Now is the winter of his
discontent as Trump goes mad

Though this be madness, yet ’tis method in it

By Byron Toben

As readers of WestmountMag may have noted, over the past two years I have often viewed the happenings of the Trump era through the lens of theatre foreshadowing. So it is fitting, as we near the official end of his presidency, to invoke the famous lines of King Richard III in Shakespeare’s play of the same name and advisor Polonius in his Hamlet.

Why the winter of discontent (wherein he is determined to play the villain)

Trump correctly realized that if he lost a second term, everything would collapse around him (financial ruin, sexual harassment lawsuits, tax reporting revelations, etc.) Thus, every trick in the book was used as he correctly claimed that the vote was indeed rigged, by him!

The methods used were voter suppression in various forms:

1. Kobach’s Crosscheck program circulating lists of ineligible voters with similar names from other states (estimated millions of disenfranchisements).
   .
2. Claiming mail votes were fraudulent
   .
3. Shutting down postal service
   .
4. Reducing the number of polling stations
   .
5. Moving polling stations to distant or inconvenient locations
   .
6. Urging intimidation at polling stations.

When these methods still resulted in a 7 million popular vote majority for the Biden team, the objections shifted to court contestations in 50 states (all lost), two appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court (both not accepted) and three recounts (resulting in a slight Biden increase).

Trump correctly realized that if he lost a second term, everything would collapse around him (financial ruin, sexual harassment lawsuits, tax reporting revelations, etc.) Thus, every trick in the book was used as he correctly claimed that the vote was indeed rigged, by him!

When these methods did not work, he tried several staged “public” hearings with loyalists in several states demanding substitution of pledged electors with his electors, invoking a variety of phoney baloney arguments, many later repeated in sycophant Peter Navarro’s recent report, The Art Of The Steal.

CLAIM – Many Biden votes came in late on Election Day, November 3, to overcome Trump’s early lead from in-person voting on that day.

REFUTATION – Those votes were not late. They were early voting and/or mail votes that had arrived earlier but not opened until Election Day.

CLAIM – More Democrat votes came in than there were registered Democrat voters in that state.

REFUTATION – Voters only have to register in primary elections. New voters, independents and switched voters account for the difference.

CLAIM – Voting counting machines were rigged to change results. Lawyer Sidney Powell (once dismissed then re-hired by Trump legal team) based this on “Kraken” allegations of shooting battles between CIA and U.S. Army as well as affidavits from a few computer experts that the vote-counting machines could have been so rigged.

REFUTATION – No proof of such actual rigging plus lawsuits by machine manufacturers for defamation.

All these machinations having failed, Trump turned to the Georgia strategy.

Gaming the Vote. Keith Knight, pen, ink ©2018 – Image: Heidi De Vries via StockPholio.net

Why the mad Georgia strategy has a method behind it

Georgia was more important than the two Senate seats (since won by Democrats) to give them a slim Senate majority. It was Trump’s last hope to retain office (as desperate as Samuel Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape). Here is why:

In the November 3 election, not counting Georgia, 24 states voted red and 25 voted blue. In desperation, Trump pleaded and threatened the Republican Governor and Secretary of State to “find” him more votes to keep Georgia red, so there would be a 26-24 red state majority. This did not happen, so there is now a 25-25 tie between the 50 states.

The plan was to delay or overturn Biden’s formal inauguration beyond January 20, so there would be no president for a day or week or? During that period, the Constitution allows the House of Representatives to vote on who shall be president. This vote is not by population, as is normal, but by one vote per state. Assuming there were no breaking ranks, a 26-24 vote for Trump would potentially give him a second term.

‘Georgia was more important than the two Senate seats (since won by Democrats) to give them a slim Senate majority. It was Trump’s last hope to retain office…’

This madness is what drove wannabe King Trump to the method of fomenting the riot on January 6 – to delay the ceremonial congressional counting of the previously state-certified electoral votes. This brings to mind Shakespeare again in Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony’s remarks after urging Romans to riot in the wake of Caesar’s murder, “Mischief, thou art afoot. Take thou what course thou wilt.”

Thus endeth the saga of the man who would be King, the serene genius, the Chosen One, the greatest president since Lincoln (maybe) or Washington (maybe), the deserver of being added to the sculpted heads on Mount Rushmore, the cover of Time Magazine as Man of the Year, even Superman after having conquered his COVID-19.

What does the future hold?

Will there be more violence from QAnon, Proud Boys, Boogaloos, other groups yet unmasked, and the USA becomes a banana importing “banana republic”?

Will the real Republican party of honest policy differences, now in exile, remerge to replace the cult that is the real RINOs?

Reader opinions welcomed.

Feature image: Tyler Merbler, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

More articles from Byron Toben

Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated web sites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.