September, Tuesday 29th., 2020
LOL! *Sophistry par excellence, this at-large-'deeper delving into the surreal
world of politics' article. Stout inside information and burly arguments, in pure deductive reasoning, following one another in subdued discipline. Culminating in a unique, in the
at-large Sophistry Chronicles, not fallacious! and not misleading! climax of Truth, (but for the last four -4- words and their apostrophe):
"Because
of all that, my educated guess is that the Biden campaign would rather
not have Clinton offering their candidate advice on how to handle a
close election. Even if she's right."
An indeed educated guess/conclusion/suggestion?/advice?/mandate?, stemming from the sophistic and obviously very-very-very carnivorous-savvy last paragraph:
"But
you can be sure that her comments will be seized on by the Trump White
House as evidence that Democrats are already working to lay the
groundwork for a protracted vote count because they think that benefits
them. (Clinton's emphases on how Biden will "eventually" win is the
reddest of red meat for conservatives.)"
Unexpectedly interesting times for Sophistry too!LOL!
Maria L. Pelekanaki
*soph•ist•ry sŏf′ĭ-strē
- n.
Plausible but fallacious argumentation.
-
n.A plausible but misleading or fallacious argument.
-
n.The methods of teaching, doctrines, or practices of the Greek sophists.
Hillary Clinton's dire Election Day warning to Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton offers cautionary tale about this election 06:34
(CNN)Hillary Clinton has a bit of advice for Joe Biden come November 3: Don't even think about conceding if the election is at all close.
"Joe
Biden should not concede under any circumstances because I think this
is going to drag out, and eventually I do believe he will win if we
don't give an inch and if we are as focused and relentless as the other
side is," Clinton told longtime Democratic strategist Jennifer Palmieri
in an excerpt of Showtime's "The Circus" released Tuesday.
Added Clinton: "We've got to have a massive legal operation, I know the
Biden campaign is working on that. We have to have poll workers, and I
urge people, who are able, to be a poll worker. We have to have our own
teams of people to counter the force of intimidation that the
Republicans and Trump are going to put outside polling places. This is a
big organizational challenge, but at least we know more about what
they're going to do."
What Clinton envisions is an election night that could well extend into an election week or even -- gulp! -- an election month, because of an expected surge in mail-in balloting due to concerns about the coronavirus. If recent elections, particularly in Clinton's adopted home state of New York, are any indication, there's a very real possibility that no winner is declared on November 3 or November 4. And that the country will be in limbo, while waiting to know who will be the next president of the United States.
What Clinton envisions is an election night that could well extend into an election week or even -- gulp! -- an election month, because of an expected surge in mail-in balloting due to concerns about the coronavirus. If recent elections, particularly in Clinton's adopted home state of New York, are any indication, there's a very real possibility that no winner is declared on November 3 or November 4. And that the country will be in limbo, while waiting to know who will be the next president of the United States.
Even
with a semi-traditional president in the White House, that is a
situation absolutely fraught with peril. The single most important part
of an election is that people believe that the vote was fairly counted
and, whether or not they like the result, that it was an accurate
reflection of what the country wanted. The longer it goes without a
declared winner, the more people will suspect that something nefarious
could be going on -- even if the delay isn't solely the result of the
slowness in counting a surge of mailed-in ballots.
Donald
Trump is, of course, not a semi-traditional president. Or anything
close to it. In fact, he has spent the last several months suggesting to
anyone who will listen that the increase in mail-in balloting will lead
to a "rigged" and fraudulent election. (There is zero evidence of the
sort of widespread voter fraud in mail-in balloting that Trump is
alleging.)
"What they're doing is using Covid to steal an election," Trump told delegates
at the Republican National Convention in Charlotte on Monday. "They're
using Covid to defraud the American people, all of our people, of a fair
and free election."
Remember too that Trump, in the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election, insisted that 3 to 5 million people voted illegally as
a way to explain the fact that he lost the popular vote to Clinton.
Trump has never provided any proof of this huge claim. Neither has he
backed away from it in the intervening three-plus years.
And that was an election he won!
Imagine
what Trump might do this time around -- assuming that we don't know who
won on election night or even sometime the following day. If it looks
like he is likely to lose, Trump would use the intervening
hours/days/week to sow distrust with the vote and discord in the
country. He would suggest that Democrats are cooking the books, adding
or subtracting votes as they see fit. He would do absolutely everything
in his power to ensure that even if Biden were declared the victor on,
say, November 7, that a chunk of the country would believe that the
result had been fixed and biased against Trump. And that, therefore,
neither they nor Trump need to accept it. No need for Trump to concede.
No reason for his supporters to acknowledge Biden as the fairly elected
president.
Which brings me back to
Clinton. She is, on the facts, exactly right in the advice she is giving
to Biden. With lots and lots of mailed-in ballots needed to be counted
in the days leading up to Election Day -- and on November 3 itself -- it
would be political malpractice for Biden to concede to Trump (or vice
versa) if the election were clearly very close.
But
you can be sure that her comments will be seized on by the Trump White
House as evidence that Democrats are already working to lay the
groundwork for a protracted vote count because they think that benefits
them. (Clinton's emphases on how Biden will "eventually" win is the
reddest of red meat for conservatives.)
Because
of all that, my educated guess is that the Biden campaign would rather
not have Clinton offering their candidate advice on how to handle a
close election. Even if she's right.