The election is over, but the attack on American democracy continues as President Trump imposes baseless legal challenges in key states like Pennsylvania and Georgia with hopes to overturn the election results. President Trump’s frivolous lawsuits strike at the heart that has kept an American experiment alive for over 200 years: democracy.

On Nov. 9, the president’s team filed a lawsuit in Michigan which falsely stated Republican poll challengers could not observe the counting of ballots and election workers were advised not to verify signatures on absentee ballots. Although these claims were made, none of them were corroborated with any tangible evidence, and the lawsuit was eventually dropped.

 The Michigan lawsuit on Nov. 11 met the same fate. This time, the lawsuit sought to obstruct Michigan’s certification of the vote. In fact, multiple lawsuits were filed in the state of Michigan, all of them failing simply due to a lack of evidence supporting any of the president’s claims of voter fraud or malfeasance and highlighting the president’s desperate attempts to overturn the election in the state of Michigan in many different courtrooms.

Similarly, lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Arizona have all been either dismissed by a federal judge or withdrawn by the Trump administration over the same baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. President Trump’s legal losses demonstrate two things. The first is that the election results have been finalized, with Georgia certifying President-elect Joe Biden as the winner of the state’s electoral votes after a hand-recount in which Biden’s margins actually grew. Without substantial evidence to support his claims of voter fraud, the president’s prospects of overturning one of the most contentious elections in American history are nonexistent. Second, Trump’s failed lawsuits communicate the lengths to which the president is willing to go to salvage a long-tarnished reputation of “winning.” In the 2020 election, a record-shattering 160 million Americans voted to have their voices heard. However, after the election, it feels like Americans find themselves being denied the peaceful transition of power they are entitled to. No matter how many legal challenges Trump creates, without clear evidence, the president’s attempts to silence millions of American voices will fall on deaf ears.

While the Trump train seems to be running out of steam, division is running steadfast. Protests supporting the president in Washington, D.C. gained momentum with claims of voter fraud. At least 20 protesters have been arrested as pro- and anti-Trump protesters clashed. Where an election season is naturally filled with some element of tension politically, this election season felt less like democracy in action and more like democracy in panic, as the president continues to push a false narrative about Democrats vying to steal the election. The election of Joe Biden may not satisfy all Americans, but in the words of the president-elect, now should be the time to “lower the temperature” in the country. However, Trump’s legal challenges are only striking a match under American temperament in an era when temperatures are already at their highest.

This indicates the magnitude of division in America, and it did not take a few ludicrous lawsuits to make this apparent. According to a Politico poll, approximately 70% of Republicans believe that the election was not free and fair, highlighting the glaring faults within our trust in democracy. 

An official concession from President Trump may not unite an already polarized country, but it could be the force that moves the needle closer to American understanding, which is the first necessary step in national unity. However, even this is not enough. No matter how many lawsuits are rejected, how many recounts are ordered or how many protests are disbanded, nothing will be able to mend the democratic distrust in modern America. The coalition of recounts, election protests and lackadaisical lawsuits will only fuel that tank of tumult that treads upon our divided nation. The only way to change its course is to remember who we are and what made us great in the first place: democracy.

After the most off-the-rails election in history, it is time that we as a nation begin to take steps towards national healing. The first step to accomplish this is to make democracy trusted again.

Noah Osborne, FCRH ’23, is a journalism major from Harlem, N.Y.