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Don’t Trust Fashionable Virtues
Does Donald Trump literally believe that he won re-election?
When he claimed victory on Election Night, he knew not enough votes had been counted to determine a winner. He’d watched months of polling consistently show Biden ahead, and history demonstrates that the incumbent party almost never wins in the middle of a recession. He also knew that the still-uncounted mail ballots would lean heavily Democratic. (For that matter, he himself was mostly responsible for that fact. What did he expect to happen after he spent weeks discouraging his supporters from voting by mail?) Further, he knows that there’s no actual proof of voter fraud swaying the election. If such proof existed, it would have been shown to him. Instead, just like the rest of us, he’s seen no evidence that the outcome was fraudulent, and plenty indicating that it wasn’t.
So when he talks about a massive pro-Biden voter-fraud conspiracy, does he really think it’s true? Or is he simply acting a part — the Strong Leader who never backs down, shows weakness, or admits defeat?
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A decade ago, I went to school in small-town Texas. One of the other students became convinced that he was a prophet. Jesus Christ had personally lifted him above the masses. He had a sacred mission: to wage spiritual warfare, cast out demons, and conduct miraculous healings in…