Claiming Elections are Tainted–A Modern History

Really, the idea that elections have been stolen isn’t new, but accusations of it in American history are either really old (the first couple elections), the 1876 election–which was due to electoral shenanigans in Florida and a horrific compromise, and then the modern age.

Of course, there were shenanigans in 1960 when Kennedy defeated Nixon. There’s a good argument that those shenanigans cost Nixon the election but do you know anything about Nixon taking the issue to court? Nope.

While revisionist history suggests differently, most historians agree on what Nixon did. And that was? He did nothing. In the end, rather than send the election to the courts, Nixon went and congratulated Kennedy and told him he wouldn’t fight the results much to the relief of Kennedy (which put the US on course for a multitude of Kennedy disasters–Vienna, Vietnam, and his instigation of the Cuban Crisis).

Why didn’t Nixon fight when the evidence of tampering was pretty clear?

Because Nixon knew it would be a prolonged fight and that that would damage the system, throw the entire democratic process in doubt–something he felt the US could not afford to do in the middle of the Cold War with the authoritarian/communist Soviet Union. Nixon reasoned that there were always minor irregularities and it was possible some occurred on his behalf as well.

Nixon is known as a cold, calculating man, oft an opportunist, and yet in this instance–he put nation before self. It worked out for him eight years later when he was nominated by the Republicans again and won…with many people remembering his willingness to de-escalate in 1960 (thinking that that meant he’d be the man to de-escalate Vietnam and potentially begin reuniting the country…ahh, the foolishness of the Greatest Generation unaware of the terror their spawn would engender post-1994).

After Nixon, it was presumed that in future close elections that candidates would put the nation ahead of their own election and then…2000. Given the opportunity to do as Nixon did and back down, Gore gave in to pressure from within the Democratic Party and fought the election, forcing it to the Supreme Court where Gore lost the ruling–and set up the SCOTUS for the blame on the issue, pushing the Supreme Court further down the path of politicization.

And now we are in 2020, the day after an election that looks to be close enough in key states that a few thousand votes hold the fate of the nation in hand. The sad thing–both candidates have their finger over the red button, ready to escalate the fight to the courts.

In such a case–no one wins, certainly not the American system. Nixon avoided the courts to maintain the foundation of government, prevent doubt in the system and now, we have a president who has said for months that the election is illegitimate.

So when you disparage Nixon for everything he did wrong (it’s a long list by the way)–remember the things he did right as well…and remember that we’ve now had multiple elections 2000-onwards between the children of the Greatest Generation who consider the presidency a personal prize rather than a grave responsibility of service to 300,000,000+ Americans.