The titular winner of the 2021 Kentucky Derby may be disqualified after failing a post-race drug test, in which case the second-place horse will be awarded the title and prize money, but it doesn’t work that way in elections, National Review reminds its conservative readers.
Following up on a New York Times report, the magazine says here its sources confirm that “Donald Trump does indeed believe quite genuinely that he — along with former senators David Perdue and Martha McSally — will be ‘reinstated’ to office this summer after ‘audits’ of the 2020 elections in Arizona, Georgia, and a handful of other states have been completed.”
After cautioning it’s “absolutely not” true the 2020 election was stolen, the NR writer declares, “There is no Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. Hell, there is nothing even approximating a Reinstatement Clause within the United States Constitution. … That is not how America works, how America has ever worked, or how America can ever work. American politicians do not lose their reelection races only to be reinstalled later on, as might the second-place horse in a race whose winner was disqualified.” Which is true. For good measure, he adds, “The idea is otherworldly and obscene.”
It should be noted here there’s no basis for “disqualifying” Biden’s election victory. He did not win because “agents working for a combination of al-Qaeda, Venezuela, and George Soros had hacked into every single voting machine in the country and altered the totals by tens of millions” — the hypothetical scenario used by the NR writer to make his point. Biden won because more citizens voted for him. I mention this because the NR writer rather glaringly failed to do so.
In any case, he continues, “The scale of Trump’s delusion is quite startling. This is not merely an eccentric interpretation of the facts or an interesting foible, nor is it an irrelevant example of anguished post-presidency chatter. It is a rejection of reality, a rejection of law, and, ultimately, a rejection of the entire system of American government.” Which also is true (and the closest the NR writer ever come to admitting Biden legitimately won). By now it’s no secret that Trump is a totalitarian wannabe, and the GOP is anti-democracy.
Where National Review gets it wrong is by saying Trump is “delusional” and “living in a fantasy world” and “unmoored from reality.” What he and his followers want to do is throw out the Constitution and rule of law, and take over America by force.
That’s what we saw when armed rightwingers paraded with guns in state capitols (photo, left) and threatened governors, what we saw on January 6, 2021, when Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol, and what we heard last week when Mike Flynn told a QAnon crowd that a Myanmar-style military coup “should” happen here (video below).
That makes Trump, his supporters, and most of the GOP a clear and present danger.
Actually you are wrong here. The Senate and the House determine the elections, returns and qualifications of their members. It is possible for Perdue and McSally to be reinstated. It has happened with Senators and House members. In state races it has also happened that a politician has lost a reelection only to be reinstated. It is historical fact no matter how otherworldly and obscene you may find it.
As far as the Presidency probably not possible. Though Republicans can get a lot of hay. So even if it happens that it can be shown Biden lost probably nothing can be done, though a constitutional crises is possible. Biden would not be likely to offer to step down, and graciously allow Trump to regain the Presidency.
There are clear differences between the Clinton and Trump losses. If Trump had managed to get the election to be decided by the House he would likely be President. We are not a democracy, but a Republic, and the way we choose the President is not purely democratic and the loser can become President. Heck a dark horse can become President even if they won a single vote in the electoral collage. And a death of a Presidential contender would be a real monkey wrench in that time between voting and the Congress meeting. Guess a candidate could get all the electoral votes if only one has a pulse in January.
Of course comparing a horse race to a Presidential race is absurd as the stakes are totally different. Both can be accompanied with great gnashing of teeth and parties going to the courts.
You’re the one who’s mistaken. Once an election is certified, it’s over. The House and Senate have final say over seating their members, but when this involves election disputes, that occurs as part of the certification process, not afterward in contravention of it. There is no legal basis or historical precedent for what they and you are suggesting. More disturbing, though, is Republicans’ refusal to abide by the election results, despite having no factual basis to dispute those results. It’s not a given we’ll continue to be a democracy, but if democracy fails in our country, it’s also not a given the dictators will be Republicans. If we abandon our democratic norms and it becomes a raw power struggle, our rulers could be extremists of the left as easily as extremists of the right, but it’s certain they will be extremists.