The election is over. It’s time Texas Republican leaders tell their voters Biden won

The noise will no doubt continue, but the 2020 presidential election is finally over.

In state capitals Monday, electors voted for the next president, and a majority confirmed it will be Democrat Joe Biden. Some desperate Donald Trump supporters will spin a fantasy tale about a dramatic challenge in Congress next month, but the outcome won’t change. Biden won.

Still, voters by the millions will cling to the idea that Trump was cheated by fraud or wrongly expanded voting attributed to the pandemic. For the good of party and country, it’s time for elected Texas Republicans to help them get past it.

Too many officials at all levels have decided to follow rather than lead. Republicans in that camp — especially those who signed on to Attorney General Ken Paxton’s laughable longshot at the Supreme Court — need to reduce the temperature and help the country move on.

Acknowledge Biden’s victory. Declare that it is legitimate. Focus on the future. Defend the American institutions that held up admirably amid a pandemic and huge voter turnout.

If the anger builds, there is a chance that violence could ensue. In Washington over the weekend, several people were stabbed when protesters clashed after a “Stop the Steal” rally. Michigan closed its state capital during the Electoral College gathering for fear of a terrorist attack.

The vast majority of such events stop far short of violence. But continuing rancor and divide not based in reality damages the country. When a political leader can casually hint at secession because a Supreme Court ruling didn’t go his way, as Texas GOP Chairman Allen West did when Paxton was rebuffed last week, it’s hard to envision much progress on the real needs facing America and Texas.

West denied that his statement about forming “a union of states that will abide by the constitution” was about splitting the union. But the chairman should recognize the power of his words and be precise.

Republican officeholders are in a tough spot politically. Their voters are still loyal to Trump and many genuinely believe he was robbed in the election.

It’s hard to move those who believe conspiracy theories. You can tell them that no court found evidence of fraud even remotely close to what it would require to flip states to Trump. You can point them to National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, a conservative legal expert, noting that the president’s lawyers didn’t even bother to present witnesses in a Wisconsin election challenge. Most won’t change their minds.

But Republican leaders can provide a path forward for those willing to listen. A shamefully large number of Texans in Congress who call themselves conservative defenders of federalism eagerly signed on to Paxton’s cynical attempt to overturn other states’ elections. If that level of interference were reversed, the same lawmakers would have wrapped themselves in “Come and Take It” flags and screamed “Don’t Mess with Texas.”

In the Fort Worth area, they include Reps. Michael Burgess, Kenny Marchant, Roger Williams and Ron Wright. Sen. Ted Cruz, always willing to go the extra step for the GOP base, offered to argue before the Supreme Court on Trump’s behalf.

It should be noted that Sen. John Cornyn and Rep. Kay Granger politely stood against the Texas case, for which they’ll no doubt be branded conservative traitors.

Republicans’ most vocal and active base voters want their elected officials to fight, even for lost causes. It’s partly why they’re so loyal to Trump; they perceive that he takes it to the left. For those who may want to run for president in 2024, such as Cruz, Trump looms over that election as a candidate or a potential kingmaker.

Democrats should remember, too, that plenty of their own went down this road in 2016. Electors were intensely lobbied to change their votes, just as much of an attack on the integrity of the election as the Republican efforts this year.

The GOP came out of the November elections in a surprisingly good position. If Republicans can hold the Senate majority in Georgia’s two runoffs early next month, they can block the most ambitious portions of Democrats’ agenda. And history strongly suggests they’ll do well in the 2022 elections as the party out of power. There are plenty of issues on which they can focus their “fight.” They can’t do it if they insist on fighting the last war.

We’d prefer to see the major parties compromise on issues such as health care, immigration and pandemic relief. But we’ll take not undermining our democracy as a solid first step.

This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 11:15 AM.