Will recount appease anyone? Or do we have to wait for ‘President’ Simpson?

Our neighbors to the north seem to want to be the political guinea pig, so to speak, of the presidential election cycle. Officials in Wisconsin are talking of wanting to recount the roughly 2.9 million ballots cast in that state for U.S. president.
 

Should we count down the days to Simpson administration?

The theory is that enough flawed votes can be found to shift the Nov. 8 election results from the 48 percent for Donald Trump and 47 percent for Hillary Clinton so that Hillary winds up prevailing.

HILLARY CLINTON WOULD wind up getting the 10 Electoral College votes from Wisconsin that will be cast Dec. 19 in Madison.

If you want to believe the wild-eyed fantasies of political zealots, a shift in Wisconsin could also motivate people in Michigan and Pennsylvania to take a closer look at the votes cast in their states to see if all those people in rural parts of those states really were large enough to overcome the votes of places like Philadelphia, Pittsburgh and Detroit.

If you really could prove such a large scale of improper activity caused that many votes to be counted wrong, you’d be alleging a criminal conspiracy on an unheard of scale and one that literally would call for the incarceration of Donald J. Trump.

Which would be ironic considering he was the one who got his followers all whipped up into a frenzy at the thought of “locking up” Hillary Clinton.

YES, I’M BEING over-the-top here in my choice of language, because I think it highly unlikely that anyone could prove such a large-scale illegal act occurred. And also could do so in the short amount of time required to have any effect on an election.

STEIN: She wants to recount Wisconsin

If somebody comes along in mid-February with the “evidence” that says something criminal took place to tamper with the elections, it won’t mean a thing. Trump would already have been sworn in by then, and would actually have presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for anything.

He’d have to be impeached and removed from office, and I doubt the Republican ideologues would be willing to do a thing that would undermine their own political power. In today's political mentality, Richard M. Nixon himself would be safe.

For what it’s worth, the talk of a recount in Wisconsin is being led by Jill Stein. She was the Green Party presidential nominee, and for what it’s worth she only got 1 percent of the vote in that state. Heck, even Libertarian Gary Johnston (at 3 percent) cleaned her clock, so to speak!

CLINTON: Willing to play along w/ recount

ADVISERS TO HILLARY Clinton have said the former Democratic candidate for president will support talk of a recount, but doesn’t expect there to be any significant shift in voter tallies.

If anything, she says she wants the recount to assure the American public that nothing illegal actually took place – and the fact that she got some 2 million more votes than Trump but still lost is merely a quirk of our electoral system. Perhaps Trump should have kept his mouth shut during the election cycle and not the idea in anyone’s mind that elections could be “rigged!”

One which is meant to protect people from tyranny by the masses – it is meant to prevent any one group from becoming too powerful. Although it could be argued that it sure didn’t work back when it was black people who were the minority who were abused by the political masses.

The fact that it is working to protect the one-time majority from being overcome by a growing part of our society sucks. But it is the set of rules by which our system works.

I HAVE TO admit to being skeptical of a recount because this isn’t 2000. That election cycle by which George W. Bush lost the popular vote to Al Gore but won the Electoral College anyway was a close battle that literally came down to one state.

TRUMP: Shouldn't have said elections 'rigged'

It’s a shame that Florida got resolved by the Supreme Court of the United States cutting off any efforts to do a serious recount – it created the perception amongst many that the Bush presidency was less than legitimate. Although Trump's crazed behavior (particularly his claim that foreigners who had no business voting cost him the popular vote) threatens his own legitimacy.

Trump will be able to claim a legitimacy in that he garnered the support of the segment of society that flexed its muscle to ensure it can continue to bully those not like themselves. Or course, there is one thing for us to look forward to – and that it is that episode of “The Simpsons” from 2000 that jokingly told us a Donald Trump presidency was in our future.

Could it also mean there’s a “Lisa Simpson” out there somewhere waiting to succeed Trump and set everything straight again?

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