A dry-run for someone much more competent and disciplined

On Sunday – before the Electoral College votes that happened Monday – Hunter of Daily Kos wrote that the GOP isn’t done contesting the election and may do something during the voting.

It would be yet another bit of propaganda aimed at publicly discrediting the new non-Republican leader, a stepping-stone and commitment to upcoming declarations that the new administration is not only their ideological enemy, but illegitimate. House Republicans intend it as a furtherance of the grand hoax—the proclamation that because the Republican did not win, the votes themselves are illegitimate. It is the hallmark of many collapsing democracies. At some point, the authoritarian faction declares that elections are too corrupt to truly reflect the will of the nation, and so the faction leaders will themselves interpret the will of the nation. Those that object are punished. In this particular case, however, (most) House Republicans do not sincerely intend to win. But neither would they feel chagrined if their actions further provoked the sort of far-right violence seen in Washington, D.C., this weekend—the very public suggestion that non-Republican rule can simply no longer be tolerated by the unwashed masses, and that their non-Republican opponents should begin contemplating their own safety if they intend to continue thwarting Republican demands. That is the goal behind nearly all of this nonsense: to delegitimize; to put the stochastic notion in public heads that if The Base suffers a setback in its ambitions, it can only be because The Base was conspired against. It was conspired against by the urban, and the globalists, and the socialists.

William Rivers Pitt, writing for Truthout, agreed with Rep. Bill Pascrell that the 126 GOP representatives who signed on to the Supreme Court case calling for the overthrow of elections in four states should not be seated in the new Congress in January. Pitt called on Speaker Nancy to do just that, though he’s certain she won’t.

Yet I believe move, she must. A Rubicon has been crossed in the politics of this nation, and there must be a reckoning. … If something like “normal” is ever to rise again, it can only come after the country opens itself up to an unsparing self-appraisal, and then commits to steps to shore up the broken places left behind in Trump’s wake. Oh, right, and refuse to seat the Traitorous 126, right down to the last Republican on the list. The GOP has become an authoritarian policy-free wrecking ball in a time when good government can make the difference between life and massive death. We have already had the latter; it is time for the former to have its day, and that day cannot come without consequences for those who would afflict this nation with ham-fisted tyranny.

On to the actual Electoral College vote yesterday. Hunter of Kos reported the Michigan Capitol was closed for the day. No visitors, and even staffers were told to stay home. The police would only say the closure was due to security concerns because of credible threats that have been made while Michigan’s electors meet. Thankfully, there was no violence at Michigan’s Capitol, or at any other Capitol while electors were meeting. No electors switched their votes. There was no last-minute anything. The event was as boring as it usually is, though this year with a lot more scrutiny. As the popular vote per state had indicated a month ago Joe Biden got 306 Electoral votes, well above the 270 needed to win. Mark Sumner of Kos reported that some GOP lawmakers were still holding out. He wrote:

Lindsey Graham declared that there was now “a very, very narrow path” for Trump to keep his feet on the Resolute Desk. … things were getting tough for Trump.

Alas, conservative media didn’t mention the EC voting at all. Today, finally, a day after the EC vote and hours after Vladimir Putin sent congratulations, Moscow Mitch admitted that Joe Biden won. Nick Visser of Michigan Advance reported Rep. Paul Mitchell from Michigan has disaffiliated from the Republican Party. His reason:

It is unacceptable for political candidates to treat our election system as though we are a third-world nation and incite distrust of something so basic as the sanctity of our vote.

Visser quoted Mitchell:

“As I saw that amicus brief, as well as discussions over the week in the national media, it became clear to me that I could no longer be associated with the Republican Party” after leadership failed to “stand up and say that the process, the election is over,” he told CNN. “I’ve had enough.”

This action is largely symbolic. Mitchell retires at the end of this month. Until then he’ll be listed as independent. Sarah Kendzior tweeted:

I have lost track of the times in this attempted coup where I've speculated on what they'll do next or simply described what they're doing now and heard "But they can't do that; it's against the law!" Yes. That is why it is a coup. A coup is, by definition, against the law. A coup is *against* the law -- not just illegal, but against the belief that established legal documents and legal precedent hold value over their own attempted power grab. When a coup is successful, they rewrite the law so that they are no longer breaking it. There is nothing that they will not try because it is "against the law", because power trumps law in their view (so to speak) and because -- most importantly -- there have been few to no repercussions for their prior crimes committed in plain sight both in office and before. Elite criminal impunity is the enemy. It was an enemy that needed to be vanquished early. The refusal of officials to enforce accountability opened the door to an attempted coup. If their attempted coup fails, continued refusal to hold them accountable will guarantee their return.

Jared Yates Sexton tweeted:

Let's be clear. The Supreme Court didn't dismiss the case because they're too dedicated to justice. Just like the GOP, they've done a calculation and know it's not worth the political capital. If this was closer or a possibility, both would hand this country over on a platter. This whole grift/coup has been a dry-run for someone much more competent and disciplined than Trump. The Right has shown a drooling willingness to support fascistic maneuvers and blatant authoritarianism. No election will ever be safe with these people.

And in another thread:

Love that the President of the United States has been attempting to carry out a coup with the help of the GOP, who’s flirting with secession, and there are still people on here talking about how there was never really danger and everything is just totally, totally fine. … We’ve been in incredible danger for years now and it’s only getting worse. Trump isn’t going to stop, his cultists are growing more radicalized by the day, and the Right has more economic and political incentive to further embrace fascism. This is just beginning.

Dartagnan of the Kos community discussed the damage the GOP is doing:

It’s a fundamental principle that American democracy is dependent on fealty to the rule of law, but it’s less acknowledged that the “rule of law” itself is also dependent on something called “truth.” ... In effect, they asked our legal system, over and over, to agree that 2+2=5, that A=B, that fraud should be assumed and investigated where none could possibly exist. Trump’s team demanded that zero credible evidence should nonetheless lead to a drastic result in their favor, a result that would repudiate the entirety of our democratic-based system of government. In other words, they’ve repeatedly asked the courts to discard truth. ... Trump’s vehicle to this goal was to abuse the legal system, something he’s done all his life. It was a narrative that the whole Republican Party would end up buying into: that truth didn’t matter anymore. It was the story they were selling to the 70 million or so Trump voters that mattered. And they counted on their credulous base, snug in its information bubble, to accept exactly what they were being told. ... The Trump campaign knew that if it could persuade a single federal or state appellate judge that 2+2 did in fact equal 5, they would have elevated this disregard of truth to a level of respectability which it desperately wants to achieve. They didn’t initiate over 50 meritless lawsuits because they were expecting to win, but because they wanted to game the system in the future. They wanted to work the refs to see what could be achieved in warping truth to their own ends. They know that the inroads already made with our legislative branch of government will only inspire further attempts to co-opt the judiciary... And they know that if the judiciary succumbs to the abandonment of facts, the final arbiter of truth in this country all but disappears.

RETIII of the Kos community discussed again that we must describe the GOP as being against democracy. This post starts with a list of the major anti-democracy things the GOP has been doing, going back to January 2015 when the Senate stopped confirming judges nominated by President Obama. The list is long. Then on to: How do we stop it? A first step is our country, politics, and media rediscover how to label, report, and resist what is happening. That means don’t invite the conspirators on to a program for a polite interview. Have a panel of historians and civic leaders discuss what is going on. It means consistent front page reporting. It means don’t report on “horse race” politics. And it means the Democrats should be fighting this openly and constantly. Laura Clawson of Kos reported on Monday morning that on Sunday the Proud Boys, an organization designated as a hate group, held a rally in Washington DC on Sunday. They ripped Black Lives Matter banners off churches and burned them. And, after a while, there was violence against counterprotesters with at least four people stabbed. Zoé tweeted:

Every journalist covering the DC Proud Boy gathering and neglecting to mention they ripped and burned a BLM banner that was on a *black church* — an AME church — isn’t doing their job particularly well given the specific history of arson, vandalism, bombing, etc. of those sites. … What is the point of coverage of Proud Boy activity if you’re just going to chase after them with cameras and document their moves without properly contextualizing their actions and/as organizational goals? Are we simply supposed to be thankful the footage exists? The massacre at Emanuel AME in Charleston was *only* five and a half years ago.

Lauren Floyd of Kos reported that many of the counterprotesters expressed annoyance that the cops, there to keep the two groups apart, did very little when the Proud Boys turned violent. Floyd included videos of the rally – including pulling down the banners – and some of the violence between the groups (this is not a recommendation that you actually watch it). David Neiwert of Kos reported on another protest, this one in Olympia, Washington. Again, there was violence as the Proud Boys got close to counterprotesters. There was one shooting. There was also an explosive device that was lit and thrown, but failed to detonate. If it had, there could have been significant injury. Kerry Eleveld of Kos reported beyond these scenes of violence there are rallies and protests targeting public officials. There have been incidents in Georgia and Michigan. There have also been threats, showing various officials with targets on them with violence encouraged by cable news, social media, and the nasty guy. Eleveld wrote:

Following the spate of violent threats, the question becomes who will even want to serve in these positions anymore?

Are we facing an America that is ungovernable because no one wants to risk filling government positions?