Donald Trump will never concede in this close election, and it's concerning that so few Americans seem to realize this.
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Just days away from the US election, polling organization YouGov asked thousands of Americans when they thought Donald Trump would concede the race if he lost. The answers were shocking for two reasons.
The first is that a whopping 37 percent of Americans believe that Trump will never concede. That’s a staggering number… and it even includes 14 percent of Republicans.
It’s tough to imagine that, for any other candidate in US history, that figure would be higher than single digits.
In fact, the same poll shows that a mere 3 percent of Americans believe that a presidential candidate should never concede. A plurality thinks a concession should be made after all ballots are counted, followed by “after the news networks declare a winner,” and “after Congress has certified the winner.”
In the past, candidates have usually conceded much sooner than that.
The number for Kamala Harris is already pretty high at 8 percent. However, that makes sense.
Knowing that his contempt for democracy is a vulnerability for him, Trump has been trying to project his authoritarian fantasies onto his Democratic opponent.
Therefore, it is not surprising that enough Republicans (and plenty of independents) have bought into his lies.
That being said, Americans still think it is about five times as likely that Trump won’t concede than Harris.
That also makes sense. After all, they watched him attempt a coup in real time that culminated in a deadly insurrection on January 6.
The second shocking finding of the poll is that only 37 percent of Americans believe that Trump won’t concede.
Do the other 63 percent live under a rock? Do they not have access to the Internet?
It’s obviously going to be a close election that will come down to a few thousand votes in a handful of states. There is absolutely no way that Trump will concede. Ever!
And the fact that nearly two-thirds of Americans have not understood this yet is really troubling.
He has yet to concede the 2020 election, and he lost that 306-232 votes in the Electoral College… and this one will likely be much tighter than that.
In addition, Trump and his campaign have already spent months laying the groundwork for the Big Lie 2.0. At every turn, he has insinuated that the only way he could lose is if the election is stolen from him. Just in recent days, he has already falsely claimed that fraudulent votes have been cast in Pennsylvania.
And, of course, Trump and his allies have often claimed (or asserted) that “illegals” are registering to vote in an effort to help Democrats. There is no evidence for any of this… and that makes it even more likely that he will once again refuse to concede no matter what happens on Tuesday.
It’s just shocking that more Americans don’t seem to realize that.
In his Navigating the Insanity columns, Klaus Marre provides the kind of hard-hitting, thought-provoking, and often humorous analysis you won’t find anywhere else.
