Have They No Shame?

What can one say to the news that twelve Republican Senators now plan to contest the electoral college vote in various states.   Unfortunately, the only realistic things is to face the facts and say that there is little hope of our country returning to any semblance of political normalcy in the coming years. 

Despite all the audits, recounts, court cases, and Barr's Department of Justice finding that there was no widespread fraud.   Despite the President's allies not coming up with a shred of evidence to back any of their claims.   Despite this, 12 Senators plan to back this travesty. 

One of the latest reasons given for their positions is that polls show that a large percentage of Republicans think that the election was rigged.   And that mere thought, which originates with the President's baseless claims and a chorus of right-wing pundits, is felt by these Senators to justify not accepting the election results and calling for yet another audit. 

Since their announcement, The Washington Post  revealed that a Trump conversation this past Saturday with the Georgia Secretary of State was taped.   In that conversation he asked that the Secretary "find" 11,780 votes.   He also repeated various conspiracy theories to which the Secretary said they've all been shown to be false.   He said to Trump that the problem is that he is looking at data which is not valid.

This is probably the most shameful moment in American politics.   Even more shameful than the McCarthy hearings.   Winning the two Georgia Senate races becomes even more critical now for President-elect Biden presidency. 

There is increasing talk of the need to impeach Trump again and this time convict him.   Even though he will no longer be in office, this is critically important because it will show that a President is not above the law and that he will be made to account for his actions, even if no longer in office.   It will also remove all future emoluments of having been President from Trump and prevent him from running for President again in the future. 

Yes, this will enrage his supporters.   But they are enraged anyway.   And this is necessary for the health of our democracy. 

And by the way, that commission that Republican Senators wanted to establish to do a 10-day audit of contested states.   That should be established by the new Congress to show once and for all that there was no fraud and that Biden is the legitimate President. 

What Will Happen When Trump's Defeat Becomes Final?

During the election, there were times when I shuddered in fear.   I read of roving gangs, for that's what they were, of Trump supporters in cars and trucks stopping traffic on the Garden State Parkway, the Mario Cuomo bridge over the Hudson, various highways crisscrossing the New York City region, and trying to force a Biden-Harris campaign bus off an interstate highway in Texas. 

It reminded me of dark scenes from the movie "Mad Max."  Of roving gangs of hoodlums terrorizing ordinary people in the desolate post-apocalyptic world with their brute power. 

I wondered will this ultimately be the legacy of Donald Trump's presidency?  Even if a small percentage of Trump supporters would be of a mind to engage in such activity, the result would be, as Trump prophesied, bedlam.   It would severely damage our democracy. 

Now as the final denouement of Trump's defeat gets ever closer and his options to reverse the will of the people disappear, he has not changed his tune.   He continues to say that he won by a landslide and that if just some wise people would have the courage to acknowledge the facts, meaning the Supreme Court, he would win.   His latest argument is that the fraud can't be seen because local officials loosened the process so that the fraud was not discoverable. 

Meanwhile, his base of supporters is getting ever-more angry.   Threats are being received by officials, Republican and Democrat alike.   In Arizona, the Republican Party is trashing it's own leaders, the governor and the speaker of the House, for telling the facts of Trump's defeat like it is.   The same is happening in Georgia.   The Arizona Republican Party even sent out a call for people to die fighting for the cause.   Republican officials across the country, even attorney generals, not just his voter base, continue to support Trump's baseless claims. 

Now Trump is trying to get Republicans in Congress to agree to not accept the vote of the electoral college.   His last chance, on January 6.  Senator McConnell after finally acknowledging Biden as President-Elect has urged his Senate colleagues not to join the effort.

What happens when the last nail is driven in the coffin?   When there is no escape for Trump and his supporters from his defeat?

There was an op-ed piece in The New York Times after the election saying that the most dangerous time of our history, for our democracy, will be in the coming weeks.   And I think the writer was right.   

Who will be able to quiet the Trumpist masses when Trump goes down flailing?  It's beyond hope that the Trump loyalist pundits will take a positive role at long last.    And his followers have no use for past Republican leaders, so their words will be useless.   

Some leaders of the Evangelical church might make a difference if they told their followers, Trump supporters, that regardless how aggrieved they feel, that the results of the election must be respected, that law and order must be kept, that they should harm no one in their grief.   Will organized religion finally rise to the occasion, or will it once again fail out of the human weakness of its leaders?

I do not believe in the God of our forefathers, in the God of the Old Testament, but at this moment, I pray to that God that he protect our country from this dark eventuality.   (For clarification, I do believe in the God that is the divine essence that is within each of us; yes, including Trump supporters.   Unfortunately, most people are unaware of and unconnected with their divine essence.)