Trump’s charge of fraud destabilizes fully functional system

At the time Germany signed the armistice ending World War I, no battles had been fought on its territory and no foreign army had invaded it. The German people suffered greatly — food shortages and the like — but defeat to many did not seem to come from the battlefield in front but from traitorous civilians from behind. This came to be known as the “stab in the back” myth. The Kaiser believed it, Hitler used it, and now Donald Trump — not even waiting for defeat — has revived it. If he loses in November, it will be because the election was stolen from him.

Both Kaiser Wilhelm II and Adolf Hitler blamed the Jews for Germany’s defeat — even, apparently, those Jews who had fought and died for the Fatherland. Trump, no anti-Semite but otherwise deranged by the conspiracy bug, has been nowhere as specific. He does know, though, that when and if he loses, it’s on account of the election — in the words of one of his campaign spots — being “rigged.”

“The only way we can lose in my opinion ... is if cheating goes on,” he said. He was speaking in Pennsylvania and referring to Pennsylvania, where he trails Hillary Clinton by an average of nine points in the polls. But those and, indeed, any polls showing Trump falling behind are now themselves being questioned — although when he was ahead, he adored them. Once again, the diabolical hand of the mainstream media and the Republican establishment are supposedly at work. The polls are skewed. Trump is actually ahead.

As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump is an aberration with a background (TV show), personal characteristics (immense self-regard) and talents (a demagogic speaking style) that are unique to him. Yet, his pernicious claim that he can only lose the election if it is stolen from him builds on a general Republican obsession about election fraud. For years now, the GOP has used the specter of cheating at the polls to try to suppress the black vote. The courts, more conservative than the GOP when it comes to conserving constitutional rights, have usually intervened, but the insistent whispering campaign has done vast damage.

It is serious business to question the legitimacy of elections. What happens at the polls is at the very heart of our political system. It is not, I grant you, a perfect system, but we know how to do elections and, when they are over, we abide by the results. Many Americans believed that Al Gore beat George W. Bush, but they accepted the outcome.

Trump, like a kid playing with matches, can start a conflagration. The GOP has already done considerable damage to the faith Americans once had in their government. It is time for the party to say, enough! Republicans who have been on the fence about Trump have got to call a halt to this nonsense. Their enduring concern is too narrow. They should worry more about their country and less about their party.

Trump has identified no one and probably would rather run a media empire than the federal government. But his amorphous charges of cheating, of fraud, of rigged elections threaten to delegitimize not just a Clinton presidency but a system that not only works, but works well. It is not Hillary Clinton or her supporters who are the culprit here, it is cowed Republicans instead. Their silence is the dagger.

Richard Cohen’s email address is co henr@washpost.com.