If elections are rigged, fraudulent, and unreliable, then Americans will confer legitimacy another way.
Good news from Georgia.
COCID protocols gave cover and an excuse for Biden's "front porch" campaign. He spoke to a camera from the basement of his home in Wilmington, Delaware. His "events" were tiny, with people spread out at six-foot intervals. It gave thr impression that Biden lacked support from real voters. Below is a photo of a campaign event with steelworkers in Detroit.
The disparity in campaign crowds had an unexpected consequence, which emerged as Trump denied the validity of the 2020 election. There were few visible signals of Biden's support. Had there been images of huge lines of voters at Democratic strongholds, then even Fox News viewers might see the support. Instead, there were huge bins of mailed ballots that arrived without fanfare.
Yesterday's post noted Trump's costume plays with the trappings of being king. Monarchs are not always wise leaders, but they exist in human history because they can bring stability and order--at least on the issue of succession. Dictatorships and Strong-Man governments are proto-monarchies, formed the way the original European ones were, by support of enough people inside and outside the military. Then control is passed from father to son.
Trump found a weak spot in America's democracy. He attacked elections. Americans were ready to hear it. (Bernie Sanders' supporters did as well, after the Iowa caucuses in the 2020 election. How could that young gay twerp Buttigieg possibly do as well as our wonderful Bernie? Bernie himself did not sign on to the conspiracy, so it dropped out of sight.) Trump attacked the legitimacy of the Iowa caucus that Cruz won in 2015. He then attacked the 2016 November election. Trump posited a different confirmation of his legitimacy, the size of his rallies and then inauguration crowd. Don't believe the popular vote totals, he said. Those are corrupt. Millions of illegal aliens voted for Hillary. Trust instead the size of my crowds. Trump criticized the 2020 election, before, during, and after. It was rigged, he said. And now, in Pennsylvania, he urges his favored senatorial candidate simply to "declare victory" and stop counting votes.
Elections need not be overturned by crowds. It can be done under a veneer of Constitutional law. There is one Justice--and perhaps more--within the Supreme Court who takes the position that state legislatures--not state governments or the voters in a state--have plenary power to choose the electors. Even if a legislature establishes laws for voting in a state, and even if a state's constitution and its courts provide for a voting procedure, a state legislature has complete power to name presidential electors. They do not constrain themselves by earlier promises or laws. Clarence Thomas openly supports that position. His wife, Virginia Thomas, publicly urged the legislature in Arizona to exercise that presumed power, notwithstanding the Arizona election result, and to bring the issue to the Supreme Court.
Is this crazy? Not if elections aren't credible and legitimate. There are Republican majorities in the legislatures of swing states.
Election legitimacy is on its sickbed. Trump openly criticizes elections and most GOP officeholders mumble along in general assent. In Pennsylvania, the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate race is too close to call. The result may depend upon whether absentee ballots that were signed, but not dated, by the voter are legal ballots. The law in Pennsylvania said voters must put in the date beside their names. However, Pennsylvania courts have ruled that "immaterial" errors that do not bring into question voter intent do not disqualify a ballot. Issues like this make the whole election thing seem arbitrary to voters.
Amid this, there is good news. Last night we learned the results from Georgia. GOP voters re-nominated the three incumbent officeholders who oversaw the 2020 election, audited it, investigated it, and recounted it, and then certified it for Biden in the face of huge pressure. They didn't cave. GOP voters rewarded them.
Leadership conveyed by democratic process is not a sure thing, even in America. Legitimacy is fragile. If elections don't seem legitimate, alternative methods will take their place. Close elections, and flawed ones like the one taking place in Oregon's Clackamas County, give credence to those alternatives.
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6 comments:
This is why the Electoral Count Act needs to be reformed.
None of the many Big Liars alleging widespread voter fraud have been able to produce any evidence. To their True Believers, that’s all the evidence they need of a widespread cover-up. They’re impervious to facts. This is how Fuhrers take over, not by presenting a constructive agenda but by pitting people against each other.
Yesterday, someone commented that 60% of Republicans supporting Trump doesn't seem like much. The problem is that it’s enough to dominate the GOP, which still has the potential to dominate the nation. Remember, Trump was elected by only 27% of voters in 2016, and that’s all it took to have such a devastating effect on our environment, health, democracy and international standing. Don’t underestimate these people. As we saw on Jan. 6, when it comes to their lust for wealth and power, not even treason is beneath them.
For some reason the link in my previous post didn’t work.
Second try: link.
Maybe I missed it in previous blogs, but can we talk about how the system is really rigged?
States with small populations get 2 Senators. Then it usually requires 60 votes to pass legislation. So the Senate is double-rigged.
Also the Electoral College, under which the winner of the popular vote can be declared the Loser. If there is a tie in the Senate, the winner of the Electoral College (the VP) gets to cast the deciding vote.
I have not heard the former Occupant complaining about any of this.
We do not have a one person one vote system.
Senator Romney is ok with vote by mail in Utah. It is a fake problem.
And let's not forget that GWB captured the presidency by winning the Electoral College and losing the popular vote because of Florida, the state in which his brother Jeb was governor at the time.
The Founding Fathers did not implement a majority rule system. They rightly thought that such a system could easily devolve into mob rule. Instead, they implemented a republic with checks and balances and multiple levels of authority. States were given precedence over the federal government in many areas.
Within Oregon we have seen the rural areas dominated by the urban areas. Rural folks, whose interests and proclivities are often quite different from those of urban folks, consistently get rolled over and ignored. Rural economies are heedlessly destroyed to satisfy the concerns of urbanites. Majority rule in Oregon has been disastrous for the rural areas.
This is what would happen to the rural states If majority rule and “one person one vote” were implemented at the federal level. Doing this would require a constitutional amendment, and there is no way that enough of the rural states would consent to their own demise at the hands of the urban areas.
Both worlds can exist, one where it is understood that Biden is rightfully president while acknowledging various district level deficiencies. The assertion that no evidence exists is false; there exists plenty of evidence solidification is merited. Yes, affidavits are evidence under penalty of perjury.
If one must comment on what *could* have happened if the big evil Trump succeeded, then one acknowledges democratic elections are at risk. Should we not demand detailed accounting and ruthless accountability to make sure the public is protected? Both sides demand firmament; *moving forward* is our joint position.
From the Republican perspective it does feel as if Democrats act as if *any* voting crime is insignificant. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe they should have been allowed to vote under a different societal construct. However when a case of actual fraud is presented it is dismissed as rare or not significant. It is not "widespread" or "representative".
I know you acknowledged in a recent post that the risk of a felony should be enough to discourage vote crime, Peter, but I wish that was more public acknowledgement. If Democrats can *appear* to treat the handful of obvious vote crime cases as heinous and judicially necessitous as, say a garage/actor "noose" then they will attract a lot of right side voters. After all, protecting our democracy is putting the mask on ourselves before assisting other causes, right?
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