[Hoot Gibson]

Just saw this topic. Don't know whether to laugh or cry.  Mind-blowing...  Facebook as a credible news source, conspiracy theories that are even less credible. crushing of democratic norms,  Congressional enabling of a wannabe autocrat... We were close, REALLY close to losing  what the Founding fathers launched some 244 years ago- the great American experiment  that espoused freedom and democracy over tyranny an monarchy. A close call... we should never forget it or take  our democracy for granted ever again.  Maybe next time when a rogue leader gains power, he might actually be smart and not a TV con man with a eighth grade reading level.  History tells us that democracies have finite lifetimes. Death of a democracy usually doesn't happen overnight but little by little,  stripping away of democratic norms. That's what makes authoritarianism so insidious- it rapes us  of our democracy piece by piece- separation of powers, political plurality, democratic voting , all  die at the hands of iron-fisted central tyranny.

Take a deep breath...exhale.  Think of what we might have lost if there had been four more years of stripping away of what men like  John Adams, Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Marshall, George Mason, and George Washington set in motion almost a quarter of a millennium ago. 

Drop the silly conspiracy theories that are perpetuated on social media and get behind this new President.  Wish him to be successful in bringing this country back from the brink of becoming what we fought so hard against from 1775-1783. If want this country to be well again, if you want the divisions to heal , if you want to avoid another 1861-1865 or an American version of the Third Reich,  then get behind the new leader and wish him and the country success.

Maybe you should actually read through the thread before commenting. The "new leader," is the threat to our democracy. The Supreme Court has been composed of 9 members for the past 150 years. When and if Democrats regain full control of Congress and the White House, the Supreme Court will be packed with as many members as necessary to guarantee the liberal justices a majority and the filibuster rule will be eliminated. Many Democrats are also in favor of granting statehood not only to the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, but also creating additional states by splitting states to ensure a permanent majority in the Senate.

If you think that single party rule will be a good thing, then you are right to dismiss Trump's allegations about widespread election fraud as nothing but a conspiracy theory.

If you do take time to actually read this thread with an open mind, you will also find that there are allegations that the Republican Governor and Secretary of State were responsible for Georgia's purchase of $106 million worth of voting machines from Dominion Voting Systems, which included a guarantee that they would be re-elected. Fair elections are a cornerstone of our democratic republic and everybody has an interest in ensuring that elections are free and fair, no matter how much you may hate Donald Trump.

What I do not understand about liberal Democrats is how they can possibly view Donald Trump as an authoritarian president. Joe Biden, if elected, plans on enacting a federal mask mandate. Would not an authoritarian have already either mandated that people wear masks in public or prohibited state governors from requiring masks? Would an authoritarian left the decision about closing or restricting businesses up to state governors? Donald Trump has brokered peace treaties between three Middle Eastern countries and Israel and also helped negotiate an agreement with Saudi Arabia to allow Israel to fly commercial planes over the kingdom. Trump has also brought nearly all of our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan after many years of war.

There has been a Trump good news embargo imposed by the mainstream media, but he has overseen the most successful foreign policy of any president since Ronald Reagan, if not before. Joe Biden has promised that one of the first things he will do as president is to reengage with the tyrannical Iranian government and resume the disastrous nuclear deal with the terrorist state that Obama initiated. Middle East peace will not survive a nuclear armed Iran. Trump's foreign policy is working and he is in the process of isolating Iran by forging commercial and diplomatic ties between Arab countries and Israel.

I reluctantly voted for Trump in 2016 as the lesser of two evils, but I honestly cannot understand why so many people just parrot news channels like CNN, MSNBC, and unfortunately Fox News, and instead judge him on his actual record. I have no idea how old you are but I have been following politics closely for most of Joe Biden's long career and he has never been a leader. IMO, Kamala Harris would be president before the end of a Biden first term, and she is a more liberal Senator than Bernie Sanders. Maybe you view that as a positive but I see capitalism and a free market society as a good thing.

If the election had been fair, I would agree that Trump should concede and prepare to resume private life. But the election was not fair and the way in which it was rigged will be repeated many times in the future if the system is not fixed now. Even if Biden is installed as president, our electoral system is broken and must be fixed if we are to avoid becoming a banana republic. American votes should be cast on American voting machines and counted on American soil. The machines should never be connected to the internet and if the machines cannot be made secure, then our elections should return to using paper ballots and hand counts.