This Is Not America

This week Congress will hear and acknowledge the results of Electoral College vote which gave Joseph Biden 307 Electoral votes, more than the 270 required to be President.  Each state has certified these results and this proforma action is just another layer in our antiquated system we have to elect the President.  Most of the time we don't even hear about it.  But this year there plans to be drama.  Several Republicans will challenge the Electors from a few of the swing states.  However, this is not a protest as has been in the past.  Nor is it a defense of the Constitution.  It is an act of desperate members of the party who want to inherit the misinformed Trump supporters who still believe Trump will be President for 4 more years.  Some are positioning themselves to be the front runner for 2024.  In a cynical attempt to do so they are putting our democratic principles at risk and in some cases inciting violence.  

Senators Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are leading the way.  Both Cruz and Hawley have ambitions for the Oval Office and so they are courting the far right that helped get Trump elected.  They have been outspoken in that they will join any members from the House to reject Electors.  But this won't do anything.  There is no way that both chambers will vote to throw out any and that is all that can happen.  Cruz knows this.  He is now asking for a 10 day delay to audit elections that have already been recounted, audited, etc. etc. etc.  Biden has now had so many victories just in the state of Georgia that people have taken to calling him Sherman.  These actions erode the trust in our systems, give our enemies a talking point when we call for more democratic actions in other nations and continues to feed an unhinged populace that seem ready to attack anyone who doesn't praise/worship Donald Trump.  But they are not the most dangerous though I truly fear the long term effects of this ridiculous endeavor. 

Louie Gohmert, a member of the House from Texas had tried to sue the Vice-President to throw out Electors from several states.  A federal judge dismissed this as the nonsense that it is.  On Newsmax this week Gohmert responded,  “But bottom line is, the court is saying, ‘We’re not going to touch this. You have no remedy’—basically, in effect, the ruling would be that you gotta go the streets and be as violent as Antifa and BLM.”  So the right wing myth of those groups is that they are uberviolent so it appears that Gohmert, a lawyer, a former judge, a member of the US House of Representatives, is calling for an overthrow of the legally elected President and Vice-President.  This is beyond unacceptable.  This truly is a call to sedition.  Coupled with the fact that organizations are already planning on being in Washington DC on January 6th when the joint session of Congress will accept the Electors this is dangerous and I dare say maybe illegal.  If nothing else the FBI should have a long sit down with the representative to explain, in detail what he is saying because perhaps he really is too dimwitted to understand.  I hope that the House sanctions him and any other member who has supported violence over reality. 

But the worst of the bunch is the President himself.  He has called for citizens to gather on January 6th and he too is close to calling for violence.  One of the lawyers taking up the cause has even called for the Vice President, Mike Pence, to be executed over not being more forceful in trying to steal the election.  The President continues to make outrageously false statements inciting anger among his base that now are openly calling for Civil War.  My guess is that in the next few days there will be violent clashes in the streets and we can lay that all at the feet of a party, led by a man who demands loyalty but never does anything to earn it, who a disagreement is akin to attempted assassination.  Donald Trump sees the world only in how it can benefit him and he is willing to tear down everything as he is ushered out the door.  And that is not surprising.  He has always been like that.  He cares little for others unless he sees some way they can give him what he wants.  What has been surprising is the number of people who are willing to sell their souls to him when he wouldn't lift a finger to help them.  And do so at the risk of destroying the republic.  

Donald Trump has always been a danger and in four years he has managed to set our country back quite a bit, but the institutions still help.  However his wake looks even more disturbing as people are willing to call out for armed insurrection to protect Trump's fragile ego and position themselves to be the new leader of the groups they are radicalizing.   This is not who our country should be, and if it is then it is time to purge those who are making it such.  The coming week is going to be a difficult one I imagine.  The Senate elections in Georgia which can go either way.  The joint session and the final step in Biden becoming President and of course the very real threats of violence that are being spread on social media could come to a head in either place.  If you vote Republican and love this country I beg you to stop electing people like Gohmert, Hawley and Cruz.  There are better people who will take up conservative causes without feeling they are worth sacrificing American ones.  Speak out.  I rant on here to a deaf audience in part because I am a nobody liberal without power.  I can call out Mike Braun, my Senator who is joining Cruz but there is nothing I can think that would have ever gotten me to vote for him so he doesn't care about me.  But if you are a Republican, you might be able to make a difference.  Remember to country over party.  To put democracy over authoritarianism.  You don't have follow the carnival barkers who feast on the anger of the crowd.  Be Better.  Help heal the country.  It is your United States as well.  Don't let the greedy, the cynical and the conmen take that away.