“Trump said it, so it must be a lie!”

That’s really not a terrible axiom. Oh, it’s not 100% accurate, but most of what he’s said over the years has ranged from mild exaggeration to only true in certain circumstances all the way up to a bald-faced whopper. He repeats the lie often and loudly, and some will come to believe him — and others automatically disbelieve.

Herein, however, comes a problem: Sometimes, people end up disbelieving what he says even though there’s some truth to it.

Here’s one example: The “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, where a bunch of neoNazis arrived to demonstrate against tearing down Civil War statues, some jackass drove a car into a crowd, and Trump famously said, “you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides.”

Biden, of course, leapt to the attack, accusing Trump of defending Nazis. However, in context, what Trump said was perfectly correct — not in every detail, but certainly about that one. When two crowds rushed violently together, there were bad actors in the forefront, running in swinging, and a bunch of decent folks trying to stop it. There was an entire third protest which existed specifically to oppose violence.

Yes, I’m saying that, on the side that contained neoNazis, there were other folks who were opposed to taking down the Robert E. Lee statue that were not neoNazis. They weren’t white supremacists; they didn’t care to secede from the Union; they weren’t there to foment insurrection. They were there because they cared about history. It’s actually well-documented that a lot of people left once the neoNazis showed up, and that there were altercations on the podium between factions, some shouting “We don’t want you here!”

I’m also saying that, on the side that was there to counter-protest, there were bad actors. Again, this is well-documented. The ICCT reported the presence of domestic Accelerationists, who were there specifically to foment violence — and it’s an open question whether the murderer who drove his car into a crowd of protestors was among their number. Certainly his action served their aims.

There’s a ton of nuance, but all of it gets ignored now because (1) neoNazis and (2) murder. But Trump’s explanation? Factually correct, responsible, appropriate — poorly elucidated, sure, but that’s partly because he was facing an aggressive, hostile crowd of reporters. (And partly because Donald Trump is evidently incapable of speaking in complete sentences.)

All of which is, today, somewhat irrelevant. We’ve had this discussion, and the nation has agreed on the result, which is apparently that tearing down statues is a fine thing to do. The iconoclasts win sometimes, and no matter that ikons can be invaluable cultural resources as well as wonderful works of art in their own right — and, in this case, representations of a rich history. Was it proper to take down the statue? Entirely beside the point, and long since decided by other people than me.

Which brings me to the purpose of this little article, which is NOT to defend Donald Trump or neoNazis, but instead to champion a truth that’s getting buried in politically-charged debate.

Claim: The 2020 presidential election was rigged.

Fact-check: No, it wasn’t. Biden won by the rules.

And that’s fair enough. I mean, sure, temporary COVID laws favored him in two of the four vital swing states, and in such a way that it’s likely the increased number of mail-in ballots swung Georgia for him and possibly Pennsylvania (though not likely). But that’s only two states of the four, it was all perfectly legal, and it’s the sort of thing that happens every election in every state anyway. We only heard about it because of COVID.

Which leads us directly to my counterpoint: Every election is rigged.

Battles over ballot access go on continuously, with each side struggling desperately for advantage, using whatever tools come their way. Courts battle legislatures, governors dive in, attorneys-general raise their own standards, and the press takes sides freely. The only people who don’t ever get a fair shake are the voters, most of whom wouldn’t support either party if they were given a reasonable alternative — but of course they’re not. That’s the one thing that both the GOP and the DNC are in complete agreement on.

This may sound like some sort of conspiracy theory, and to be fair it is — because there actually is a conspiracy. Active organized efforts from both major political parties systematically work to disenfranchise and disempower the American voting public wholesale.

Don’t believe me?

Fine. Leaving aside gerrymandering, propaganda, mudslinging, and the mindbogglingly vast infusions of corporate money in our elections process, and not even mentioning the games they all play with ballot availability and voting laws, consider only this: We’re deciding between Biden and Trump.

There are 330 million American citizens. Can you honestly say that, out of all of them, these are the best two candidates?

I rest my case.

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