Trump hates democracy

President Trump was all frauded out Sunday morning on Fox News: “This election was a total fraud.” And: “This is the greatest fraud in the history of our country, from an electoral standpoint.” And: “This is a fraud against the American people. It’s a fraud against the United States of America.” And: “This election was a fraud.” Monday and Tuesday on Twitter, the river of lies flowed on, flooding over its banks.

Yet Tuesday, even the fraudster-in-chief’s lapdog Attorney General Bill Barr, who once saw in Robert Mueller’s damning report an exoneration of his boss’ behavior, whose Justice Department had been tasked with investigating voter irregularities, confessed: “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.”

How will Trump punish Barr for committing the unpardonable sin of telling the truth?

Of the six states where Trump fantasized about reversing the results, all six have now certified Joe Biden’s victory, leading Trump to take it out on Republican governors when they do their democratic duty and sign off on the results. The president’s “elite strike force team” of lawyers, led by the tragicomic Rudy Giuliani, cannot save him. Neither can the Supreme Court. Stick a fork in this election, and in him.

All of Trump’s raging at the machine might therefore seem inconsequential, another tantrum that can tuned out until Jan. 20, and some semblance of sanity, returns.

Not so. With every scream that the election has been stolen, that the very foundation of American democracy is rigged and rotten, Trump provokes more Americans to believe that Biden is illegitimate, that their country and its institutions are captured by enemies, insurgents, traitors.

This is how democracies die. Not with a bang, not with a whimper, but with millions of fever dreams.