and the electoral college.

The truth may be starting to set in. At press time, only four Senators from the Republican Party had broken with the majority by tweeting their congratulations to president-elect Biden. They included independent-minded Susan Collins and Trump enemy Mitt Romney.

Within the White House, some are already speculating about the pardon process, which is one of the last acts of an outgoing president.

Trump is allegedly considering a list of pardons, including one for Jared Kushner’s father, a billionaire convicted of witness tampering, illegal election contributions and tax evasion. Trump is also considering an unprecedented self-pardon.

That should not surprise.

Nothing about the Trump presidency has followed precedent.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.

The fight for the Democratic soul reposes in two distinct groups, the young and the old.

By Sheila Copps
First published in The Hill Times on March 9, 2020.

OTTAWA—It is the American battle of the ages.

The fight for the Democratic soul reposes in two distinct groups, the young and the old.

The young have the energy, and social media savvy to make their presence felt. They are behind Bernie Sanders in unprecedented numbers.

Sanders is encouraging them to dream and dream big. Free post-secondary tuition, and a message that is unmistakably anti-capitalist.

He wants the bloodsucking on Wall Street to stop and has been keenly focused on taking down “the most dangerous president in the history of the country.”

Bernie’s message is sharp and focused. And he has been able to reach out to those millions of Americans who want to reignite a fairer America.

But Joe Biden has been able to convince the rest of battle-weary Democrats that the way to the White House is not through revolution but evolution. That was clear in the Biden bounce.

Sanders says the party should not challenge Donald Trump with a Washington political insider. The place needs an explosion that he will administer.

Although political polar opposites, Sanders and Trump actually have the most in common.

Trump rode to victory on the notion that the capital was a swamp that needed to be drained. He promised to do the draining, attracting millions of disenchanted citizens who believed that Trump would be the one to upend the cozy capital and its entitled residents. Trump was even dubbed the blue-collar billionaire in honour of his commitment to get industrial jobs back into the American rustbelt.

He captured and solidified the blue-collar vote in states that had always been solidly democrat.

That is the same group that Sanders message appeals to.

In addition, Sanders has galvanised the left wing of the Democratic Party who have not had a champion in the White House since Franklin Delano Roosevelt and the New Deal. That was introduced before the Second World War as a way to lift the country out of the Great Depression.

Since that time, all successful Democrats have leaned into the centre. That’s where the votes are.

Sanders will ignite the young, but in general, that demographic has the worst voter turnout.

Successive political parties try to inspire the young voter, but the bottom line is, the older you are, the more likely you are to actually get out and vote.

And the less likely you are to support revolution over evolution.

Raging Grannies are generally in the minority because as people age, they become more comfortable with the art of the possible.

In the current, divided American political climate, the Democratic nominee can only win the presidency by convincing some Republicans to switch sides. That moderate path leads directly to Joe Biden.

Biden, weighed down with Washington baggage, has not been the kind of inspiring candidate who could rivet the country.

But he doesn’t need to be. He needs to be unthreatening enough to convince moderate Republicans that they can switch to the Democrats.

Super Tuesday applied a tourniquet to Biden bleeding. His campaign has certainly been dull and lacklustre. In the early days, he came across as out-of-touch, arrogant, and a Washington insider. Those early stumbles at the gate cost him dearly. When confidence ebbs, uneasy supporters quickly move into more winning camps. And the money follows.

But Michael Bloomberg’s bomb out and Amy Klobuchar’s surprise endorsement of Biden led to the Biden bounce and injected new life into the Biden campaign.

The race is not over. But the momentum is certainly in Biden’s direction.

And notwithstanding Trump’s tweets about Bloomberg, he obviously is very afraid of Biden as an opponent.

Otherwise, why would he waste political capital trying to tie Biden up in his Russian/Ukrainian shakedown scandals?

From this vantage point, it looks as though the Democratic nomination will be Biden’s to lose. Along with the delegates elected in primaries across the country, he can count on the majority of super-delegates, those who get to the convention because of their status in the party as officials or former office holders.

They represent almost 15 per cent of all delegates. Under new rules established in 2018, super delegates cannot vote on a first ballot.

In the Super Tuesday post-mortem, it was clear that Biden got overwhelming support from African Americans, and older, moderate voters.

Sanders continued his groundswell with young people, and Latinos, leading to his capture of coveted California.

The path ahead is clear. Democrats will elect Biden. He is the best hope to beat Donald Trump.

Sheila Copps is a former Jean Chrétien-era cabinet minister and a former deputy prime minister. Follow her on Twitter at @Sheila_Copps.