Trump keeps telling us he believes he’ll lose

Yes, it’s scary when Donald Trump says he’ll respect the outcome of the 2024 presidential election if, and only if, he’s the winner.

It’s scary when the whole GOP follows his lead, either by refusing to admit he lost the last election or by avoiding the question entirely.

It’s even scarier when the Washington press corps plays along.

But when it comes to “the Big Lie,” we may be overthinking it.

To be sure, “the Big Lie” is evidence of malicious intent, but it’s also evidence of something else – that the former president is a loser.

If he had had the right stuff, he’d bring it. He doesn’t.

So he lies.

“A false political world”
“The Big Lie” is the foundation of “the maga movement,” according to Professor Heather Cox Richardson. In her dispatch this morning, the popular historian said that it and Trump’s other lies “are not errors.”

In her newsletter, Letters from an American, she said that the lies “are part of a well-documented strategy to overturn democracy by using modern media to create a false political world. Voters begin to base their political decisions on that fake image, rather than on reality, and are manipulated into giving up control of their government.”

JD Vance refused to answer Tim Walz when he asked, during the vice presidential debate, if Trump lost the 2020 election. Vance later said he indeed won. That prompted media figures to ask other Republicans where they stand. House Speaker Mike Johnson called it a “gotcha question.” US Senator Tom Cotton said only that Joe Biden won.

Trump never says he can win
This is dangerous stuff for obvious reasons, but I think everyone would benefit from stepping back and remembering that a man who can’t accept defeat is a loser. A party that can’t tell him the truth is a losing party. Indeed, Trump keeps telling us he doesn’t believe he can win.

After nearly a decade, we are so accustomed to his weirdness that we forget the basics of competition. A candidate who believes he can win says he can win, and he says that on the basis of his iron-clad belief in the American people to choose the best candidate to lead them.

Trump never says that.

Ever.

He says things only a loser would say, like the only way his opponent can beat him is if she cheats. A candidate who brings his A game never accuses anyone of cheating in advance, because doing so would be admitting that he doesn’t have what it takes to win on his own power.

Well, that’s Trump. He doesn’t have what it takes.

All he has is lies.

“Weakness masquerading as strength”
We also forget that a candidate who believes he can win on his own power doesn’t prepare supporters for failure. Trump does that whenever he puts conditions on the election’s outcome. To win, he needs his base to be fired up, but he dampens that fire with his incessant talk of competition that he can’t possibly defeat on his own.

A winner believes he or she is worthy and stands ready to test that belief. A loser doesn’t believe he’s worthy and won’t risk failing the test.

Gavin Newsom had Trump’s number before the September debate:

“He’s weakness masquerading as strength,” the California governor said. “This is a fragile guy. He’s a broken person. He really is, and as a consequence of that, he’s incredibly vulnerable to reverting to who he really is, which is someone who doesn’t necessarily feel worthy.”

What losers do
Some say Trump isn’t really campaigning. He’s just buying time for state-level Republicans to suppress votes or challenge results. Some believe Speaker Johnson is preparing to deny certification of the vote.

Again, this is dangerous stuff, but it’s still worth saying:

That’s what losers do.

They don’t trust themselves and what they have to offer to try their best. They’re terrified of seeing their self-delusions proven false. They literally can’t put any faith in anything bigger than themselves, because they can’t see anything beyond their own meanness and mediocrity.

The mean and mediocre will never concede
It’s important to point out that Trump and the Republicans are lying about, well, virtually anything in the hope of creating “a false political world” that voters will use to hand over their rights and freedom. It’s important to sound the alarm, so voters don’t surrender in advance.

But it’s also important to point out that “a false political world” is itself evidence, not only of malicious intent but also weakness. Every time Trump complains about being cheated out of the White House in 2020, he’s admitting he didn’t have what it takes to win on his own power.

And it’s important for the rest of us to see that weakness for what it is.

If we don’t, we risk undervaluing our strength.

The future of freedom and democracy cannot depend on Donald Trump and the Republicans admitting defeat. The mean and the mediocre will never concede to their own. They must be forced.

No, the future of freedom and democracy depends on people who value the national good coming to a conclusion and sticking with it.

These are losers.

They deserve to lose.

And they will.