There’s a furor in many media outlets over a phone conversation between President Trump and Georgia’s head election official. Rather than fulminating about the phone conversation I’ll limit my remarks to this. Here’s what should happen:
- On January 6 the Congress should count the votes of the Electoral College and certify the vote.
- Joe Biden should be sworn in as president on January 20.
- President Trump should go back to doing whatever it is he does.
- I think that President Biden should issue a blanket pardon for President Trump but I don’t believe he will.
- Opinion writers should discover something other than Trump to write about. I think they’ll continue complaining about Trump for years.
Here’s what should not happen:
- Republicans should not oppose the certification. I thought that Democrats were wrong in opposing the certifications of George W. Bush in 2001 and 2005 and I think the Republicans are wrong now. A lot of Republicans will go ahead and oppose it anyway.
- The House should not impeach President Trump again. It’s a waste of precious time and energy. They have more important things to do.
- The House should not refuse to seat Trump-supporting Republicans. That is a slippery slope we do not wish to set foot on.
- Democrats should not blame Trump for everything bad that happens going forward. Blaming him for things that went wrong during his term of office is fair game.
Sent remember the 2001 case, but the 2005 incident was nothing like this current one. They specifically said in their challenge that they were not trying to overturn the results but wanted the election process to be examined, and it was voted down by the huge majority of Dems. It was not supported by Kerry.
Steve
It should be noted in 2005; 89 members of the Democratic House caucus voted against the challenge, 80 votes present, and 31 voted for the challenge.
Only a minority of Democrats voted against the challenge.
Slippery slope, as I said.
I suspect Democrats won’t have to do much except sit back and get the popcorn.
The WSJ has it right on its front page, “The lines are drawn for a Republican civil warâ€. Best not to get involved in a self-immolation.
As Napoleon is said to have advised, when the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.
The reason why 2001, 2005, and 2016 are relevant is that it shows how norms get ratcheted down over time in entirely self-serving ways that have nothing to do with principles. And the thing is, partisans complain loudly about the latest outrage, but then turn around and use what the other party did as a justification for their own future escalatory actions. Yes, what some in the GoP are doing is terrible and represents a new low. But this just didn’t appear out of nowhere, it’s simply the next stage in a zero-sum feedback loop that ratchets norms and principles downward.
I, for one, completely expect that in the future Democrats will do something like what the GoP is doing now and they will use these GoP actions as the justification. Their arguments today will be completely forgotten and will cycle down another ratchet.
Or just consider how things would be different if Trump had squeaked out another EC victory. The idea that Democrats would limit themselves to what they did in 2001 or 2005 or even 2016 is laughable.
The same has been true for the judiciary wars going back at least two decades. Democrats were openly talking about packing the court as a justified – in their view – escalatory response to what the GoP did. I don’t take it very seriously when a party and partisans lecture about norms on one hand while conspiring to break them on the other.
So I am less interested in who is currently more to blame for the latest outrage than I am the systemic effects of two insular, entrenched, incoherent, and increasingly extremist parties that feel they are justified in damaging and destroying norms and institutions in pursuit of tactical partisan advantage. The result of this feedback loop is that everyone loses. Suggesting that we should only focus on the latest outrage by a political enemy is just enabling this destructive dynamic. This is what arguments complaining about “bothsiderism” seek to do – limit the discussion and context to the current outrage by the other side because that is what is expedient at the moment. No thanks.
Either one believes in principles and norms or one doesn’t. There is a mountain of evidence that partisans only believe in norms and principles when it suits them. THAT is the problem – this latest outrage and folly by the GoP is a symptom.
If not for the hundreds of credible reports (unaddressed by state legislatures and their respective courts) of voter and ballot irregularities, we wouldn’t be in this pickle.
It’s like they have something to hide.
“If not for the hundreds of credible reports”
Send those to the Trump legal team. They keep forgetting to put them in their lawsuits as evidence.
Steve