The Democrats have 99 problems right now, with President Biden’s entire agenda in peril and the country on the verge of a debt default, so they don’t have the bandwidth to focus too much of their messaging on the coup attempt of January 6, 2021. The release of a memo from Claremont Institute senior fellow John C. Eastman has revealed the “legal” basis the Trump administration hoped to use on January 6 to steal the election. Some people are reasonably reacting with discussion of how the the Electoral Count Act of 1887 is too vague and should be strengthened to prevent future shenanigans. That’s a good idea, but a more urgent idea is not to treat this as some kind of legal argument but more like a seditious conspiracy involving many easily identifiable bad actors who should face something on the order of the Nuremberg Trials.
Eastman’s memo was taken very seriously, and Mike Pence reportedly sought to follow its roadmap to a coup until he was talked out of by former Vice-President Dan Quayle. The key fact is that the plan depended on simply not counting the votes from seven states that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris won. By doing so, the threshold for victory would be reduced from 270 Electoral College votes down to 228, and Trump would win by 232 votes to 222. If the Democrats complained about this, the election would be thrown to the House of Representatives where Trump could still prevail because the Republicans controlled the delegations in 26 states.
It’s not a defense that the plan was unlikely to work even if Pence initiated it. The mere expectation that Pence would initiate it caused the January 6 insurrection that resulted in several deaths, dozens of serious injuries, and millions of dollars in property damage, not to mention a mortal threat to our nation’s lawmakers.
I know that the House of Representatives has created an investigative committee that will be looking into everything that went into the January 6 insurrection, and that’s fine for what it’s worth. But this is still being treated as a hiccup rather than a betrayal on the scale of the South’s secession from the Union.
It’s critical that the country stand up for itself here and that begins by defining this as among the most serious and foul crimes ever committed in this country, and the perpetrators need to be treated as enemies of the state on a par with war criminals.
I know there is a lot of turmoil going on right now, and the whole of the Biden administration is simply trying to keep the ship from being torn apart against the rocks right now, but the total lack of movement and action on any of this, with the exception of the low hanging fruit, meaning all the MAGA’s stupid enough to livestream their actions and boast on social media, is keeping me awake at night. No one is even really talking about it. And every day that goes by gets us closer to the potential takeover of Congress by Republicans, at which time all of this just gets swept into the dustbin of history, and it’s pretty much a slam dunk that they get everything right next time, and democracy just dies. There has to be accountability. But I’m getting pretty damn scared that accountability is just not going to happen. The GOP is ramping up, with a hefty assist from Trump, to drown democracy in a bathtub. The stories coming out of the Woodward book should be the most fear inducing thing imaginable for anyone who cares at all about the country, regardless of Party. But it seems like all of this is just treated like a reality show, another version of Survivor, but the stakes are just off the charts. And here we are, seeming to just waddle along like it was just another political disagreement that is simply a part of the recipe of governance, the natural sturm und drang of our process.
What the actual fuck do people think is going to happen without accountability, when the GOP is back in power? I’m afraid we are going to find out, probably very soon, and everyone will just act shocked and surprised that one of our major parties wants, and is happily willing, to destroy the country. But hey, easy come-easy go, right? Hope there are some pieces left to pick up, once everything is said and done. Time will tell. Maybe Trump will toss us some paper towels to dry our tears.
233 years. We’ve had a good ride.
What gets me is that the most common reaction to Jan 6 that I see online by far is that the whole thing is just some hysterical joke, and that anyone who takes it as a sign of a serious threat is just hyperventilating.
And there is the crux of the matter. The dems are so fearful of not passing the $3.5 Trillion bill while Trump and his cronies are passing a plan to permanently take over the country. This scares the shit out of me. We may find out it is all over and what then will all the progressives say? And I count myself among the progressives but it is time we fixed the “big lie” once and for all and that may require us to go tell our make believe friends it really was a damn lie since you have nothing, nothing at all to prove it, just more lies. Lets direct our energy to fixing the country and ensuring Trump and his supporters can never again threaten us, then go after the $3.5 Trillion. For now take what you can get and let the rest go. Half a loaf or no loaf is better than the direction we are going. I don’t care for Manchin or Sinema but I will join them, and the blue dogs in whatever they want to help me fix our country first.
How does something like this get approached like Nuremberg in such a closely divided country? This would have been possible if Democrats had romped in the last election, which I was expecting. But the American public once again surprised me by the sheer weight of its ignorance and lack of critical thinking. So here we are, fighting a ceaseless rearguard action against a pathological 5th column.
What breaks my heart is that if Hillary had managed to pull off the win in 2016 we’d have a liberal Supreme Court, the first in 50 years. Then all things would have been possible. Gerrymander reform, campaign finance reform. Now, we’re looking at solid sociopathic (I won’t say conservative) majorities on the court for decades to come. Democrats lack the balls to play the political game the way Republicans do. There are too many systematic asymmetries. I’m not convinced democracy will survive.
Had HRC won in 2016 and all other things remained the same, the GOP House would’ve impeached her for Benghazi and McConnell would’ve refused a hearing for any of her SCOTUS appointments.
What happens when Trump and his enabling cronies (not smart guys, but sociopaths and criminals) once back in power start taking over significant corporate and public resources, similar to the way Putin has done in Russia? That’s Trump’s dream and his model for governance. Will our corporate overlords respond then, or will they simply ride the dragon? I feel like the powers that be in this country are sleepwalking their way into irrelevance.
What did the powers that be do with Hitler or just watch and fill their pockets with money. What do you expect Koch and friends to do? Personally I have little faith in the elite except for a few, but YMMV.