Under the headline “Note to Dems: Stop Whining,” syndicated columnist Diane Dimond writes that “Trump won fair and square” in the November 19, 2016 Albuquerque Journal. Really?!

            When hundreds of thousands of registered voters are secretly purged from numerous GOP-controlled states’ voter rolls by Republican operatives, is that fair and square? When these voters are targeted by Republican operatives because they are mainly minorities who overwhelmingly vote Democratic, is that fair and square? And, when Republicans pass restrictive voter requirements in multiple states under the guise of unsubstantiated voter fraud making it harder for minorities and the poor to vote, is that fair and square?

            Dimond writes that those who are protesting the election of Trump “denigrate our political system and malign the office of the presidency.” I would strongly argue that it is Trump and his Republican cronies who have severely damaged our political system and the office of the presidency.

            In his new book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, and movie of the same name, investigative journalist Greg Palast convincingly illustrates how the 2016 election was stolen by the Republicans. (See http://www.gregpalast.com/.) Employing a system called “Crosscheck,” Republicans robbed over a million minority voters of their right to vote in crucial states, explains Palast. Crosscheck compares voter rolls in two states and purges voters with very similar names (e.g. George Gonzales and George M. Gonzales) from the rolls in both states for double registering, without proof the two names are the same person. For example, the North Carolina Crosscheck purge list consisted of 589,393 voters. Since Trump only won North Carolina by about 177,000 votes, the overwhelmingly Democratic, purged voters would easily have wiped out Trump’s victory had they been able to vote. Palast indicates that Crosscheck was utilized in 29 states, including critical states like Arizona, Florida, Michigan and Ohio.

            In addition, Dimond implies that conservatives are too civilized to “hit the bricks in rowdy, confrontational and sometimes violent street protests.” Does Ms. Dimond prefer the Congressional Republican protest method of pledging to make President Obama a one-term president by obstructing every proposal he makes, even when many of them were originally GOP ideas? (See http://www.eclectablog.com/2013/08/10-ideas-republicans-loved-until-barack-obama-became-president.html.)

            Republicans seem to exploit every trick in the book to make certain they get their way on election day. In fact, they’re not above hacking into voting machines to assure their candidate becomes president, which appears to be how George W. Bush won Ohio and the presidency in 2004. (See http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/2319:new-court-filing-reveals-how-the-2004-ohio-presidential-election-was-hacked.) And, if it were not for GOP-controlled state legislatures gerrymandering districts, Republicans would today most likely not be in control of the U.S. House of Representatives. (See https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-power-that-gerrymandering-has-brought-to-republicans/2016/06/17/045264ae-2903-11e6-ae4a-3cdd5fe74204_story.html?utm_term=.b00980e8f6aa.)

            So, you are right, Ms. Dimond, Democrats need to stop whining. Instead, they need to start building a national movement to fix our rigged political system and make the government work for all Americans along the lines I suggest in my book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America: Working Together To Revive Our Democracy. (See www.breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.)