The Runback: Constitutional Armageddon
Trump Loyalists in Congress are pushing the republic toward a cliff
Welcome to another week of The Runback. Have you been enjoying The Duckpin? Do you have comments or suggestions? Do you want to write for us? Let me know at theduckpin@gmail.com. And please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Thanks in advance.
Podcast Episode #15
This week we break down the College Football Playoff with The Duckpin’s College Football Analyst Justin Ready.
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News and Politics
Cox Accuses Hogan of Being A Chinese Spy: Republican Delegate goes to Twitter to engage in more conspiracy mongering.
A New Year's Wish for 2021 – Restoring the Economic Gains of the Trump Years: The successes of conservative economic policies deserve to be the future yardstick by which the Biden economy and its COVID recovery should be judged
Culture
A New New Year's Eve: One of COVID's long-tails may end a stupid tradition.
Your New Year's Resolutions: There are two types of people in the world; those who have made a New Year’s Resolution off of this list, and those who are lying.
Sports
Did you see the final regular-season NFL Preview? Take a look at how the picks went down and be sure to tune in Friday to this week’s playoff picks.
Shameless Plugs
My column this week for The Capital previews the upcoming Maryland General Assembly and what actions the legislators should take.
The Monday Thought
This week we are facing a Constitutional showdown of unimaginable proportions as Republicans in Congress plan on contesting the results of the Presidential Election Wednesday.
Many of those objecting to the election results follow the thoughts of Sen. Josh Hawley, a Presidential wannabe and Trump lickspittle;
Of course, Hawley’s entire premise is moronic. “Somebody has to stand up. 74 million Americans are not going to be told their voices don’t matter.” What point does Hawley think he’s making? Does he not realize that there is a loser in every election? Does he not realize that by proposing that these election results be thrown out that he is suggesting that the votes of the 80 million Americans who voted for President-elect Joe Biden don’t matter?
The premise of all of this is that because there are “allegations of fraud and impropriety” or whatever description you want to use and that thanks to these allegations the American people lack confidence in the election process. Of course, this logic and this plan ignore the fact that the sole source of the allegations has been the President of the United States and his supporters. The source of this lack of confidence in the process starts and ends with Trump himself.
Sadly, stupidly, bizarrely, over 140 members of the House of Representatives and 11 U.S. Senators have signed on to this cockamamie idea. An idea which itself is a direct assault on the Constitution.
This entire plan was debunked in long-form by Republican Senator Ben Sasse and I encourage you to both read and critically think about the things he says.
Rep. Liz Cheney isn’t having any of it either.
But you really want to know what the most damning thing about all of this is?
That’s right. Most of the members of Congress don’t actually believe that the results of the election were fraudulent. A point that was very aptly made today by Republican Congressman Chip Roy when he pulled their punk card in the House.
You won’t be surprised to learn that the effort to deny those members from being seated in the House lost. 370-2.
So except for two Trump bootlickers very committed to the cause, a supermajority of House Republicans voted to verify that the results in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin are valid. And many of those members who did vote to verify that the results were valid will turn around and suggest that the results of the Presidential election in the same states during the same election.
So why are these knuckleheads doing this? It’s because they are gutless cowards. Each and every one of them. All 140+ members of Congress and 11 U.S. Senators who have signed on to this efforts to overturn the election are more afraid of Donald Trump and his supporters being mean to them then they are in upholding their oath of office:
I, (member’s name), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
A vote to overturn the election is in no way supporting or defending the Constitution of the United States. In fact, it is quite the opposite. A vote to oppose the election results is antithetical to the Constitution. It is antithetical to conservative principles. It is antithetical to our American system of government. It is antithetical to freedom and liberty. And any member of Congress who votes to overturn the results is not fit for public office. They will have violated their oath of office and their duty to their country by supporting what looks a heck of a lot like an attempt at a coup d’etat.
Fortunately, more Republicans than you may think understand the gravity of this situation. That the Republic comes first.
Mercifully, Trump has given Republican members of Congress an exit ramp out of this that many of them should take seriously: The release of Trump’s knuckleheaded phone call with election officials in Georgia. Trump’s call, which will probably launch a number of federal investigations, identified the fact that the only thing Trump ever cared about was overturning the results by any means necessary. Even if that meant just pressuring a Secretary of State to change the results on a whim. Trump’s claims of cheating were a decoy effort to distract from his own efforts at cheating.
This is a good reason for supporters of this doomed effort to jump off the train before it goes over a cliff. The President’s apparent abuse of power is as good a reason as any to take a step back.
Regardless of what happens on Wednesday however, we have opened an ugly and stupid door in American politics and American governance. This has in some way normalized this behavior. Normalized the idea that anybody can challenge election results for months on end without any evidence. That members of Congress will go to the mat for a President who already lost an election and wants to illegally maintain power past the end of their term. This kind of banana republic stuff never ends well. The history book is littered with political systems that went the way of the dodo thanks to stuff like this. It drags us toward a cliff in a beat-up car with the brakes out and is another step toward the end of the republic as we know it. To say nothing of the political reaction against the GOP that could be forthcoming.
And the Republicans who support this? They will have outed themselves as cowards who do not believe in the Constitution, do not believe in liberty, and do not believe in free elections as a basic principle of governance. Everyone who votes for this are unfit for office and should be expelled from Congress. Every. Single. One of them. And if they’re not expelled; they should be primaried and defeated in their next election. Members that support this nonsense, this unamerican attack on small-r republican governance, are no conservatives and are not fit to represent you in Congress.