It doesn’t seem like a long time ago, but can you remember the election of 2000 when “hanging chads,” “pregnant chads,” and chads in general entered our vocabulary? After about a month, the U.S. Supreme Court finally stepped in to stop the recount in Florida, and it was over!
This election never seems to end. Quickly after the election, Jill Stein of the Green Party filed for a recount in Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The recount in Wisconsin ended when the recount recorded even more votes for President-elect Trump. The recount in Michigan ended when it indicated serious problems in Wayne County (heavily Democrat) and the courts called a halt. In Pennsylvania, the recount never began.
Almost simultaneously, both public figures and private individuals began to overwhelm the 538 electors with appeals to “vote their conscience.” Specifically, Republican electors complained that they received thousands of phone calls, e-mails, regular mails and social media appeals not to vote for the person who won their states. In some cases, the appeals became threats and intimidation. Nevertheless when the votes were counted, Donald Trump lost two votes and Hillary Clinton lost five.
With legal options closed off, Democrats called Donald Trump a fraudulently elected president-elect. Democrats blamed James Comey, the director of the FBI, for Hillary Clinton’s defeat. He intervened just prior to the election by announcing that the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails was continuing. It was the Russians who had illegally affected the election by stealing John Podesta’s emails and feeding them to Julian Assange of Wikileaks.
If the Russians stole Podesta’s emails, they should not toast their hacking prowess with vodka because Podesta’s password was “password.” Even so, in my opinion, Democrats may be finally on to something.
Certainly, the email messages exposed the undemocratic operation of the Democratic National Committee during the primary season. Bernie Sanders’ supporters and other disillusioned Democrat voters may have decided to cast a protest vote by not voting. The lack of African-American voters at the polls Nov. 8 must be explained by some other factor. Donald Trump does himself no help on the question of Russian interference. He praises Vladimir Putin for some strange reason and reinforces suspicion.
Finally, a dubious opposition research report that has circulated for months that Donald Trump is vulnerable to blackmail from the Russians was published in the media. There apparently is an unverified dossier, which has explicitly embarrassing information about Donald Trump. In the past week, Buzzfeed released that dossier and CNN reported on its existence and that the dossier was briefed to Donald Trump. This latest skirmish in the election aftermath concerning this rumor leaves me wondering where is the bottom to which politics will descend in this country.
It is Friday, Jan. 13 as I write this. Congressman John Lewis of Georgia announced that he considers Donald Trump an illegitimate president-elect so it continues. I heard that Jill Stein and Gary Johnson will concede at noon next Friday when the cannons boom.
I seriously wonder what will happen a week from now. Will Michael Moore make good on his threat to hold protest demonstrations during the inauguration or the parade? Will famous entertainers all boycott the inaugural shows?
Later this year, will Democrats stage a demonstration during Trump’s State of the Union speech? Will some criminal crackpot decide to change the result of the election? I believe in elections, the collective wisdom of the people, and the genius of the US Constitution. Even though Donald Trump did not win the total popular vote, he did win according to the US Constitution.
We must have faith in our Constitution and accept that, for better or worse, Donald J. Trump will be our president for the next four years.

Michael Waldron is a retired lieutenant colonel, U.S. Army, who was born and raised in Niles. He previously served on the Niles Community School Board of Education. He can be reached at ml.waldron@sbcglobal.net.