I think most of us knew that Donald Trump had no respect for democracy or the Constitution. So, it should come as no surprise that he’s lying, and lying, and lying again to claim he prevailed in the election that President-elect Joe Biden won decisively, fair and square. What no one knew for certain was whether the Republican Party would once again genuflect before Trump’s corruption and his indifference to the fate of our republican institutions. Some of us suspected they would, though I’d hoped they’d all have jumped ship by now. Sadly, the Republican Party has turned out to be as despicably ready to validate Trump’s falsehoods and authoritarian behavior as their worst critics feared. With precious few exceptions, Republican leaders have been quite happy to be complicit in Trump’s subversion. It’s absurd enough that managing Trump’s illusion that he didn’t lose is of such all-consuming importance in some quarters that we must endure even the possibility of extensive civic and governmental damage, all so that it can be slowly put out of its misery. That’s what we’ve come to, but it won’t be for much longer.
If it weren’t for Republicans trying to destroy the democratic ideals of the Constitution, all of this would be a comedy of errors, a satirical political movie filled with the absurd. But it’s very much real. When news broke last Saturday that Trump’s reign of terror was ending, the president was on a golf course that he owns in Virginia, playing his final round as a non-loser. In Washington, about 125 of his worshipful supporters gathered on the stoop of the Supreme Court to “stop the steal,” then circled the U.S. Capitol seven times, because that’s how the Israelites conquered Jericho, according to the Book of Joshua. And a pair of Trump’s most loyal surrogates made a defiant stand on the gravelly backside of a landscaping business (Four Seasons Total Landscaping that was likely mistakenly booked by the Trump campaign thinking it was the Four Seasons hotel). However, this Four Seasons is in an industrial stretch of Northeast Philadelphia, near a crematorium and an adult-video store called Fantasy Island, along State Road, which leads — as being associated with Trump sometimes does — to a prison. Trump’s campaign began on a golden escalator and ended in a dingy parking lot between a porn shop and a crematorium.
Republicans are backing Trump’s childish claims to make sure his voters in Georgia turn out for two Republican senators in the January 5 runoff election. For the next month and a half, Georgia is going to get nasty. The Republicans have already started their subversion of democracy. In Georgia, two GOP senators called on the state’s Republican secretary of state to resign, alleging irregularities and mismanagement without offering evidence. Only four of 53 Senate Republicans have congratulated Biden on his projected victory. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin recently told reporters, “there’s nothing to congratulate [Biden] about,” while Missouri’s Roy Blunt said the president “may not have been defeated at all.” It’s the latest sign of the Republican Party destabilizing our democratic ideals and practices. The journey towards authoritarianism predates the Trump administration, but Trump has accelerated these efforts. Now, according to data released by an international team of political scientists just before the November 3 election, we know it’s possible to quantify the extent to which the Republican Party no longer adheres to principles of democracy, the rule of law, and their commitment to free and fair elections. Under Trump, they have abandoned respectful treatment of political opponents and the avoidance of violent rhetoric. The Republican Party under Trumpism is dangerously close to fascism.
Over the last few years, the willingness of many American voters to elect any clown with an R beside his or her name on a ballot, especially in my home state of Alabama and other solidly red states, has considerably dumbed down the already scarce pool of competent conservative candidates. But what I suspect is happening here is that this is merely another in a long line of absurd pandering from Republicans, hoping that fluff over substance will again win the day. When will Republicans in this country get tired of the constant bickering and nastiness? Many Democrats already have. Now, we are about to have a Democratic president who is agreeable to many people, especially blue-collar workers, because he’s promising to tone down the hatefulness and hostility, restore respect and decency to the White House, and be a president to all of America. Decency doesn’t keep the “oh my God, the liberal president is going to …” money rolling in.
Biden will very likely be a very popular president, even in very red places. It is clear to most voters that Biden won’t run for re-election so that he won’t be beholden to anyone. Republicans need a way to make Americans hate him. There’s a new day coming to America. There’s a chance for people to stop this insanity and put an end to the mind-numbing idiocy that has thrived in this country. We’re never going to agree on everything. Conservatives are still going to be conservative. Progressives are still going to be progressives. Moderates will still sway one way or another. But, hopefully, we can all agree that these sorts of stunts — in which elected officials blatantly lie and play upon phony emotion to sow division and anger — are intolerable. Because if these Trumpists are willing to lie to you about something as important and as sacred in this country as the election process, if they’re willing to undermine democracy and raise bogus questions about our elections, what won’t they lie about? What lie won’t they tell you to get your vote or your money? We all deserve better than this. And we should all demand it.
You got to know when to hold 'em,There are words of wisdom there for Donald Trump. He’s holding onto a hand that he’s going to lose. He needs to fold and walk away. A lot of Trump’s resistance is his overinflated ego, but I suspect he’s also scared. His creditors are about to call in his millions of dollars in debt. Four hundred million of which is about to come due, but Forbes estimates that he has a total debt of $1 billion.
Know when to fold 'em,
Know when to walk away,
And know when to run.
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Clifford Berryman's cartoon depiction of Debs' 1920 presidential run from prison |
5 comments:
I had hoped that the court cases would provide a "cooling off period," when Trump and his followers could adjust to the idea (and fact) that he lost. It doesn't hurt if people say, "He's got a right to go to court." But when they join him in insisting that he really won if just the legal votes are counted, that implies that when the courts decide against him, their decisions are illegitimate. We'll end up with millions of people convinced that the election ws stolen. These millions are not going to believe Republicans who tell them otherwise, whether they do it now, or later. They'll only listen to Trump and anyone who agrees with him.
At this point, the only positive thing I see is the few Republicans who are saying Biden is President-elect (like the governors of our states and a few senators) and those who are saying that Biden should begin to get the daily intelligence briefings.
naturgesetz, one of the things I see as most disturbing and subversive is the insistence that courts should decide elections. I could understand if a state had a really corrupt and partisan Secretary of State, but the only states with those seem to be red states like Alabama, where Merrill is a colossal idiot. The problem is that these Secretaries of State are following their state’s laws. Voters determine elections not courts, and while Bush set a bad example in 2000 (not a precedent because even SCOTUS said their decision in Bush v. Gore was not to be used as precedent), Trump is setting a bad precedent for future American dictator wannabes. He’s also sowing seeds of distrust and chaos, which you’re right that it will cause millions to believe the election was illegitimate and fraudulent.
The whole democratic countries are watching as USA are dealing or more struggling to get throuhg this «historical» election.
The «Greatest Democracy on Earth» is no more at the hight of its reputation and Repubilcans are showing their real faces and are acting like «sluts» kneeling in front of their leader in the White House.
They now fear like sissies of losing the majority in the Senate as Gorgia's election will seal the outcome in January. Hope the Democrates will take the lead of the Senate and allow Biden to pass his laws and finally put in place politics to real help USA to get out of its shitty position DJT had put in place.
It's so outrageous and scandalous to have this kind of outcome of an election is a country where democratic history was, before, an example to the rest of the world.
I don't think "courts should decide elections." That's what voters do. But even the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is not above the law or infallible. If someone complains about one of her decisions or those of any other election official, the way to decide if the decision was right or wrong is to take it to court. The court will decide whether it was legal to count those late-arriving ballots, etc. Or the court may decide that the ballots in question are too few in number to affect the outcome so there's no pint in wasting time on it. The courts don't decide the election; they make sure the law was followed.
Naturgesetz, while I am not disagreeing with you. If there is a problem, then yes, it should go to the courts to decide. The problem with Trump's lawsuits is that they are all frivolous. No evidence is being presented, and judges are dismissing them left and right. Reputable law firms are refusing to even represent the Trump campaign because there is nothing to represent. These lawyers are not going to allow themselves to be sanctioned for filing a lawsuit that wastes the court's time. All these lawsuits are is a delay tactic to soothe the feelings of Trump. They are baseless and a waste of time and money.
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