WASHINGTON — Election Day 2016 arrived not a minute too soon, according to just about everyone in America. Now, Hillary Clinton has joined fellow presidential also-ran Jill Stein in an effort to keep it going. It's not only much too little and far, far too late — it's a waste of time and effort that could be better spent elsewhere.
When news dropped that Stein's bid for a recount in Wisconsin was successful, I was with a friend who spent the weeks before Election Day traveling to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and other states as part of a Democratic grass-roots get-out-the-vote push. Her suggestion of what Stein should do in lieu of filing recount petitions cannot be printed in this paper.
The anger she and other Democrats feel toward Stein is understandable. In Wisconsin, where Donald Trump has a 27,000-vote edge over Clinton, according to the latest returns, Jill Stein captured more than 30,000 votes. In Michigan, where Trump is edging out Clinton by just over 10,000 votes, Stein garnered more than 51,000.
Certainly not every protest vote that Stein earned would have gone to Clinton in Stein's absence.
Still, the way she took a sledgehammer to Clinton on the campaign trail with the same fervor that she attacked the GOP candidate — equating their ills and ignoring the fact that there was far more that united the Greens and Democrats than divided them — didn't help Clinton.
Clinton didn't help herself, either. My friend spent more time in Wisconsin after the primary stumping on Clinton's behalf than the candidate herself. In fact, Clinton never set foot in the Badger State after her stinging primary defeat to Sen. Bernie Sanders. Still, somehow she expected to win it in the end.
But now Clinton has joined Stein in a last-ditch, likely futile effort to change the result in three states under the premise of fighting voter fraud.
Democrats and Greens should spend their time and fundraising efforts addressing real issues exposed by the election, such as investigating the widespread reports of voter suppression primarily affecting minority and poor voters and pushing for the Voting Rights Act to be restored to full strength.
They could figure out how Russians were able to bombard Americans with fake political news. They could take a good look at their own positions and messaging to find out why working-class voters felt a braggadocios billionaire with no political experience had more to offer.
The last thing they should do is extend an election season that is better off in the history books.
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