OPINION: The facts are the facts

By WILLIAM ENYART

It’s time to face facts folks. 

Everybody gets to have their own opinion. You do not get to have your own facts.

You can have your opinion that Donald J. Trump is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Fine. I have my opinion as to your mistakenness in that opinion. I full well understand that I cannot change your opinion.

It’s much like changing a Patriots fan’s mind that Tom Brady was wronged. I won’t even attempt to do so.

What you do not get is a right to your own facts.

Facts matter. The sun is 93 million miles away. Oh, the distance changes a bit due to fluctuations in the earth’s orbit, but it’s 93 million miles away. The law of gravity exists. You can’t see it. You can’t touch it, taste it or smell it, but you can damn sure feel it.

THE FACTS, LIKE THEM OR NOT

Here are the facts, like them or not.

1. More people voted for Joe Biden for President than for any other presidential candidate ever in the history of our great nation.

2. Seven million more voters cast a fair, free and legitimate ballot for Joe Biden than for Donald Trump.

3. Unlike in 2000 or in 2016, the Electoral College reflected the popular will of voters and the person receiving the most votes for president was certified the winner by the Electoral College and the United States Congress.

4. Stop all the conspiracy nonsense:

• • Former Attorney General William Barr, who supported Trump in every instance, isn’t lying when he says there is no evidence of widespread election fraud.
  • The Georgia Republican Secretary of State is not lying when he says the same about Georgia’s vote.
  • The United States Supreme Court, deeply divided as it is between conservatives and moderates, is not part of a deep state cabal, drinking the blood of infants. Scores of state and federal judges, many appointed by Donald J. Trump and his Republican controlled Senate, have ruled against his spurious claims in every instance.
  • Of particular note, is that none of those lawsuits claimed election fraud. Had they done so, the lawyers filing them would have been subject to sanctions for filing false pleadings.

5. The 80 million voters, who cast their ballot for Joe Biden, are of the opinion that he will be a better president than Donald Trump. You are free to disagree with that opinion. You are not free to question their right to hold that opinion nor are you free to attack the validity of their ballot, just as they are not free to attack the validity of your vote.

6. Even though the Democratic candidate won the popular vote in 2000 and in 2016, Democrats accepted the Electoral College decision that handed the election to a Republican. They didn’t like it, but accepted the rules.

TIME TO MAN UP
It is time to man up and accept the fact that Donald Trump lost the election. This is not 1776 and Joe Biden is not King George. Stop being a crybaby and accept the fact that the majority of American voters do not support Donald J. Trump.

One more fact for you to chew on: I am a 71-year-old American veteran with a bum knee and a bad shoulder, who took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America, and so help me God, the next cretin who tears an American flag from the Capitol of my country to replace it with a Trump flag will get his ass kicked.

(William Enyart is a former U.S. congressman for Illinois’ 12th District and retired two-star general with 35 years in the military serving in the U.S. Air Force, ultimately serving as Adjutant General of Illinois commanding both the Illinois Army and Air National Guard. He started his working life as a member of UAW Local 145, Montgomery, Ill, where he and his father both worked for Caterpillar Tractor Co. The Enyart’s live in Belleville, Ill. You can listen to his blog posts at https://www.buzzsprout.com/1089968).