This Is Who They Are

 

Featured guest at last week’s pro-Trump, “Stop the Steal,” Proud Boils rally in D.C., Reich-wing radio hero Alex Jones had this to say: “We will never back down to the satanic pedophile globalist new world order and their walking-dead reanimated corpse Joe Biden. And we will never recognize him. So I don’t know who’s going to the White House in 38 days, but I sure know this: Joe Biden is a globalist, and Joe Biden will be removed one way or another.”

“One way or another.” Subtle as an NDA for a prostitute. And the armed and strutting delusionists cheered. After hearing much the same from Mike “I beg your pardon” Flynn, Trump’s first-born National Security Adviser and current Qanon acolyte (only the best people), the engorged deplorables roved through D.C., burning BLM flags and other displays from Black churches. “Very fine people,” Trump once called them. “Stand back and stand by,” he’d signaled. For this moment, evidently.

It’d be wrong to suggest that everyone who buys into or remains silent about Trump’s flagrant election-fraud mendacity approves of those dishonorable, democracy-hating discards. But their acquiescence empowers and allows what’s left of the Republican Party to become synonymous with them. And if acquiescence is empowering, what of the majority of House Republicans, including Kevin “no relation but you’d never know it” McCarthy, who signed onto Texas A.G. Paxton’s seditious attempt to overturn the results of a free and fair election? They may as well have been wearing “Make America Colonial Again” hats.

Under investigation for various crimes, Paxton justified his pardon-pandering performance, thus: “[there] are legitimately good constitutional arguments that don't depend on actually proving every little instance of fraud." Right. “Every little instance.” No need to prove it. Say it enough, and they’ll believe. In fact, sixty-some lawsuits later, not a single instance has been proved. Irrelevant. (Okay, there was one: a Republican submitted a ballot from his dead mother.)

Undead lies notwithstanding, Biden’s win is now official. Not because of the Electoral College, mind you, but because Moscow Mitch McConnell, who congratulated Trump one day after the 2016 election but waited six weeks this time around, finally did so for President-Elect Biden, incurring Trump’s wrath. Mitch waited for Vladimir Putin, whose man in Washington lost, but who’s happy, at least, that Trump “burned the US” on his way out. 

Swindled Trumpists continue plying him with millions upon millions for his personal use. And because it’s who he is and what he does, he’s keeping the money he’s “raising” for the Georgia runoff, too. Grifters gotta grift. Suckers gotta suck. 

History reminds us that when Trump lost the popular vote by three million in 2016, he empaneled a commission, headed by world-class vote-suppressor Chris Kobach, to prove there were that many fraudulent votes. Many months and much money later, they found nothing. And we recall how, during the impeachment, Republicans’ mantra was “Let the voters decide in November.” Had too much faith in their ability to suppress opposition voters, evidently, or to carry out their own fraud. In any case, it should be obvious by now that voter fraud, massive enough to turn an election, no longer exists in the US, if it ever did. Even Bill “I’ll sign it, don’t fire me” Barr said so. 

Seeing how uninformed the average American is about how our government works, or about science, or how to separate fact from fiction, one may wonder what is the level of such ignorance at which an open society fails. Put another way, what’s the minimum number of smart people required to keep it afloat? And since it’s immigrant kids who seem to be winning the prizes lately, how much less likely does Trumpic xenophobia make it?

The flipside is this: how many of the aforementioned, hate-infused, reality-denying marauders does it take to destroy a democracy? They get the headlines, but how many are there, really? Not enough, surely, to threaten a literal coup. But between them and the millions who still believe the election was stolen, the system is on the brink. Absent trust in the process, there is no process. Evidently, Trump and his enablers and excusers believe eliminating that trust is in their personal interest. Robbing us of a viable future, though, it’s in the interest of no one else.

Soon we’ll learn if it’s possible to reestablish trust and, more critically, whether the Republican Party will divest itself of anti-democratic, reality-rejecting Trumpism and return to the table where they once belonged. So far, it’s not looking good.

They've Gone Coup-Coup

Science confirms consistent neurophysiological and psychological differences between conservatives and liberals. How they react to threats. Their reliance on the observable and their response to presented facts. Evolutionary biologists have theories, but it’s intuitive that, in addition to rationalists, primitive societies benefitted from people who don’t need no damn proof to react to perceived threats. Noises. Shadows. Gut feelings. It could avoid becoming a meal.

Who knows why such brains remain in circulation? Individuals are safer now. More often than not, there’s time to think, evaluate. Threats from saber-tooth tigers (or, if you believe certain preachers, dinosaurs) are uncommon. Yet, having out-survived their benefit to society, such paranoid, no-need-for-facts people persist. Mysteriously, these evolutionary throwbacks appear to reside mostly in today’s retro-exceptional United States, and only in one political party.

A few days ago, reporters asked every Republican member of Congress who won the election. Eighty-eight-percent of them refused to say. Two declared it was Trump. (One of them, Rep. Gosar of AZ, is so awful his own family urged voters to reject him.) Of 251, only 27 were willing to say it was Joe Biden; Putin-adjacent Trump demanded their names. For what purpose, one wonders. Met with what level of Republican silence? A clue: Moscow Mitch just quashed a motion authorizing the inaugural committee to acknowledge it’ll be Biden and Harris.

Except for being indescribably dangerous, it’d be hilarious. Gaseous Rudy. Long-time Trump buddy and undeserving commutee, Roger Stone, claiming North Korea brought boatloads of fake ballots into the US via harbors in Maine. Around the Horn? Through the Canal? Seems logical. Same with believing votes for Biden were switched or faked, but not for down-ballot Democrats. McConnell, Graham, and Collins won. End of conspiracy.

“I’ve probably worked harder in the last three weeks than I ever have in my life,” whined Trump at a recent anti-democracy rally. He was referring to trying to nullify his resounding defeat, not to fighting the resurgent virus. “Working harder than ever.” Some jokes write themselves.

But it’s not funny, is it? A mob of armed Trumpists surrounded the home of Michigan’s Secretary of State, shouting threats and obscenities while she was inside, decorating for Christmas with her four-year-old son. “Stop the steal,” they chanted, convinced by … what? Zero evidence. Multiple recounts, investigations, fifty rejected lawsuits including, thankfully, without dissent, by the Supreme Court. Having confirmed their elections were secure, officials are fearing for their lives. But Trump says it, they believe it, that settles it. His second coming was an article of faith. The analogy is obvious.

It’s like the approaching, not-for-eight-hundred-years convergence of Saturn and Neptune, but perverse: years in the making, “conservative” denialism now converges both upon democracy and the lives of many thousands more from the virus. Is this what Gingrich and similars had in mind when they chose endumbification as their path to permanence?

Our founders feared it: millions of rabid, mis-educated Americans, convinced of fraud despite mountains of bipartisan refutation. Certain enough to destroy the Republic over it. Exhorting others to die for a lie (in our history, there’s precedent). Literally. 

For everyone’s sake, even delusional Trumpists, whose future is equally threatened whether they recognize it or not, this must stop. After decades in the euphoric fog of fiction mainlined from rightwing media pushers, to which millions have now, as intended, become addicted, can it? From armed, bulging-vein threats, to states suing each other, to legislators willing to disenfranchise their own citizens, this spectacle of sedition was a long time coming. It feels too late to put the genie back in the toothpaste. 

Plus, Trump-inspired, demented animus is a money-maker. Their malicious mendacity has made Hannity, Carlson, Limbaugh, et. al., very rich. From his compliant cultists, Trump is raking in millions. Republican leaders who remain cravenly silent are complicit in what amounts to a coup against constitutional governance. They’re already doing everything they can to delegitimize Biden’s presidency and his efforts to restore comity. Since the election, Trumpist Republicans’ disdain for democracy is undisguised. And incompatible with functioning government. Ahead of their January runoff, Georgian leaders are further reducing polling places in minority precincts.

With their terror campaign against honest state officials and continued efforts to reverse the election, Trumpublicans threaten the rule of law far more than a few misguided equality demonstrators breaking windows. Anti-democracy, anti-masks, and a poisonous, autocratic “president.” That’s “conservatism” today.

Maybe sanity will return if enough actual conservatives, seeing their party’s descent into insurrectionist lunacy, say “enough.” And there’s the problem: they’ve already had plenty of time.

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Trump's Final Attack On America

 

Some consider my “tinyurls” annoying, and hardly anyone checks them. Just this once, though, before discussing Trump’s and Republicans’ claims about a fraudulent election, it’d be helpful if readers were to see this.  

Also helpful is Lindsey Graham on the subject: “If Republicans don’t challenge and change the U.S. election system, there will never be another Republican president elected again.” 

Okay, thanks. Now we understand. Because it always has been, this is about minority Republicans maintaining power. And because it never has been, it’s not about what’s best for the country. Not even in this extraordinary time, when there’s so much more at stake; namely, our physical, economic, and social health; and the livability of this overheating planet. Foxians accuse Democrats of hypocrisy in urging Republicans to give Biden a chance when they didn’t for Trump. Well, there’s a difference.

From the moment he entered politics, Trump trafficked in division and untruth. He encouraged violence at his rallies, called his opponents – Democrat and Republican alike – stupid and mean-spirited names. After election, his first act was to lie about crowd size and to claim he’d lost the popular vote because of three million illegal ones. Later, he refused Constitutionally-required congressional oversight and fired inspectors general and US attorneys who were pursuing his political and personal malfeasance. His reelection campaign sank even lower, as his rallies, lacking anything positive, manifested only anger, grievance, and mendacity.

Denying climate change and mocking science, weakening alliances and strengthening enemies, making America a source of ridicule, lying about, mishandling, and finally ignoring the greatest health threat of our lifetimes, Trump blew his chance to be given a chance, even before he chanced upon the presidency. 

 

From the outset, by contrast, President-elect Joe Biden urged an end to acrimony and a return to cooperation and valuing expertise. He pledged to care as much for those who voted against him as those who voted for him. Given the problems he’ll be facing, it’d be nice if Congressional Rs would help. And it’d be welcome if America took him at his word, unless the time comes when he’s unworthy of it.

There’s nothing new about demanding recounts or, as we’ve seen, accusations of election fraud. What’s new is the catastrophically dangerous level of disinformation being spread, without a shred of evidence. In all fifty states, every single one, Democratic and Republican election officials are unequivocally stating there’s no fraud. None. Not, at least, to any significant degree. Yet nearly every elected Republican continues to push the destructive lie. Even here.

It’s common, too, that ballots are counted for days after elections. What’s unprecedented is those doing so being harassed, even receiving death threats from conspiracy-addled Trumpists. Likewise, Texas’ Lieutenant Governor offering a million dollars for proof of fraud; unclaimed, so far. [Update: the prize has been claimed.]

Retracted falsehoods are new, too. 

Caring nothing about the perilous implications for democracy, Republican leaders are attempting not just to discredit this election; it’s the very idea of voting. Lindsey G. made it clear. Pushing lies, they assume ignorance and gullibility of their supporters, while rightwing media overflow with accusations and distortions aimed at the credulous. And Rudy peddles pernicious propagandistic pronouncements from a place of perplexing praenomen, plunked between porno and cremation. Predictably, Trumpists buy it unquestioningly. 

As Republicans reject the results of a remarkably smooth, pandemic-challenged election, sowing the seeds of dictatorship as they have for years, we see how thoroughly Trump has corrupted our government. Barr, Pompeo, Ratcliffe, McConnell, O’Brien, the GSA: all in. At a time when efficient transition couldn’t be more critical, no cooperation. When the number and magnitude of problems we face demand everyone’s help, when bipartisanship is needed as never before, the party of Lincoln stands by as Trump attempts the destruction of democracy, beginning with the Pentagon. In Trump’s thrall, so-called patriots look away. How happy Trump’s dictator pals must be. 

Five million more Americans voted for honesty, lowered rhetoric, and competent, urgent attention to our needs than did those choosing more lies and vilification. Perhaps the latter can mute their media screamers long enough to see how President-elect Biden does; maybe even join efforts toward the common good.

To that end, with irenic dreams and comity in mind, I’ll be taking an indeterminate break (I’ll keep blogging). This is the predicted crisis after a Trump loss. It’s really happening. Let’s hope Trump is thwarted in his unspeakably dangerous attempts to burn it all down on his way out. If so, it surely won’t come from his democracy-averse Republican enablers.

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