Libel…Slander…Defamation by the “President”
“After school, out at bicycle racks…we’ll settle this.” It almost seems a quaint notion of solving conflicts in a brief flurry of rage until until that rage was spent. As we mature, or at least get older, we go to the courts to settle our grievances. How does this relate to the lies that Trump has been spouting about the validity of the general election’s popular vote? Ah, now we must consider the tweet.
“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions who voted illegally…” Further anecdotes relate that Trump believes and has stated that there were 3 to 5 million illegal votes cast. Of course, “President” Trump did not offer any evidence for this assertion.
This particular lie or delusion or alternate fact or whatever you want to call it IS different. Perhaps it is an aspirational delusion, but an individual’s vote is a sacrament, not only to the individual, but of our republic. This lie is different because the “President’s” assertion delegitimizes the entire electoral process. For some, Trump’s assertion is easy to believe because we have such a dilapidated, broken down, dysfunctional electoral process. The system is a mess and it is very easy to speculate how it could be gamed. Ask any fervent Bernie Sander supporter to feel the weight of that boulder on our collective shoulder. Trump has a point: the electoral process is rigged…just not in the way he asserts.
There is one group of individuals who are directly attacked and insulted by the “President’s” lies. These are the elected officials who have taken the sacred oath of protecting our votes and the voting process. These are the elected officials who were on watch when these allegedly 3 to 5 million fraudulent votes occurred. The Secretaries of State throughout the country all the way down to the Registrar of Voters in each county bear some responsibility for these fraudulent votes…if they actually occurred. These are the ones whose reputation and sacred honor are called into to question by these assertions.
So, if this voting fraud did not actually occur, then you have an individual, regardless of the fact that he is the “President” of the United States, impugning not only the competence and professionalism, but the moral character of the individuals overseeing the validity of our votes. These lying assertions are unprecedented. If I were a Registrar of Voters, this aggression would not stand,…man.
We don’t have the bicycle racks, but in a more civil forum, we do have the courts. It is not so much my hope, but my demand that those individuals who are the stewards of our votes challenge these false assertions in court. If you were any other sort of professional, a plumber, a lawyer, a general contractor, a whatever and you had you’re professional reputation viciously maligned, you would be looking for what options you had for repairing your reputation and taking to task those who had injured you in the first place.
For my limited and lay understanding, that is the basis of the libel and slander laws. Our “President” has indulged in slandering and defaming those who protect the sacrament of our vote. Trump should be held accountable for and have to pay for any damages or injury that these clearly false accusations have caused. I do not hold those who have worked so hard to protect our right to vote in disdain, but I and so many others will hold you in contempt and disgust if you do not fight back against these counterfactual lies. In essence, if you cannot fight against these devastating assertions, then you are not worthy of your oath or your office and you should resign.
*** oh, sorry. I’ve tried, but I just haven’t come up with any name that sticks in my mind and nails it. The one that came closest was Grifter-in-Chief. The “air quotes” just seem oddly appropriate given Trump’s illegitimacy in the role of Chief executive. I guess I am going to be using ALOT of air quotes for the duration.
