December 11, 2020
With 40 days remaining until President-elect Biden takes the oath of office, following the news can give one whiplash. On the one hand, we have the Biden team’s methodical rollout of Cabinet picks. The selections reflect the country’s diversity— from the first woman for Treasury Secretary to the first Latino immigrant for Homeland Security Secretary to the first Black person for Secretary of Defense. Biden’s picks are reassuring and almost boring, because the resumes scream competence and probity, a welcome departure from the homogeneous cast of grifters and Marvel villains that have occupied the Trump Cabinet.
At the same time, Trump has continued his dangerous crusade to overturn the results of a free and fair election by relentlessly attacking the legitimacy of Black votes in battleground states. Despite a record of 1-55 in the courts, Trump continues to allege unnamed fraud in his superspreader rallies. His plague spreading posse of incompetent, unethical attorneys remain undaunted, filing court papers riddled with factual errors and completely devoid of evidence, (Source: “Trump And The GOP Have Now Lost 50 Post-Election Lawsuits,” by Alison Durkee, Forbes.com, 12/8/20). Yet, Trump’s baseless bleating has convinced more than 60% of Republicans that the election was rigged. Trump has so thoroughly captured the Republican Party that only 27 of 249 Republicans acknowledge that Joe Biden won the election, (Source: “Just 27 Congressional Republicans acknowledge Biden’s win, Washington Post survey finds” by Paul Kane and Scott Clement, WashingtonPost.com, 12/5/20).
There is a twisted logic to the refusal of Republicans to acknowledge Biden’s win, given what has happened to Republican Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger. Raffensberger is hardly some RINO. He has enthusiastically continued his predecessor Brian Kemp’s vote suppressing tactics, improperly purging 200,000 voters from the rolls on the mistaken impression that they had moved. Yet, because Raffensperger presided over an election where an accurate vote count resulted in Biden’s victory, he has been subjected to pressure and criticism from Trump and his toady, Lindsey Graham and a torrent of death threats, (Source: “Georgia Secretary of State says fellow Republicans are pressuring him to find ways to exclude ballots,” by Amy Gardner, WashingtonPost.com, 11/16/20).
By now we have all seen the viral clip of Georgia’s bespectacled Republican functionary, Gabriel Sterling, expressing shock and anger that the vitriol normally reserved for Black people and Democrats was now being directed at Trump-voting civil servants, (Source: “‘It Has To Stop’: Georgia Election Official Lashes Trump,” by Richard Fausset, The New York Times, 12/1/20). Although Sterling’s righteous rant was hailed as a Joseph Welch moment, the Republican fever did not break. By Monday, Raffensperger was desperately trying to get Trump to back off by engaging in false equivalence- equating Stacey Abrams’ fight against voter suppression to Trump’s full frontal assault on democracy, (Source: “Trump Runs The Stacey Abrams Playbook,” by Brad Raffensperger, The Wall Street Journal, 12/6/20).
We may laugh at the loopy antics of Mellisa Carone, Guilani’s star witness in Michigan, but State Rep. Cynthia Johnson, who was threatened with lynching after sharply questioning Giuliani at the hearing,and then disciplined for her response (!) isn’t laughing, (Source: “Michigan GOP Sidelines Democrat For Her ‘Unacceptable’ Response To Lynching Threats,” by Rick Pluta, NPR.org, 12/9/20). Secretary of State, Jocelyn Benson wasn’t laughing when armed Trump supporters showed up outside of her home as she was decorating her Christmas tree with her 4 year old son.
We may mock the slapdash, bad faith lawyering that has resulted in a 1-55 record in court, but on Wednesday, corrupt Texas State Attorney General, joined by Republican Attorneys General in seventeen states, sued to invalidate the votes in the four battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 100 of 196 Congressional Republicans signed an amicus brief in support of the suit, (Source: “More than half of House Republicans support Texas lawsuit challenging election results,” by Felicia Sonmez, The Washington Post, 12/10/20). These efforts to attack democracy by deeming Black votes illegitimate per se, are supported not only by state and federal elected Republicans, but by the 74 million people who voted for Trump and have contributed more than $207 million dollars to him since the election. We may be eager to turn the page, but we’re still in the same book.
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Excellent analysis, Lisa!