donald trump recently declared himself <u+201c>unshackled,<u+201d> and now we know what he meant: the businessman is in full steve bannon-breitbart mode, invoking an international conspiracy to steal the election and maybe fluoridate the water. as demagogic as this rhetoric is, his critics sure are selective in their outrage. <u+201c>the election is absolutely being rigged by the dishonest and distorted media pushing crooked hillary - but also at many polling places - sad,<u+201d> mr. trump posted on twitter sunday night. he followed up monday morning that <u+201c>of course<u+201d> there is <u+201c>large scale voter fraud,<u+201d> and the plot against him is now a regular line at his rallies. this is mr. trump<u+2019>s response to the oppo-research hits about his personal misconduct and sexual ethics, though he tends to conflate his two <u+201c>rigging<u+201d> claims about electoral fraud and media bias. no presidential candidate should portray u.s. elections as illegitimate, and mike pence was right to say sunday that the gop will <u+201c>absolutely<u+201d> abide by november<u+2019>s results. hillary clinton is not going to steal the white house like lyndon johnson stole a texas senate seat in 1948. voting irregularities are real, and cheating sometimes happens, especially in machine cities, but voters should have confidence in the electoral system. there<u+2019>s zero evidence that the process is compromised across multiple states and precincts. but the liberal freak-out over mr. trump<u+2019>s allegedly <u+201c>unprecedented<u+201d> and <u+201c>dangerous<u+201d> remarks could use some perspective. where would mr. trump possibly get the idea that the system is rigged? well, maybe he listened to bernie sanders, who in january described his <u+201c>message, which says that the economy today is rigged, that it benefits the wealthy and the powerful at the expense of everybody else, that the campaign finance system that exists today is corrupt and undermining american democracy.<u+201d> or maybe mr. trump caught elizabeth warren at the democratic convention saying <u+201c>the system is rigged<u+201d> or <u+201c>the rigged system<u+201d> five times in one speech. president obama and eric holder also regularly push the canard that voter-identification laws are attempts at racially motivated disenfranchisement. as recently as 2014, democrats attempting to keep the senate tried to motivate minority turnout with ads that explicitly played on black fears of intimidation. african-american registration and voting increased, and at a faster rate than white participation, after allegedly racist north carolina and georgia recently passed voter id laws, but that<u+2019>s not the point. democrats can<u+2019>t sauce this goose and then complain when mr. trump adopts their tactics for his purposes. as it happens, david remnick reported in the new yorker last year that john kerry is convinced that the george w. bush campaign manipulated the voting machines in 2004 to carry ohio. the secretary of state even used this <u+201c>very personal experience<u+201d> to reassure afghans that free and fair elections are hard, even in advanced countries. we can<u+2019>t recall the media assault on the top u.s. diplomat for subverting u.s. democracy with such baseless speculation, and where mr. trump does have a point is when he says the press corps is nearly unanimous against him. this is usually the case with republicans, though the difference this year is that journalists say openly that mr. trump is a unique threat to democracy. the first amendment stalwarts would have more credibility if they hadn<u+2019>t portrayed mitt romney as a plundering executive with retrograde family values, or tried to take down john mccain in 2008 with innuendo about philandering. gop voters understand that it doesn<u+2019>t matter how admirable their nominee is, the press will still trash him. the question for the media this year is that if mr. trump poses a threat to the american way, where were they during the gop primaries? back then, progresssive partisans who now say mr. trump will end civilization turned out columns like <u+201c>why liberals should support a trump republican nomination<u+201d> or <u+201c>why i<u+2019>m more worried about marco rubio than donald trump.<u+201d> many in the media cheered on mr. trump when it appeared that he might oppose the gop<u+2019>s traditional free-market agenda. nbc<u+2019>s <u+201c>access hollywood<u+201d> tape with mr. trump and billy bush is 11 years old, and weren<u+2019>t howard stern <u+2019>s greatest hits as relevant last autumn as they are said to be now? it<u+2019>s not a conspiracy theory to think that the stories coming out in late october are no accident. disqualifying mr. trump with a dump of sleazy passes at women was sure to enrage his supporters who know the history of bill and hillary clinton. mr. trump always overreacts and thus he<u+2019>s on a path to lose<u+2014>and if he keeps raving about <u+201c>the illusion of democracy,<u+201d> as he did last week in west palm beach, he<u+2019>ll deserve to. but in winning ugly, mrs. clinton and the left will pay a steep price in even more polarized and divisive politics.
trump<u+2019>s <u+2018>rigged<u+2019> election<u+2014>and bernie<u+2019>s - wsj
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