American history has never see a spectacle like this, and hopefully never will again.
It’s over. The electoral votes have been signed, sealed, and delivered, and there’s nothing left except reading them. Everyone knows the results; who each elector voted for isn’t secret. Biden will get 306 electoral votes on January 6.
Trump is incredibly ignorant about how the process works. For example, he thinks that because the Vice President, as the president of the Senate, presides over the formal reading of the electoral votes, that official can accept or reject the results. No sane person could possibly believe the Constitution gives anyone an arbitrary power to disregard the voting decisions of 175 million Americans in a system of government based on the idea that power belongs to the people and this is a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”
(For the record, U.S. Const. Art. II, §1 (read it here), makes clear the Vice President’s role in this process is that of a clerk:
“The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted. The Person having the greatest Number of Votes shall be the President,” … etc.,
with identical language in the 12th Amendment (read it here). Nothing in this wording remotely suggests he has authority to decide which electoral votes will count; and 3 U.S.C. Sec. 15 (read it here), by specifying a process to object to electoral votes, makes it clear he does not.)
Unlike Trump, the lawyers carrying his water — and peddling crazy conspiracy theories — can’t plausibly plead ignorance. They may be insane — that’s undetermined — but more likely they’re doing what lawyers do: Arguing their client’s case. In that the client is bonkers, inevitably the arguments are, too.
Lawyers have a lot of latitude to get creative with their arguments, but that’s not limitless. Some of them are about to be sued by the innocent companies and people they’ve defamed with allegations that can only be described as bizarre (read about that here and here).
After news reports surfaced last week that one of those lawyers, Sidney Powell (photo, above left), who previously was kicked out of Trump’s campaign because her views were too extreme (by their standards!), together with pardoned criminal Michael Flynn, were in the White House discussing martial law to overthrow the election, senior White House staff apparently had enough or have begun thinking about their own self-preservation (I’d guess the latter, lacking any evidence these people ever had principles or scruples).
“By Saturday morning, Powell says, the president’s most senior aides had declined to give her a Secret Service-issued pass to come and go from the West Wing,”
Newsweek reported on Thursday, December 24, 2020 (read story here).
“‘I’ve been blocked from speaking to or communicating with the president since I left the Oval Office on Friday night,’ she says, ‘by apparently everyone around him.'”
About time. No, long past time. When you have people meeting in the White House to plot a military coup, well, they shouldn’t be in the building — although you possibly can make a case for their presence in a different kind of federal facility (see photo at right). Meanwhile, back at the ranch,
“White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany declined to comment on the record about whether any senior officials, including Chief of Staff Mark R. Meadows, National Security Advisor Robert C. O’Brien and White House Counsel Pat A. Cipollone, have intervened to keep Powell out of the White House,”
Newsweek continued,
“Trump said Tuesday … he would ‘pursue every legal and constitutional option available to stop the theft of the presidential election.'”
Let’s recap: The election wasn’t stolen. This was litigated in dozens of lawsuits, all of which Trump and the Republicans lost, mostly because they had no evidence backing their allegations of election fraud. At this point, with the election certified in all the states, and the electoral votes signed and submitted, all the legal and constitutional options have been exhausted, except for the objections to electoral votes by Republicans in Congress that will be voted down; so there’s nothing Trump can legally do to overturn the election. Before I explore the illegal efforts he might undertake, let me digress a moment.
It’s deeply disturbing that something like 129 GOP congressmen — a large majority of the GOP House caucus — supported throwing out the election simply because their party’s candidate lost. The same goes for the meritless objections they plan to raise on January 6, and their avowed intention of gumming up the constitutional process by debating — nothing. There’s nothing wrong with Biden’s 306 electoral votes, so there’s nothing to debate.
But what’s even more disturbing is this tactic won’t work only because Democrats hold a House majority, and that only narrowly. Does anyone doubt that congressional Republicans have become so partisan and mercenary that they would overturn the election — and overthrow our democracy and turn our country into a banana republic in the process — if they could? Of course they would. Will future presidential elections by decided, not by America’s citizen-voters, but by which party controls Congress? It’s a distinct possibility.
But the fact it won’t work this time isn’t even the end of it. As mentioned above, Powell and Flynn have been going to the White House promoting a scheme to use the military to seize the voting machines and “rerun” the election in key swing states that Trump lost. Make no mistake what that means: This time, black people won’t be allowed to vote.
As I wrote here, when Republicans talk about “election fraud” and “fraudulent votes,” they’re referring to black people voting and black votes. When they want to “redo” an election (here), they want to redo it without black voters and their votes. Otherwise, why bother? Unless black voters are excluded, the result will be the same.
It’s important to understand why Republicans are so fired up about losing this election. To them, it’s White Supremacy’s last stand. In their minds, preserving white dominion, and the dominance of white culture, is on the line, given America’s changing demographics. This is also the motivation behind their “secession” and “civil war” talk, and their irrational hatred of the Black Lives Matter movement, which only wants white people (cops in particular) to stop murdering black people.
So, what could Trump and his allies do in the 2 weeks between the formal counting of electoral votes (January 6), which closes the door on the last constitutional and legal avenue of overturning the election, and Biden’s formal inauguration (January 20)?
They’re not asleep over at the Pentagon. Newsweek says (here),
“Pentagon and Washington-area military leaders are on red alert, wary of what President Donald Trump might do in his remaining days in office.”
Well, that’s comforting, isn’t it?
“… [R]anking officers have discussed what they would do if the president declared martial law. And military commands responsible for Washington DC are engaged in secret contingency planning …. According to one officer who spoke to Newsweek on condition of anonymity, the planning is being kept out of sight of the White House and Trump loyalists in the Pentagon ….
“‘I’ve been associated with the military for over 40 years and I’ve never seen the discussions that are being had right now, [or] the need for such discussions,’ says a retired flag officer, currently a defense contractor who has mentored and advised his service’s senior leaders. … [Other] officers … willing to speak about the subject … feared that publicly stated opposition to the president’s scheme to … proclaim martial law, to seize voting machines, or even to halt Congress from ratifying state elector’s results on January 6—could actually embolden Donald Trump to act. ‘At this point there’s no telling what the president might do in the next month,’ says a former … commander … involved in the … planning. …
“In years of writing on this subject, I have never heard so many officers—active and retired—willing to talk openly about the need … to refuse to follow unlawful orders …. ‘[W]e’ve never had the real thing, never someone who occupied the White House who conducted themselves anything like President Trump.'”
That’s what they’re talking about in the Pentagon.
Enjoy your Christmas, and hope nothing happens. There’s only 27 days to go. Meanwhile, it’s nice to know at least some of Trump’s White House staff are trying to keep the worst of these people away from him.
Awhile ago Democrats were railing about the state of the US Postal System. The post office delivers the electors votes once each governor mails out the elector’s decision to various officials. Do you think the post office can manage doing this delivering and that the proper votes are in the two wood boxes the VP will open and read out results of the electors. The votes of millions of America don’t matter it is the votes from the electors that count. There are going to be some fireworks in Congress that can disregard the votes of millions of Americans. Not that the college represents all those votes, since winner takes all in all states but two millions of American votes are in fact disregarded in every Federal election.
At least one Democratic contender for a House seat is going to be thrown under the bus by Democrats. There is an altar to our election officials and county clerks being of angel like morality and ethics. No Democratic or Republican county clerks are dirty. None aren’t we a wonderful country and all our children are above average and our women strong and all the men wise.
Get your facts straight. A while ago Trump was sabotaging the mail service to keep people from voting. Everyone’s vote matters, but there are winners and losers. Democrats aren’t throwing anyone “under the bus,” they’re respecting the election outcome, something Republicans don’t know how to do. Our elections aren’t perfect, but the alternatives are less perfect, and what Trump wants — heads he wins, tails he wins; and a government that exists only to serve him — is the last thing you should want. Some people, though, are stupid enough to want it.