Eis it the old wounded lion who roars, or the spoiled child who makes us angry? Donald Trump’s refusal to admit defeat in the presidential election is surely a bit of both. But it is not only that. Republican officials are dancing from one foot to the other on the attitude to adopt.
Some, like Senator Mitt Romney or former President Bush, think he should; others, like Senate Leader Mitch McConnell, or House Republican Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, offer Trump moderate support: “All legal votes must be taken into account. “ The message looks like a truth from La Palice, but it is actually coded. The majority observe a cautious reservation, as the official website of the party launches a subscription to the defense fund of the“Election integrity”.
This may seem surprising, because there is no stake for the appointment of the future president. Experts agree that it is highly unlikely that Donald Trump’s numerous appeals will lead to a reversal of the result, even if some irregularities are here and there exposed. There would have to be massive fraud, which has never been seen in the past. And America is generally not kind to losers.
A racial and arithmetic issue
But the political stake is high. Because the question of the integrity of the elections, put forward by Donald Trump in 2016, when he claimed that the Democrats had him ” Fly ” victory in several states has long opposed Republicans and Democrats. This issue is as racial as it is arithmetic.
To understand the ins and outs, we must remember that in the United States the level of abstention is traditionally high: according to the Pew Research Center, this flagship country of democracy is located at 26e rank of the 32 OECD countries in terms of participation (Drew Desilver, “US trails most developed countries in voter turnout”, Pew Research Center, May 21, 2018).
An election is not won so much by wresting votes from the opposing party as by mobilizing its supporters. However, abstentionists are more numerous among the categories that constitute the heart of the Democratic electorate: among the young, among the underprivileged categories, and above all among African Americans who, when they speak, vote democratic. at 90%.
The importance of postal voting
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