All Because of a Lie

They came in answer to a lie, told by a tiny man with pointed them at out democracy and said ‘sic’ em’. Photo by Jessica Griffin.

2024. The election is a decisive one, the Democratic candidate wins the popular vote by some 8 million, the electoral by 30-40 points. Maybe even enlarging the senate control. Everything will be fine… right?

What happens when local GOP controlled election boards in both red and purple states decide they don’t like the way their own voters have voted, when Republican controlled state legislatures refuse to certify Democratic wins, sending instead their own slate of electors to Washington? What happens when a GOP House refuses to certify the presidential vote, when the GOP refuses to seat Democratic senators?

What happens?

Think this nightmare scenario can’t happen? Remember January 6th. We believed it couldn’t happen then. Well, maybe “believed” is too strong a word, “hoped” is better. We already had all the signs, the right-wing violence and threats against officials, the storming of state capitols and city councils, the lies from top officials, Trump on down. It was building, making the violent insurrection on the DC Capitol inevitable. It was a mad rush and build, an escalation to madness and attempted coupe, and then they all went home, contrite and regretful… right?

No. It’s not over. 1/6 was prologue. It was the person before the play, it was Shakespeare, sending his actor out on the stage to tell you what you will be soon seeing, that while you are witnessing this, there is so much more you don’t see. When you see fights, please, gentles all, imagine wars.

This is the GOP; they start fights but they are planning for wars.

All for a lie, all because the huge ego of a tiny man could not deal with the obvious fact that he lost an election, could not admit he was not the god of his speeches but the grifter and con man the election revealed him to be. So, he decided he didn’t have to admit it, didn’t have to accept it, and that his voters and members of his party would back him up. And they did, to the great disgrace of this nation and the weakening of our democracy.

A lie and a man’s ego has managed to kill people and brought us where we are today. It’s… crushing, the shear stupidity of it all. Here we are, still dealing with the muck and suck of the hate and violence. Because it ain’t over, as Yogi maybe said, ‘til it’s over.

Because the insurrection didn't end with the Capitol Hill police ushering the violent insurrectionists out of the Capitol. Like an out-of-control AI, they have learned, absorbed, pinpointed where they failed and are shoring up the weak spots; ridding themselves of anyone moral enough to say ‘no’ to Trump’s election lies, casting out anyone who might have enough principle to stand against a naked power grab, and readying for all-out war on a democracy that stands in the way of total power.

Citizens don’t want to vote for them? Fine. They’ll just take that little voting problem away, thank you very much.

No, the insurrection continues with the nearly 300 anti-democratic voting bills being introduced and passed around the country, with the 'forensic audit' being conducted by the GOP version of the 3 Stooges in Arizona for no other intention than to undermine a fair election and to bolster lies. This is all leading up to the 2024 presidential election where the GOP will try, once again, to steal an election.

This time, with those objecting purged, who will say no? That's a big thing that saved us; many in the local state GOP didn't go along. These are officials who I’m not so sure were brave, but defending a system that they set up to elect Republicans that failed to do so. Not sure much ‘brave’ as defensive and indignant. But they were there and they stopped it.  

Republicans are in the process of fixing that. Stefanik for Cheney, censure and eventual expulsion of anyone who pointed out the lies (listen, I have no love for Cheney, who supported wars and torture, but in this stand, she’s actually right) anyone who might slow the Trump train to election must be crushed, whether Trump is the engineer this time or not.  

The clear message the GOP is sending to its representatives is: you stand up for the Constitution and democracy, we’ll knock you down, hard. We’ll erase you not only from the face of the GOP but the earth. Scorched earth against their own party. The reps hear, and obey.

That's what this is about; hobble democracy with even more restrictive voting laws to make themselves completely voter-proof, and if somehow that's not enough, just take it. Claim victory anyway and this time with the entire GOP on their side, they're that much closer to succeeding. 2022, 2024, they will try until they succeed.

That's the plan; permanent Republican rule, voter proof. Will it work? doesn't matter, it's what they'll try. They've been setting it up for decades.

How can they be stopped? Through attention paid, taking them seriously and heading them off though public opinion and the courts (Trump and McConnell have made that much harder, but not impossible).

This is why there are and will be constant lawsuits filed against these bills, playing a legal whack-a-mole, that's why more grassroots are forming to re-register the people the GOP are purging from the rolls. It's why the spotlight has to keep shinning and pinning them down like an ant in the sun, paying attention to the state and national GOPs and their efforts to kill democracy and snatch power.

They love to work in the dark, the bright daylight gives them away.

They’re probably working on blocking the sun.

“Get Rid of the Ballots”

Angry Trump. Angry, angry, Trump.

This is not a chaotic election year. There is no widespread election fraud. None.

It simply isn’t happening. That doesn’t mean there isn’t stress, isn’t worry, isn’t anxiety over the pandemic and voting. Be calm, be clear of your goal in this election. Take a breath.

Counting the votes might take a little longer, but the outcome isn’t always known on election night, it’s not a big deal, and definitely not unusual not to know the winner right away.

So where is the fear, the shouts of ‘voter fraud, the stress over the election coming from, ’? Why are people running around, hair pulling and hand wringing? Because of the one person who should be calling for calm, who should be reassuring people and working to make sure that everything will go smoothly; the President of the United States.

Donald Trump is working hard to undermine the election, to cast doubt on the voting, on the voters, on the process, on holding elections themselves. He’s interfering with the Post Office, slowing down deliveries and hampering their ability to process what is looking to be a huge increase in mail-in ballots. He is trash talking the ballots, and whole concept of mail-in voting as is it were some illegal and alien thing, full of evil intent and dubious outcomes.

He isn’t even subtle about it

“Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transferal of power after the election?” a reporter asked.

His answer:

 “Well, we’re gonna have to see what happens. Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a peaceful—there won’t be a transfer, frankly, there’ll be a continuation.”

Throw out the ballots, get rid of those bad, non-Trump votes and there will be a “continuation”. He’ll win, one way of another.

He wants to create chaos. Chaos is his brand, he lives and breathes chaos. In chaos, in doubt, in uncertainty, things can happen; votes can be tossed, election results ignored, boards of illegitimate electors put in place that don’t reflect the will of the people, and another Republican who lost the popular vote is installed with the assistance of the Trump/McConnell engineered 6-3 split on the Supreme Court. It’s Bush v. Gore, again.

I remember watching the GOP steal that election. I had already realized they had no morals after the stupid 'Whitewater/Vince Foster/any bullshit-they-want-to-investigate nonsense of the 1990’s. The GOP was incredibly partisan, spittle-flinging partisan, but I didn't realize they wanted to completely undermine democracy until that 2000 election. Here I learned they would stop at nothing to kill democracy and seize power by any means.

All they had to do was say "The Democrats would do the same" and that justified anything. Obviously, this was not true, as the Democrats didn't fight tooth, nail and congressional interns to stop the counting Florida as the GOP did, so fuck that. The GOP relied on getting the case to the SCOTUS, who stepped in and gave the election to Bush in a decision even they were embarrassed by.

Insane, but Gore (who won the popular vote and the Florida vote (which wasn't fully counted until after Bush was declared the winner) stood by and let Bush be inaugurated, even though many wanted him to protest it.

He didn't.

He was actually worried about America and democracy.

You think Trump and the GOP are worried about that?

No,

They are trying to figure out how they can stay in power despite the vote.

This is what we face: the same GOP in 2000, but even more desperate, more racist, more angry and more convinced of their own grievances. Anything they do, even bringing down democracy as we know it, is justifiable.

Your Vote is Illegitimate

“The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”

If you don’t vote Trump, your vote doesn’t matter, and can be rejected. End of story.

This is the message Trump is telling his supporters, telling them that the other side, no matter who they are, are illegitimate; their votes are illegitimate, their opposition is illegitimate, their opinions are illegitimate, their protests are illegitimate, they, themselves, their lives, friends and families, are illegitimate. It’s okay to ignore them, okay to treat them as less, okay to maybe kill them, they’re illegitimate after all. As his HHS assistant secretary Michael Caputo said: “And when Donald Trump refuses to stand down at the inauguration, the shooting will begin. The drills that you’ve seen are nothing,” he added, “If you carry guns, buy ammunition, ladies and gentlemen, because it’s going to be hard to get.”

Okay to kill those who disagree with you; they are other, they are wrong in themselves, they are dangerous, they are illegitimate.

Trump also claims the Governor of Nevada, Steve Sisolak (D) “is the same guy that’s gonna be in charge of the ballots. I’m winning that state easily (he’s not) but the one thing we can’t beat, if they cheat on the ballots, now he will cheat on the ballots, I have no doubt about it.”

Trump is giving himself and his supporters permission to ignore the results of a fair election. Any election he loses is not a fair election. Any election he loses needs to be resisted, fought against, and put down.

Arm yourselves, they are coming for you.

This is designed to do tremendous arm to civil discourse and society. This is designed to encourage the violence and panic Trump claims he is against. This licenses his supporters to do anything, by any means, to keep Trump himself in power. This is openly calling for the civil war the right has been talking about, and thirsting for, for decades

This is the insanity that fuels the grievance on the right, the anger and belief that they’ve been screwed, and it’s the left doing the screwing. For this you have to ignore the decades of the GOP (and the Democrats, yes) shipping jobs overseas, of the ‘trickle down’ promises that never, ever materialized, of culture baiting for votes while shifting power and wealth to the rich. Once you’ve established this to your own satisfaction (not hard to do when you’re inside the bubble, talking only to true believers like yourself) than anything you do to ‘fight back’ is justified. Arm yourself, the ‘libtard’ mob is coming for your home, you women, your country.

This undermining of democracy is not a secret, it’s happening right in front of us, right in the open. Trump has captured most the election machinery, and what he can’t control, he is openly undermining, with the enthusiastic help of the GOP. First, you declare the other side to be illegitimate, you demonize them, making any move against you (like, say, voting) seem as a move against the country, against your followers ‘values’, as something ‘sick’ and unnatural. Then you go about encouraging violence against anyone who disagrees with you (see the support the armed mobs charging statehouses get, the police brutality and the shooting and running over of protesters), then denial of of legitimate votes that don’t go ‘your’ way, stating things like only that the votes counted the night of the election are legitimate, and then you undermine the USPS and vote by mail as ‘fraud’.

Trump is stealing the election and encouraging his followers to fight any vote that doesn’t end with four more years of Trump in the White House. He refuses to say if he’ll accept any result that doesn’t go his way. His minions have called for armed insurrection if they don’t get the result they want.

As David Frum said:

“If conservatives become convinced that they can not win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. The will reject democracy.” 

They are warning us right now of what they intend to do.

Take them seriously.