Illegitimate???

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I do not agree with the flood of statements currently in distribution from the Trump administration which present the premise that our national election process is "rigged".

For the sake of discussion, however, let's debate this premise.

Mr. Trump's followers agree with the president's every statement; they feel no need to apply their individual critical thinking as a litmus test of those proclamations' level of veracity.

That can work in a family where the patriarch makes all decisions, and has a final say over his children, but children do not vote in our country.

Adults vote, and the elite Ivy League education which the president touts as one of his many qualifications for the presidency consistently teaches the necessity of diverse adult discussion amongst one's peers and equals in a democracy.

As a fellow graduate of this elite, East Coast educational system, I represent one of Mr. Trump's equals. (I would argue that quality of education indeed matters, but there is more than one path to that education goal, the majority of which do not require an undergraduate degree from an "Ivy League" school, but that is a separate discussion. The Ivy League metric is important to Mr. Trump, rather than to me).

So as part of a discussion among equals, let me address the 'rigged voting system' premise.

There is no statistically significant qualitative or quantitative data supporting the suggestion that a pattern of voter fraud exists in our nation.

Mr. Trump's own voter fraud commission, the PEIC, which he formed in May 2017, after he was elected, came to the exact same conclusion; there is no evidence of systemic voter fraud which affects national election outcomes, past or present. Full stop.

The propaganda claiming the existence of systemic voter fraud being distributed and consumed by many is therefore not misinformed, but intentionally misrepresenting fact.

I grew up with many who lived their lives hiding from facts. The fact that people choose to live within an existence defined by magical thinking does not make data suspicious. It makes the motivations of those who knowingly disseminate untruth come under closer scrutiny.

Lastly, if Mr. Trump truly believes that our national election system is so systemically flawed that we should doubt election outcomes generally, then should we not also doubt the legitimacy of Mr. Trump's election to the presidency in 2016?

I am certain that a Wharton undergraduate knows the level of care due to one's seminal assumptions when making, and defending, any argument.

Mr. Trump perhaps should apply what he learned at the University of Pennsylvania to re-examine the potential ramifications of his argument upon the legitimacy of his present role as our president.