Winning the War and Losing the Peace

The campaign didn’t end on election night. That’s the message for America from the bipartisan uniparty headquartered in Washington, D.C. — the one that Trump supporters voted to evict on November 8. Having lost the election they’re back with a new narrative, the sole goal of which is to undermine the legitimacy of Donald Trump’s presidency before he even takes office.

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Shortly after the election the Clintons and their friends on the Left allied themselves with Green Party candidate Jill Stein’s absurd effort to recount ballots in a handful of states that Clinton lost (Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan).

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When the recount strategy fell apart for lack of evidence the narrative morphed from hacked voting machines to “Russian hackers” and a “hacked election.” It’s a claim that’s meant to sound terrible while remaining vague enough to avoid refutation. It’s also a phrase that doesn’t really mean anything and that’s the point. Because it’s real purpose is to stoke despondent Clinton voters’ resentments and leave them with the impression that Donald Trump’s presidency is somehow illegitimate. The claims are a savvy way of preparing the political battlefield and give Democrats some leverage in their uphill battle to stop Trump from enacting his agenda.

Still, on the eve of Donald Trump’s presidency, a presidency that is paired with a Republican controlled Congress and can accomplish so much good, it is frustrating to watch stubborn NeverTrump conservative intellectuals and pundits play the part of useful idiots.

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The claims of a “hacked election” are nothing more than warmed over stories about the emails from the DNC and John Podesta’s Gmail account that WikiLeaks released in the summer and fall.

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The fact that the scandals, dirty tricks, and potentially illegal activity revealed by those emails turned many Americans off on the notoriously distrusted and disliked Hillary Clinton cannot be blamed on Vladimir Putin, WikiLeaks, or anyone else. The blame rests squarely on the shoulders of the Democrats themselves.

Ultimately, their goal is to take a scalp or two by defeating some of Trump’s cabinet nominees, especially Senator Jeff Sessions who is widely hated and feared on the Left, and to slow the repeal of Obamacare. The only way they can do this is by driving a wedge between Trump and some of the weaker members of the Republican caucus in Congress. They hope that endless repetition of the “hacked election” claim will leave behind a taint of illegitimacy that will become the wedge they can use. This is especially so in the Senate where Democrats have their sights on Senators like McCain, Flake, Graham, and Snowe who have demonstrated a preternatural desire to buck their own party.

Republicans should see Democrat claims for what they are: a brazen attempt to gain political advantage by creating a phony crisis of confidence. Trump voters won a resounding victory on November 8 but NeverTrump conservatives threaten to lose the peace by playing into the Democrats’ cynical attempt to blame foreign intelligence agencies, rogue states, and lone wolves for their loss.

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The real story is the corruption and shady deals that the hacked emails exposed. The American people understand this — it’s one of the reasons they elected Donald Trump. Let’s hope Trump’s critics on the Right figure this out before they hand Democrats any unearned victories.