Battle Lines

Battle Lines

Republicans vs Over 60 Judicial Rulings in Support of the Election Results; 0 Against  

No Person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability.

Section Three, Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution

Representative Bill Pascrell (D, MD): Today [12/11] I’m calling on House leaders to refuse to seat any Members trying to 

overturn the election and make Donald Trump an unelected dictator. And later: The text of the 14th Amendment expressly forbids Members of Congress from engaging in rebellion against the United States,” he tweeted. “Trying to overturn a democratic election and install a dictator seems like a pretty clear example of that.”

 Citing the December 11th Supreme Court decision against Texas’ attempt to negate votes of several states where Joe Biden had prevailed. 

A large number of Republicans, including 126 members of the House of Representatives, signed amicus briefs in support of the Texas action.

A sizeable number of the judges who rejected Trump’s claims of widespread election fraud were appointed by Republican presidents, some by Trump himself, including three of the six conservative Supreme Court justices. That elected GOP representatives and officials feel justified to support Trump in his efforts to continue into a second term, immediately breaching their oaths of office to support the Constitution just to curry favor with the conspiracy-loving base, is terrifying. “According to a Quinnipiac University poll out this week [early December], 77% of Republicans believe there was widespread fraud in the November election and about 60% say they consider Biden's victory illegitimate.” Associated Press, December 12th. No one, and I do mean no one, has provided credible evidence of widespread voter fraud in the recent presidential election. They certainly have had the opportunity to do so.

On December 8th, the Arizona Republican Party went so far as to retweet “Stop the Steal” advocate Ali Akbar for saying “I am willing to give my life for this fight.” The party tweet even added: “He is. Are you?” in support of reversing the Arizona vote by force. On December 11th, “The head of the Texas Republican Party floated the threat of seceding from the U.S. in a tantrum over the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to bounce a baseless Texas election lawsuit…

“Texas GOP Chair Allen West said in a statement following the news that ‘perhaps’ it’s time for ‘law-abiding states to bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.’” Huffington Post, December 11th. Law-abiding, Mr West, is not negating ballots by decree.

European democracies, at least those without embedded strongmen, have fairly uniformly viewed the Trump years as an aberration, one that has significantly weakened American power and influence around the world. When the election ejected what they perceived was a wannabe autocrat, they were hopeful. Then the challenges to an obviously legitimate election shocked the Continent. While they were gratified that the American judicial system responded consistently against the Trump effort to usurp power, there were second thoughts, from Belgium to Germany and from the UK to France.

Europe had expected violence on election day; it did not happen. There was a Continental sigh of relief. But as Donald Trump continued to press a “stolen election,” having convinced his followers of a rigged vote without the slightest shred of evidence of any widespread election fraud, Trump rallies – super-spreader events – got violent. “[On December 12th, a] man was … shot in Olympia in Washington state during… confrontations between people protesting Trump’s loss and pandemic restrictions, and Black Lives Matter activists, NBC News reported. A suspect was in custody…

“At least four people were stabbed in confrontations late Saturday [12/12] at a rally supporting Donald Trump and protesting his loss in the presidential election in downtown Washington, D.C…  The stabbing victims in the nation’s capital were all hospitalized with critical injuries, according to D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department spokesperson Doug Buchanan, NBC reported… Two police officers were also hospitalized with ‘moderate’ injuries, according to The Washington Post, and an additional two participants suffered minor injuries, CNN reported.

“The injuries occurred amid fights between the white nationalist Proud Boys and counterprotesters. The victims were stabbed near Harry’s Bar, a [D.C.] ‘gathering place’ for the Proud Boys, the Post reported… It wasn’t immediately clear which group was responsible for the stabbings.” Huffington Post, December 13th. Was this the tip of the iceberg? Many around the world feared the worst. If a populist uprising, a true challenge to democracy itself, could happen in the United States, did that portend a global vulnerability for democracies everywhere? How could one man undermine free elections and representative government in what the world believed was the bastion of democracy?

“Trump’s latest actions have branded him ‘a saboteur’ in France, says English-born historian and author Andrew Hussey, a professor now based in Paris. ‘He’s regarded as trying to subvert the democratic process’ — a big deal in France, where the republic is rooted in that very ideal, which is regarded quite seriously.

“‘France is now looking at the United States with a mixture of glee and disgust,’ he says — with even right-wing parties, like Marine Le Pen’s National Rally, now distancing themselves from the current White House occupant whom they once cheered. Then again, admits Hussey, France ‘always has a love-hate relationship with America. They love American pop culture. But they look at the arrogance of someone like Trump and wonder how a so-called republic could allow one individual to wreck it — and sabotage its foreign and domestic policies.’ Recent editorials in French papers are quick to condemn Congress for not reining him in long ago — all the more given these past weeks of attacks on the American election results.

“The GOP’s complicity and outright support of Trump’s attacks is perhaps what most galls European thinkers. ‘That over 200 Republicans haven’t stood up and said anything is absolutely ridiculous,’ says political scientist Freudenstein. ‘It beggars belief that grown-up politicians can act like this.’” Yahoo! News, December 12th. Sure, there are a lot of Republicans who are equally aghast at the machinations of their brethren to unravel the core democracy that defines the United States, but exactly what are they going to do with those fellow members who believe that defying the Constitution is “law-abiding.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and Mr West might find support for Texas’ desire to secede from the union… in blue states like the entire West Coast and most of the East Coast from North Carolina up; this might augur badly for the United States to hold together at all.