Cris Alarcon & Sean Frame, 11-12-20
Q: Sean Frame - "I’m curious what effects you think our outgoing President calling our electoral process into question might have? It seems as though you don’t see widespread fraud, as he claims, so why not call out this behavior as wrong?"
A: Cris Alarcon -"This is normal behavior in the big picture. There is a culture we are accustomed too, like civil behavior, but that is relatively new. [see Muckraking]
The real world of politics is VERY personal. It is essentially a Popularity contest and when many voters find you unpopular - it hurts badly on a personal level.
And then there is this - no successful Pol is a "good loser" so to speak. Winning takes a big EGO... Telling people, and believing, that you are the answer to people's problems takes a certain kind of personality. Rep/Dem/Greeny, it does not matter.
Politics today is likened back to Roman Gladiators!
Instead of us fighting it out community by community we elect someone else to carry the fight for us.
As they are OUR champion and we want to win... We want a Strong, Competent, Take-no-prisoners Gladiator fighting for what we believe we need.
If you cannot imagine a Roman Gladiator that was a good loser, it is because losing is death...
Losing, for many Pols, is like death!
So don't expect many successful Pols to be good losers. Some are outright BAD losers. I take it that Trump is a poor loser.
Setting policy traps and pitfalls on the way out is not so uncommon for outgoing POTUS of any Party. That warm hug and handshake we see on TV does not show the dagger in the back... But that is how it goes.
The main issue with Trump is not that he does it as much that he does not hide it...
My personal issue with Trump is :"Brand Damage." His actions set back the Conservatives movement in many ways [even though Trump is not a Conservative and never has been. He is a political opportunist. But in fairness so are most Presidential candidates.]
Drawing out the conclusion of the election will cause more Brand damage and will be used against Republican candidates in future elections.
Here is how it plays out:
For the True-believers and dedicated Party activists, "Fraud" is Red Meat for the troops.
But for the Fence-sitters this will work against the Republican Brand. This Red Meat toss is damaging to the Party in the long run if we want a Plurality of votes to put people that share our beliefs into public policy-making positions...
Short sighted.
As far as the Electoral College... It favors those that want a Republic rather than a Democracy. A straight democracy is "Mob Rule" as one of the Founding Father wrote. The Electoral College will do just fine as will the election process in this country. Every election cycle something goes wrong, but seldom in a manner that subverts the vote. If there is a question about that [to the VOTERS] there are mechanisms to remedy that. The E.C. is one of those stop-gap safety measures.
I.E. Many E.C. votes are NOT tied down. If Biden should become VERY ill today many of the E.C. votes can change to Trump without any effort.
This is why we have and will keep the Electoral College system."
Q: Sean Frame - "So your main concern isn’t the damage done to people’s respect for our institutions, just the damage to the conservative “brand”?"
A: Cris Alarcon - They go hand-in-hand be it the Rs, Ds, are any other Party. Running a clean campaign not only benefits the candidate, the Party banner over the candidate, it imnstills trust of the election system in the eyes of the voting public. If the public losses faith in the Major Parties then we have a problem. That problem is solved by a vigorous investigation followed by appropriate action - regardless of the Party's name...
--- As far as automatic respect for our "Institutions?"NO.
That respect solely depends what they are doing at the time, not that they are big old buildings with lots of fancy people in them.... Why? See image with story....
