Stop the Lying, Doug

LEST WE FORGET, a certain state senator from the northern reaches of Whatcom County played a bit part in bringing the current excuse for a president into the White House. Doug Ericksen served as the deputy director of Trump’s Washington state campaign, which he parlayed into a position on the new regime’s “beachhead team” at the Environmental Protection Agency that he bungled during an aborted attempt to get a permanent job with the agency. Then after a few lavish trips to Cambodia, paid for with thousands of dollars in surplus campaign funds, he landed a yearly $500,000 lobbying and public relations contract with its brutal dictator, Hun Sen.

Now he’s back in the news with a ridiculous statement on social media that Danny Westneat reported on in the Seattle Times. “The anti-MAGA media clearly knows that the presidential race is far from over,” he claimed without any evidence on the conservative web site WeSpeak.com. “That is why they are in overdrive attempting to ignore the real voter fraud issues and create the impression that they have won.”

That’s rubbish, Doug. Get out of the trash can.

The only fraudulent activity in this instance is occurring somewhere between Ferndale and Lynden, though Ericksen occasionally visits Olympia in attempts to “represent” constituents from the 42nd district. But many of them cannot get an audience with him there, while corporate lobbyists who contribute to his campaigns don’t seem to have any such problems.

Those vapid claims of electoral fraud have been repeatedly debunked in courts, from Arizona to Pennsylvania to Wisconsin. Almost all were dismissed outright for lack of sufficient evidence. And two prestigious law firms have withdrawn from arguing the remaining cases or from any further embarrassing legal actions.

It’s over, Doug. Your wannabe tyrant lost.

Not only did Joe Biden win 306 electoral votes in a system that heavily favors thinly populated rural states, bastions of the GOP, he also leads the national popular vote by nearly 6 million votes. Closer to home, Biden clobbered Trump 78 to 3 in electoral votes and won 63.5 percent of the popular vote in states bordering the Pacific. Including the Mountain states, he won by 109 to 19 electoral votes and 58.6 percent of the popular vote. That’s verging on a landslide west of the Rockies.

Joe Biden will be our next president, Doug.

Yet unskeptical true believers such as Ericksen remain in denial, indulging in fantasies and alternative realities that allow them to persist in their sorry state of disbelief. They do so in alternative social-media universes where liberal skepticism is discouraged, if not completely outlawed, so the truth cannot sneak in.

This behavior is irresponsible and dangerous, Doug.

In an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton — about as rock-ribbed a Republican as they come — called Trump’s attempts at litigating the vote count “the legal equivalent of pitching pennies.” And he went on to state, “I think it’s very important for leaders of the Republican Party to explain to our voters that, in fact, Trump has lost the election and that his claims of election fraud are baseless.”

That means you, Doug — but you are hardly a leader.

For spineless Republicans like Ericksen to continue in this deceit and fraud is to endanger US democracy, which relies on the vote of the people for its legitimacy and on the acceptance of their judgment, no matter how bitter the results may be to the losers. That’s what Hillary Clinton did in November 2016. Four years later, it’s high time for Donald Trump to follow her example — and CONCEDE THAT HE LOST before doing any more damage to the American republic.

And that bitter choice will very likely be Ericksen’s, should he attempt to run for reelection once again in 2022. He won by only a paper-thin margin of 45 votes in 2018. Does he imagine that his partisan shenanigans are going to win him more votes the next time?

Time to head for the exit, Doug. Or maybe Cambodia.

References

Elisabeth Britt and Michael Riordan, “What on Earth Is Doug Ericksen Doing in Cambodia?” Northwest Citizen (18 July 2018).

Michael Riordan, “Behind the Veil at the EPA Beachhead,” Northwest Citizen (26 April 2017).

Jim Brunner and Joseph O’Sullivan, “Cambodians Who Fled to Seattle ‘Shocked’ as Details Emerge of State Senator’s $500K Deal with Regime,” Seattle Times (6 May 2019).

Danny Westneat, “The Coronavirus Math Says We Either Break This Fever or It Breaks Us,” Seattle Times (13 November 2020).