Stealing the Presidency

IN THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION OF 1800, John Adams, the federalist incumbant, ran against his vice president, Thomas Jefferson, a Democratic Republican. The two didn't like each other. During the campaign, Jefferson paid a newspaperman, John Calendar, fifty dollars to dig up and publish dirt on his rival, which the yellow journalist dutifully did. The campaign was brutal, with followers of the two politicians trading verbal blows in the press, and physical ones in the streets. In those days the politicians themselves were supposedly above actual campaigning, above the fray, above tawdry self promotion. It was considered unseemly to personally advocate for one's self and seek political power. Candidates for high offices were supposed to be too virtuous to seek power personally, but really weren't. They did it anyway. The election lasted six weeks, and in the electoral college was close, and the contest was forced into the House of Representatives when it could not be decided by the white land owning men of America. It was a rematch of the election of 1796, which Adams had narrowly won. Also running were Aaron Burr, and Charles Pinckney. The two finalists were Jefferson and Burr, and on the thirty sixth ballot in the House of Reps., Jefferson won, after some serious horse trading. Adams was out, Jefferson was in. Adams refused to attend Jefferson's inauguration. As he and his wife Abagail left Washington, she said to her husband: "Darling, why did you allow him (Jefferson) to do that to you?" His response? "My dearest, if he wants it that badly, (badly enough to let his supporters viciously slander Adams with lies in the press), let him have it." Thus, strangely, Thomas Jefferson becomes a sort of watered down late eighteenth century version of Donald Trump, arguably, a scoundrel. Later, as Jefferson settled into the newly built White House, he got a letter from Abagail. In it she said: "I still love you and always shall, but once upon a time I respected you." Jefferson, a sensitive man who prized his reputation, must have been stung by the harsh words, although he never said. Soon thereafter, John Calendar shows up in the Oval Office, wanting his fifty dollars. Jefferson, land rich but always broke, said that he didn't have it. When Calendar suggested that he might publish an article in his newspapers about the relationship of Jefferson to his slave girl Sally Hemmings, Dreamy Tom suddenly found the cash. Speaking of Donald Trump, I have many lifeling friends who not only inexplicably voted for and helped elect our present day scoundral, but who from the beginning bought into and still buy into Trump's great election loss stolen election lie of two thousand and twenty. The bastards...I've spent four years wrestling with what to do about it. Do I maintain my lifelong friendships with Trump election lie suporters, or dump them into the garbage disposal of my life, where they probably properly belong? Supporting our traitorous treasonous insurrectionist present president reelect is to me serious business. Damn Donald Trump, damn his supporters, friends of mine or not, and damn the horses they rode in on. So what am I to do? I still haven't decided. My current thinking is that I am willing to remain friends with them, if they are with me. But I am also willing to ditch them. But I definitely do and indeed am now in the process of contacting them, congratulating them on Trump's victory, like the gentleman I am. And I will tell and am telling them, like a true plagiarist: "I still love you, and always shall, but once upon a time I respected you" Likely they won't like hearing that (who would?), and the the strain between us will become a severance. Okay, fine, screw the bastards. Don't let the door hit their butts, etc.... If they want my respect back, which they might not, all they must do is acknowledge that the twenty twenty election was not stolen from them and Trump, and apologize, yes apologize for having ever said that it was. It is even more unlikely that they will do that. After all, they are dug in too deep to get back out without losing face, so to speak, after four years of living as immoral prevarcators. Trumpers never apologize nor admit error. Such is the sordid state of their morality and integrity. The question boils down to whether my lifelong Trump friends are interested in maintaining a friendship with somebody, me, who has no respect for them and aint afraid to say so. Their choice. Either way, my conscious is clear, my mmoral values intact. What they think about their own moral values is, of course, entirely up to them, and of no concern to me. But I know damned good and well what I think. All I know is, I'm glad I am me, and not them.