Fraud charges

Yesterday, my 13-year-old son asked me about the election, and the fraud charges leveled by President Trump and his supporters.

I thought about my answer for a bit, then used the O.J. Simpson trial, and that jury verdict, as an example of how humans who want to believe something badly can be convinced that an enormous “preponderance of evidence” should be ignored. In the O.J. case, the evidence, both physical and circumstantial, was overwhelming. He was obviously guilty.

Sadly, a jury predisposed to mistrust police and support a celebrity voted to acquit.

With the recent Trump accusations of voter fraud, his followers are behaving similarly. Five key states — Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — were the tipping point for Biden. In those states, the results were close, but swung Biden’s direction consistent with the polls.

In two of the states, the secretaries of state and governors were Republicans. During the initial count, the lead went to Trump, and then melted away as millions of mail-in votes were tallied. Finally, 60-plus Trump lawsuits have been throw out by Republican- and Democrat-appointed judges with no axe to grind.

Maybe someday Trump U will teach a course on politics, elections, and the U.S. Constitution. Whoops, just remembered Trump U was shut down for fraud and forced to repay $25M to its students back in 2016.

Greg James,

Mercer Island