It has been a little over three weeks since Election Day and Trump has still not conceded, despite it being evident that there is no path to electoral victory for him. On November 23rd Emily Murphy, head of the General Services Administration finally certified the results of the election which opened the door for the Biden transition team to start preparations. Even that process wasn't without controversy; accusations that Murphy was delaying the certification for political reasons were rampant and Trump tried to take credit for the decision to start the transition despite Murphy’s statement that she made her decision independently.
The legal fight is coming to an end as well, with the Third Circuit handing down a brutal dismissal of the Trump campaign's lawsuit alleging that Republican poll watchers were treated unfairly. The dismissal brings the Trump legal team's record to a staggering 38 losses in 25 days. Those losses all have a common theme - dismissals based on lack of evidence to support the allegations of election irregularities. To add insult to injury, the Third Circuit decision was made by a three-judge panel comprised of conservative judges, and the decision was written by Stephanos Bibas, who is a Trump appointee.
Note my use of the term "election irregularities." Despite the online narrative that these court cases are about challenging election fraud, Trump's legal team has studiously avoided making the case for election fraud in court. That's because, unlike on Twitter, making accusations of election fraud in court without any evidence to back up that claim has consequences. As the Third Circuit decision points out, Giuliani expressly said in open court that the Trump campaign was not arguing that the Pennsylvania vote was impacted by fraud. That is because any allegation of election fraud has to meet a very high evidence standard that Giuliani knew he couldn't meet.
Yet the narrative persists that the Trump campaign is fighting voter fraud and that the election was stolen from him somehow. That narrative simply does not fit reality. There are plenty of reasons for the Trump campaign and its supporters to keep pushing it however; there are still donations to be mined, grifts to be kept up until the bitter end, true believers who refuse to believe Trump could have lost. Whatever the reason, we are past time for everyone to cut the crap and accept that Trump lost.
As for the "we're taking this all the way to the Supreme Court" narrative, Trump and his legal team have scotched their chances at that happening. By making it explicit that they intend on the Court to decide the outcome of the election, Trump and his team have made the cause radioactive. Add to that the fact that none of the cases the Trump team has launched would change the results of the election and it's hard to see why the Supreme Court would involve itself in this mess. This is not the 2000 election - we do not need a Supreme Court ruling to determine who won the Electoral College.
This election season will officially end sooner rather than later but the effects will linger for years. Creating an environment where millions of people do not trust the election process (and yes Democrats deserve some blame here too) is going to lead to increasingly nasty outcomes. A losing candidate fostering that environment because he or she can't accept an election loss should not be tolerated.