There is substance in Trump’s distortions about mail-in voting

By Kent R. Kroeger (October 20, 2020)

“As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it?” A caricature of Boss Tweed by Thomas Nast in Harper’s Weekly, 1871. (This work is in the public domain in the U.S..)

Over the past four years, the news media’s central, animating trope about Donald Trump has been accusations over his lying.

At least 66 more lies and misleading claims were uncovered over the weekend, according to a CNN report.

Admittedly, Trump’s willingness to spread unverified rumors does not help his reputation for honesty (Sorry, Mr. President, but there is, as yet, no irrefutable evidence that Hunter Biden pocketed a $3.5 million check from a Russian billionaire — -though some genuinely inquisitive investigative reporting on that accusation and other Hunter Biden financial windfalls would be a refreshing chance of pace from most news reporting these days.)

However, scratch the surface of most of those 66 “lies” and we find that there is usually actual substance behind Trump’s words — even when the specific facts he cites are questionable. [Personally, I think what most annoys the political establishment about Trump is not his lying, but his naked honesty. He frequently (perhaps inadvertently) describes a corrupt system polite society pretends does not exist.]

The partisan dispute over the risks of mail-in voting is a prime example.