The first six headlines as I scrolled the Washington Post on my phone this evening (the evening of November 11 in California, but already November 12 in D.C.) all appear on the webpage:

• “More Republicans back legal push to contest Biden’s victory”
• “Despite lack of evidence, GOP forms ranks around Trump”
• “Barr clears Justice Dept. to investigate alleged voting irregularities as  Trump makes unfounded fraud claims”
• “Biden behaves as the incoming president, even as Trump balks at giving up power”
• “White House, escalating tensions, orders agencies to rebuff Biden transition team”
• “Long-standing ties between Biden and McConnell could shape early agenda”

Here’s a hint: Five headlines share a theme — that the outcome of the election is in doubt. Voting irregularities and fraud render the results illegitimate, which explains lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and investigations launched by the Justice Department, and make ushering in a democratic transition of power out of the question.

As Republicans rally ’round an angry president in denial, recall Donald Trump’s leadership role in promulgating the birther theory, which sought to delegitimize the Obama presidency. With the cries of fraud in 2020, Republicans seek to delegitimze the Biden presidency before the transition has begun.

Oh, yeah, and then there’s the headline that suggests that because Biden and McConnell have long-standing ties, perhaps they’ll have a smooth working relationship beginning on January 20, 2021.

But, hold on! If you were, say, the Majority Leader of the United States Senate, would you be willing to work with a man put into office illegitimately, a usurper who cheated his way into the White House? Wouldn’t you be justified in obstructing that man at every turn? Wouldn’t your base expect that? (That’s what McConnell and Graham and Cruz and Barr and McCarthy and others are signalling to the base now, isn’t it? That they shouldn’t expect to see cooperation because the other side is illegitimate.)