This weekend, Joe Biden was officially projected to be our next President after winning in the state of Pennsylvania put him over the magic 270 electoral votes needed to secure the presidency.

This was great news for some, and disappointing news for others but for Donald Trump the news was devastating. He has lost re-election not by a landslide that some people predicted, but in a race defined by the votes of those people he narrowly won in 2016. The people who gifted Donald Trump his singular term in office rejected him when given a second chance and I imagine to Trump this hurt worse than a landslide would have.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Trump has still not conceded the election now nearly 72 hours after the race was called for Biden. The fact that this reality comes as no surprise to many Americans is disheartening and only further proves the character of Trump as a petulant child who wishes his victories be hailed in the eyes of history and his losses be swept under the rug and forgotten. This election paints Trump exactly how he is; a master at appealing to white male fragility, making convincing promises he will never keep, persuading people to ignore the things he says and does, and at legitimizing and maximizing the benefit he receives from racial tensions and the discriminatory ideology ever present in the American psyche. While he is extraordinarily talented at these things though, he is also a man full of fear. He fears that the American people will reject him and worse that their voices will be heard. He fears that the history books will write him in the same light he's always been written in since his days in real estate; as a punchline to a terrible joke. The paradox of Trump is that in an effort to convince the American people that he is somehow not fitting of the description above, Trump puts on full show exactly why the description is so accurate. Refusing to concede isn't sending a majority of Americans the message of strength and defiant patriotism that Trump thinks it is. Instead, it projects exactly how un-American, childlike, whiny, and selfish Trump truly is at his core.

Trump's refusal to concede does illustrate just how damaged his self-image must be, but it also reflects his continued commitment to undermining democracy at every turn of his Presidency. In American electoral politics, the most important thing that a candidate can do to ensure that democracy continues to thrive is to concede to fair and obvious election results. Within our constitution, there is no law saying that the loser must concede, however. It is simply a norm established over generations that serves to hold the fabric of our democracy together.

Concession speeches are so important because they serve to unify the nation immediately after an election when tensions are at their highest. By conceding a race, a candidate automatically distances themselves from any violence or outbreaks of unrest that may occur following disappointing election results. In conceding they also serve to deescalate tensions within their own base of devoted supporters who may be so passionate about their candidate that they would otherwise be willing to take up arms to defend what they may see to be an unfair or improper transition of power following an election that simply didn't go their way.

Without conceding, a candidate maintains control over the tens of millions of people who voted for them. Those dedicated supporters will believe whatever the candidate tells them, and will fight for his right to power if they truly believe that it was taken from him unfairly. Trump knows this to be true. He knows he has a cult like following and that those who support him will continue to do so regardless of what he says or does. He understands that the fate of our republic rests at his feet and he knows full well that there is nothing that will force him to voluntarily concede. Trump is a man who likes power and he has a lot of it right now. I wouldn't expect him to voluntarily give it up any time soon.

This all matters because right now is the first time in the recent history of our country that a candidate is refusing to accept clear and fair election results. As many times as Trump and his enablers in the GOP may try to convince the American people that the results were unfair or stolen, they were not. The Supreme Court is refusing to hear cases about alleged election fraud related to "late ballots" in Pennsylvania, and lower level courts are ruling against the Trump effort to stop the counting of mail in ballots that favor Biden. There has been no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and the Trump family continues to spread fake and misleading videos to suggest to their supporters that ballots are being burned on the side of the road, or that people are sitting at a table filling out ballot after ballot for Biden and submitting them all to be counted. Despite these claims and falsehoods, the election was fair and it's outcome was clear. Trump just doesn't like that he lost his grip not on power, and more importantly on the electorate who supports him.

The refusal to concede also matters because now is the first time that a sitting president is beginning to step down the path to a potential coup. It starts with a refusal to concede the election results. Then Trump overwhelms the court system with bogus cases alleging fraud when there is none to be found. Then he demands that certain states refuse to certify the results of the election because of alleged fraud being investigated in court. Then Trump sends a rival slate of electors to Congress claiming that Trump actually won the electoral college vote. Finally, Trump winds up in front of the House of Representatives to decide the election. These steps may seem irrational, or out of the question for how a president would actually act following an election, but if Trump has taught us anything it is that he will not respect traditions or institutions if they do not serve his immediate benefit. He is an untraditional president who will do untraditional things to stay in power.

In the hypothetical scenario for how a refusal to concede may lead to a coup, a large part of the outcome will rely on the votes case in the House of Representatives. If Trump takes the election to the House of Representatives, the House is not beholden to respect either the results of the popular vote or the electoral college vote. In fact, they don't have to elect the presidential candidate with the most votes at all. In this process, each individual congressperson does not get to vote. Instead the vote is taken by state delegations. In other words, the fact that the House has more Democrats than Republicans does not mean that Biden will emerge victorious. In actuality, it is more likely that Trump will win in this scenario. Since there are more red states than blue states on the electoral map and since votes are cast by state delegation, red outweighs blue in the case of congressional state delegations meaning Trump would emerge victorious and a legal coup on the American government will have occurred.

My point in writing this is not to cause undo concern or worry based on hypothetical scenarios. I aim rather to educate and prepare people for the possibility of a worst case scenario coming from Trump. I've said it before and I'll say it again; Democrats, this would be a hell of a bad time to under-prepare or under-react to what Trump is doing. His original plan of relying on the Supreme Court appears to be failing, so I would prepare for this alternative scenario by becoming educated about the intricacies of our electoral process, talking to your friends about why Trump's actions are dangerous, and raising awareness within your inner and outer circles about the kinds of American ideals and institutions Trump is threatening. Being educated and sharing verifiably true information with others is easier than ever in the age of social media, but Biden's being declared the winner does not signify that it is time to go back to posting videos of kittens on your Facebook and otherwise ignoring the electoral process. Now is still the time to fight for democracy, majority rule, election fairness, and peaceful transitions of power. These are not Democrat ideals or Republican ideals, they are American ideals. This should not be a fight between Democrats and Republicans. As it has always been, this is a fight between America and Trump and I believe if we continue to be vigilant and stay active in the fight that America will prevail again victorious.