Enough!

Pub. Note: This is a reprint from Larry Asher’s 11/19 post on Facebook, reprinted here with his permission and the caveat that “this is NOT about marketing.” You can reach him at larrya@svcseattle.com.

By Larry Asher

I’d like to speak again to my friends, relatives and the 52% of Republicans who think Donald Trump rightfully won the presidential election. He didn’t, because no one stole the election, and there was no fraud or vote-changing by defective software of any consequence.

How can I be so sure? Well, I could take the word of the recently fired head of election security, Chris Krebs, who said, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised.”

It’s that statement that got him fired, and it’s pretty convincing. But I’m sure some of you feel like you can’t trust the opinion of a single individual because you can never be sure of their politics and motives.

But I still have little doubt that the recent election was honest and fair. Here’s why. I bet you’d say that the 2016 election wasn’t rigged or infested by fraud. The right guy won as far as you’re concerned, so the voting must have been legit, correct? Democrats didn’t challenge the validity of the election then, and I’m sure you didn’t either.

Well, in 2016, Trump won that fair election by a relatively narrow margin—a collective 80,000 votes in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. Now consider what’s happened in the ensuing three-and-half years to make that sliver of winning votes evaporate.

Begin by wrapping your head around the truly remarkable reaction of so many Republicans who spoke out publicly about why they wouldn’t vote for their party’s candidate. These “Never Trumpers” financed The Lincoln Project and Republicans Voters Against Trump, which did a more powerful job discrediting Trump than any Democrat ever did.

We’ve never seen anything like this before. And this was pressure that drained normally reliable GOP votes away from the party’s standard-bearer. Given all the anti-Trump sentiment emanating from Republicans, it wouldn’t be difficult to imagine 80,000 GOP-leaning people feeling they had to vote differently than they did in 2016.

If Trump had any hopes of winning over even a few Democrats, the free fall of the economy, his repeated downplaying of the coronavirus pandemic and the last-minute push to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court made no friends. In fact, these moves —and many, many more—provoked just the kind of anger that gets people to actively campaign against you.

Think about your own opposition to Biden. I imagine it’s strong and steadfast. And think about your anger at the 80 million people who voted for Biden. You must wonder how they could be so stupid and naive.

Well, take the anger you have towards Biden and the people who voted for him and multiply it by 100. That’s the level of hostility many Democrats (and quite a few Republicans, apparently) hold for Trump. He is deeply despised for his coarse manners, his thinly-veiled racism and his repeated disregard for norms, laws and conventions. I know you don’t agree, but that’s not my point.

What I’m trying to suggest is that anger is motivating, and it launched more action from Democrats about defeating an incumbent President than I have ever seen.

In my own circle, which I wouldn’t call especially politically active, everyone I know wrote letters to swing-state voters, made get-out-the-vote phone calls or donated unprecedented dollars to the Biden campaign. They weren’t alone. By the end of October, Biden had raised nearly $1 billion—about double what Hillary Clinton raised in 2016. That’s motivated.

What I’m saying is that opposition to Trump was fueled at four-alarm levels—more than enough to send Democrats (and turn-coat Republicans) to the polls to easily flip a fragile 80,000-vote advantage.

And that’s exactly what happened. That minus-80,000 from Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania from 2016 turned into plus-240,000 for Biden, a swing of 320,000 votes. Does that seem implausible, given the defection of former Republicans and the amped-up conviction of Democrats? Not one bit.

So, no, there is no reason to believe the election was rigged or stolen. I believe this election worked the way they always have: More people voted for the person they liked better.

When you win an election, it doesn’t mean it was rigged. And when you lose an election, that doesn’t mean it was rigged either. It means you lost and that you’re welcome to run again, have some better ideas win more people over and— just possibly—get a different result next time.

Larry Asher. As director of SVC Larry holds the reins for curriculum development and marketing. He is also principal and creative director of Worker Bees, Inc., a marketing communications firm serving the healthcare industry. He recently won a silver medal for his career achievements from the American Advertising Federation.