It’s always been the thing, the amazing thing: the understanding and the follow-through of competing in an election, conceding when one loses, and moving on. The peaceful transfer of power is a wonder.
Maddow insists that when that flow, that long-standing tradition is suddenly questioned and disregarded and attacked as “unfair,” then democracy starts breaking down.
We are there now. Poll workers threatened and leaving numerous unfilled vacancies; members of law enforcement, judges and jurors castigated and threatened.
We don’t have a democracy anymore when one side decides to start hammering the bedrock, when one side decides not to accept results. When one side decides not to go home when he loses, and perhaps evaluate and ponder and come back and try again.
When the expectation no longer is that both sides abide by the results of an election, that instead one side claims malfeasance and unfairness and that “it was stolen,” when one side even proactively warns that the process and future results will probably be suspect, then things have taken a dark turn.
We are there. Have been for a while.
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