To the Editor:
Re “Tensions on Rise as Trump Denies Election Result” (front page, Nov. 16):
When President Trump won 304 electoral votes in 2016, he called it a “landslide,” even though he had three million fewer popular votes than Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton conceded, because she’s gracious and she accepts how our democracy works.
Now Joe Biden has won 306 electoral votes and five million more popular votes than Mr. Trump. Mr. Biden is not calling it a “landslide” because he is gracious. And Mr. Trump has refused to concede, perhaps because he does not know how to graciously acknowledge ever losing anything.
It’s past time for the Republican leadership to step up, to stop this now. It’s a travesty and it demeans us, at home and abroad. Demand the transition of presidential power that our democracy is built on. Mr. Biden won. Actually in a “landslide,” according to Mr. Trump, 2016.
Susan Grey
Columbia, S.C.
To the Editor:
I have been a Republican for over 50 years. Lately I have become disillusioned by the party’s slide from conservatism to libertarianism, but the actions following the recent presidential election mark a more dramatic and totally unacceptable move toward fascism. I will take the following vow and call upon all patriotic Republicans to take it as well.
If the Republican Party continues to refuse to accept the outcome of the election, I will never vote for another Republican at any level of government ever again.
Perhaps we need a new party.
Bruce Powell
Cresskill, N.J.
To the Editor:
The conventional wisdom is that most Republican senators are supporting President Trump’s refusal to concede the election because they want his support in the runoff in the two Senate races in Georgia on Jan. 5.
I think the Republican senators still haven’t learned their lesson after four years. Mr. Trump will do whatever is best for him, not the Republican Party. I believe that he wants the Democrats to win in Georgia. If there is a Democratic Senate, it is more likely that it will pass legislation that is anathema to Mr. Trump and his base. That would permit him — or his designee, perhaps a member of his family — to run more successfully in 2024.
A more balanced legislative program would not engage Republican voters the same way as a more progressive program that Mr. Trump railed against during the campaign. Mr. Trump will be willing to sacrifice the next four years in order to put himself in a stronger position in 2024.
David M. Dorsen
Washington
The writer was assistant chief counsel of the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973-74.
To the Editor:
There is no good reason that President Trump should not contest voting procedures in court. Logically, he cannot both sue and concede the election, however inconvenient to Joe Biden and his team. Yes, we Democrats are certain that our candidate won. But the future peace will not be won by shouting down a large and deeply indoctrinated and now deeply disappointed segment of our population.
Let them run out the string the law grants them. A semblance of unity could be reached sooner and with less societal disruption. We all have a stake in this.
William Appel
Friday Harbor, Wash.
To the Editor:
It is time that the Republicans select a group to visit the White House — similar to August 1974 when they persuaded Richard Nixon to resign — to get President Trump to concede and stop this childish behavior.
Michael Bogner
Bel Air, Md.