The Republican Party had a good election.

They picked up seats in the House of Representatives, maintained their majority in the Senate (pending the results of the Georgia run-offs), did well in races for governors and state legislatures, and had record voter turnout.

Donald Trump, on the other hand, lost the presidential race by a wide margin in both the electoral and popular vote. Trump, as expected, refuses to accept that he has lost and is claiming widespread voter fraud by the Democrats. There is no credible evidence of this anywhere yet the majority of the Republican Party, Including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Attorney General William Barr, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, are backing him up and joining him in refusing to cooperate with Democrats on a peaceful transition.

It seems they think that the world will somehow believe the ridiculous theory that Democrats somehow conspired to vote Trump out yet failed to conspire to get the majority in the Senate or grow their majority in the House, to say nothing of the state legislative and gubernatorial races. Most reasonable people have concluded that there is no widespread fraud, and that Trump’s loss is a repudiation of his character and failed leadership. Trump underperformed the rest of the ticket, yet many Republicans are so afraid of Trump and the possibility of offending his supporters that they are unwilling to do the right thing and defend our democratic processes.

The voters have spoken and will remember who demonstrates true leadership as well as those who choose to choose expediency and self-interest ahead of patriotism and national interest. Joe Biden is the president-elect. He has won fair and square. Trump and his party need to acknowledge it and allow America to move forward.

MIKE McCLELLAN,

Alpena