Mitch McConnell could end this electoral fever dream. He just chooses not to.

Here’s one version of a joke you’ve probably already heard: If Democrats were really going to fix this election, you think they’d let Mitch McConnell get re-elected by 20 points?

Here’s what’s not so funny. There’s no fix and no fraud, at least according to all the Secretaries of State in the country; nonetheless our own newly re-elected McConnell is playing his regular political chess game by publicly giving in to President Trump’s temper tantrum to pretending the election could suddenly go Trump’s way.

It’s very, very scary, especially on social media, where the “C” word (coup) seems to be used distressingly often. But according to McConnell-land experts, we don’t need to panic.

“You have to parse his words very carefully,” says Kentucky’s former Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson, who wrote a New York Times editorial on Thursday defending the Georgia Secretary of State from other Republicans. “He isn’t saying the crazy stuff that some others are saying, he’s being very precise about the process playing out. At the end of the day, he understands math and reality.”

It’s true that McConnell walked a very thin line of supporting Trump in his fantasy land, without actually admitting there was fraud. McConnell can’t afford to antagonize his base by dismissing the president, especially not when his majority is in play with two Senate runoffs in Georgia.

But does that mean he will accede to math and reality on Dec. 8, the Safe Harbor deadline when states have to resolve election disputes, Dec. 14 when electoral votes are certified, or on Jan. 5, when the Senate special elections will be held? All those dates seem a long time away from now, with plenty of time for Trump voters to get angrier instead of getting used to the words: “President Biden.”

Josh Douglas, a law professor and election expert at the University of Kentucky, isn’t worried about the final outcome either, but he thinks the media needs to stop hyping fear. (Note to Josh: I would if I could but this still seems scary!)

“I think the media has an important role in not fanning the flame of the crazies, and providing important context that talk like this is anti-democratic, it’s not serious, and it leads people to think there’s something to it,” Douglas said.

Yes, the media needs to stay calm, but it doesn’t want to ignore the potential perils to democracy, a populace that fundamentally doesn’t believe our election system works or has integrity. McConnell could do the right thing, of course, be a statesman, the senior leader of his party and the country. But as I’ve written countless times before, he won’t. Because his hold on power is all that matters to him, and that power, for now, depends on two Georgia races.

Emily Bacchus is a UK political scientist who studies protest and elections in other countries, mostly the Caribbean, Her expertise has suddenly become relevant in the United States.

“On the one hand, it still seems there are enough institutional checks in place that ultimately whether McConnell wants to acknowledge Biden or not is probably irrelevant,” she said. “But what the Trump presidency has exposed is how much of our stability is based on norms rather than laws.”

McConnell knows better of course, but still chooses to play politics, as a pandemic rages and a presidential transition stalls.

“The problem with playing politics is that we know what keeps democracies stable and in place is an agreement among elites and citizens that democracy is the only acceptable form of government,” Bacchus said. “If you’re not strongly in support of our democratic institutions, there’s a risk of undermining them.”

It’s testament to McConnell’s power that he could quickly and easily end this uncertainty and stop the fever dream of Trump supporters who believe the election was stolen. McConnell’s words could provide shelter to fellow Republicans, and allow President-elect Biden to begin the crucial tasks of transition. He could be the statesman we need at this moment, instead of the craven politician we certainly do not.

This story was originally published November 12, 2020 at 2:05 PM.