Eleven thousand seven hundred and seventy-nine: Real votes from real Georgians
In the January 2, 2021 call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, you could hear Trump pause when he said: “”What I want to do is this. I just want to find…”
And you could visualize him consulting his notes, probably from a list of bullet points, probably notes designed not to surpass one printed page, supplied by who-knows-who among his sycophantic advisers: “…11,780 votes, which is one more than we have…”
Another brief pause as the legal ramifications of what he just said made their way to his mouth from the hinterlands of his brain, where legal ramifications for him seem to reside, but ever ready to jump to the fore — one of his undeniable and valuable talents: “…because we won the state.”
Biden defeated Trump in Georgia by 11,779 votes. So obviously, Trump needed…(consulting my notes)…11,780 votes. On January 2, 2021. Almost 2 months after the November 3, 2020 election.
What Trump really needed was 11,780 votes on November 3, 2020.
The matter-of-fact, transactional tone of that phone call has sand-blasted away at my heart and soul since first hearing the recording. Here was the voice of a businessman, seeking a discount on concrete costs from a subcontractor working on one gold-plated building or another, each destined as a monument to his last name. Which had been Americanized from something other than Trump. And each of the 11,780 discounts he was asking for represented one vote. One vote. And the total discount represented twice the population of the town in Pennsylvania where I grew up, which at the time had a population of about 5,600. Just give me a couple of towns, Brad. A couple of small towns.
And then I thought about what people have sacrificed, have given, have earned, for even one vote. And I thought of Derek Chauvin, talking to George Floyd in that same matter-of-fact voice while kneeling on Floyd’s neck. This is how business is done in the United States. Nothing to see here.
Voting and the peaceful transition of power are, or were, two characteristics of the United States in which I’ve taken the most pride throughout my life. No matter whom I voted for, the inauguration of the next president filled my chest. And to the rest of the world, I’d send this thought with a cockiness that I knew was simultaneously over the top and sincere: “This is who we are.”
Take that, you tin-pot dictators. This superpower just handed the reins from the old guy to the new guy. This is how it’s done.
And I also thought of an old black lady, being pushed in a wheelchair up to the ballot box, and slipping her ballot through the slot with a big smile. Of millions of us, in our rainbow of colors, doing the same. Each of us with one vote.
And Trump was asking for 11,780 of them. Which was one more than he had.
Originally published at http://kcroes.wordpress.com on January 6, 2022.
