Today the fight to pick up Trump’s supporters continued. Eleven senators, led by Ted Cruz (R-TX), said they would object to certifying certain state electoral votes when Congress meets on Wednesday, January 6, to count them. They want a commission appointed to audit the results. This attempt is separate from the one launched yesterday by Josh Hawley (R-MO) to object to the counting of the electoral votes from Pennsylvania, but both are a transparent attempt to court Trump voters before 2022 and 2024.
The use of repeated baseless investigations seems like an extension of the Karl Rove tactic of repeating a lie over and over again until it becomes accepted as truth. Rove didn’t invent it, but he certainly made extensive use of it. And it seems to work. Just look at how Republicans kept trickle down economics alive when all evidence has been to the contrary. The curious part is that the conservative base doesn’t just allow the GOP to promote false narratives, they seem to understand it’s their duty to amplify them. So there is a positive feedback loop of strategic lying taking over the conservative playbook. The bigger the lie, the louder it gets and the more it gets repeated. Unless there is a serious penalty for creating lie storms like this, they will only continue to propagate.
Once again I arise to the onset of a severe headache after reading the first paragraph or two of this column. Two points in particular set me off today.
First - Who exactly are the representatives of representative government representing? "Biden’s transition spokesperson ... called their efforts a “stunt.” He isn’t wrong." There is no public groundswell of concern about election fraud and to the best of my knowledge there never was been.
Trump introduced the notion of fraud BEFORE he was elected the first time, screaming about RIGGED elections. Had the media been more demanding of evidence at the time perhaps the "issue" would have been muted. He introduced it again well before the general election this time and again the media abetted the claim by failing to demand that he show his cards. In both cases the Democrats failed to push back forcefully, presumably because they thought he had no chance in 2016, and because they overestimated the degree of voter fatigue with his antics in 2020
So these "representatives" seem to have chosen to die on a hill of their own making, despite the 60+ legal challenges having produced nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. They've manufactured a case, couched in the gravitas of "precedent." It's a doomed effort that benefits no one but their image in Trump's eyes. It only serves as justification for their own future forays into greater voter suppression.
Second - What cat's got the Democrats' tongues? Taking the high road is morally admirable and has yielded exactly nothing. George McGovern vs Richard Nixon? Too liberal. Jimmy Carter as contrapoint to the corrupt Richard Nixon? One and done. Michael Dukakis after 8 years of Reagan? Blown out, wins only 10 states, yet "improves upon" the results of the Democrats in the previous two elections.
The GOP has thrown chaff in the radar of Democrats' messaging for years through the dirty tactics of Lee Atwater, the groundless yet persistent hearings on Benghazi, and flooding the media with the noise of Clinton's emails. Coupled with the media vascillating between "balanced" coverage and the "entertainment value" of Trump, the Democrats have failed, yet again, to adopt tactics to parry the GOP's obstructive strategies. They seem powerless to either borrow from the GOP playbook (and its associated stench) or to just become more adept at developing aggressive approaches to counter the GOP by uncovering its individual and collective failings to serve its constituents and the country as a whole.
I could go on but it's only 5:00 AM and it's been an exhausting day already. As comedian Wanda Sykes said of Black people in America, "we need a better PR person."
Oh, if we could only take a break from this seditious nonsense and rest peacefully for a day. Our work can never be done as informed, engaged citizens if we are to protect ourselves from these autocrats and preserve our democracy. None of this is just about Trump and what he has created. He has been their useful idiot. As we now know, there are other autocrats in waiting - more polished and even more duplicitous. I read a very informative, revealing thread about Josh Hawley on Twitter tonight and how he has been working toward this moment since he was a teenager. We need to know the “Hawleys” and their agendas. You can read the thread here (no Twitter account required): https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1345464374593519617.html?fbclid=IwAR2kh5s9MrPpJtrOBjGjJ2YaD6PVdXecZKX4GQjRAkgdGbgsUEeFsfVYVL4
Thank you HRC, for pointing out the fact that modern elections, especially the 2020 election, are probably the most honest in our history.
The Republicans know they cannot win a fair, open, honest election. What the Sedition Eleven are doing now, what the Republican Party has been doing over the last forty years, is to undermine small d democracy in our country, but not by old school, third world stuffing of ballot boxes. Without voter suppression, gerrymandered congressional districts, the Electoral College system, ginning up investigations into nothing by the ongoing coordinated mis-information campaign of the talk radio/Fox News propaganda industrial complex, meaningless congressional votes, (how many votes to repeal ACA? 40? 50?) the Republicans know they would become politically irrelevant. They are masters at getting enough people to vote against their own best interests to remain politically viable.
In other words, Republicans do all they can to avoid democracy and the democratic processes of government. This is sedition. This is treason.
Thank you Dr. Richardson, for once again enunciating so well the current political situation.
I am furious at the Senators and Representatives who are perpetrating this sham, and shameful, fraud. I am furious that the current President has refused to peacefully transfer power. I am furious that the current Vice President, ever the faithful lap dog, is now egging on these people.
These Senators and Reps talk about wanting to satisfy the concerns of their constituents. Apparently they do not realize that some (many?) of their constituents are part of the 85 million plus people who voted for Presodent-Elect Biden and Vice President -Elect Harris. They are, as you have so often written about, deligitimizing our votes - we are the mudsills who don't deserve to vote, in their opinion, and certainly don't deserve to elect who we want to steer our country forward. They won't succeed, but their actions are so damaging. "Sedition Caucus" indeed.
AND they are doing all of this while hundreds of thousands of us are dying from a pandemic. Disgusting.
I am exhausted by this never-ending election, but I won't sit down and shut up either. January 20th can't come fast enough.
What can or should we the people do about this latest mockery of our government? I am in GA and I am sure Tuesday will turn into a circus. I am so disgusted by these white men’s antics to gain personal power that I want to do something. I work Voter Protection now to help assure the frightened electorate that they can vote and have their vote count but it just doesn’t seem like enough. These men should not be holding a public office.
This is a felony, my friends. Incitement to violence is a federal crime. I don't understand why DAs are not arresting these people. It isn't just the complicity of the media, which love to focus on scandals if they involve women as the baddies (for instance the appalling graft, corruption, and bribery of rich people to get their kids into colleges--most people are aware of only a couple of these cases, which indicted [and jailed in the former instance] Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, but the rest of the iceberg is mostly male). The entire political and legal system is designed to ignore what morons like Cruz and Co do on the basis of "white boyz will be boyz" (and yes, I know some female enablers of the patriarchy are in there too). Instead of simply laughing at them, we need to demand that they be treated like other criminals and prosecuted and punished for their crimes.
I hold the op-ed columnist (and Pulitzer alumna) Maureen Dowd in contempt because of her relentless campaign against the Clintons, whom she hates with a level of vitriol that makes it, well, weird. I don't like them either, but Dowd did a lot to make the Cheeto palatable to some NYTimes readers because they bought into her animus. Her whining for the last four years and her poor-meism infuriates me--and a lot of other readers who persist in pointing out that she helped get the deranged corn chip elected. The media need a reboot, but so does the entire political system, and "professional' politicians need to be indicted and imprisoned for that to happen. Bring it on.
I don't know how Biden and Harris are holding up under this onslaught of fascist propaganda. I don't know why there seem to be only two principled pols in the Gormless (Russian) Operative Party left--and they (Sasse and Romney) are unreliable actors at the best of times. The cognitive dissonance is absolutely blowing my mind.
The current effort by the Sedition Caucus will likely fail, but it is a prologue to the behavior we will see in the coming session of Congress and throughout the land.
This behavior will be cloned in State Houses controlled by Trumpists, parroted in allied media outlets, and spread far and wide through social media. The threat to Constitutional Democracy is manifest and the likelihood that far-right extremists will take to the streets to mirror the behavior of their elected representatives is high.
I’ve begun researching the issues, looking at Biden’s agenda and the likely challenges. Climate, taxes, policing reforms – for example – will all be met by objections, many of which will be constructed from the cloth of Trumpist propaganda and not from math, science, or historical experience. The other area of great concern is the growth of far-right extremist groups and their symbiotic relationship with Trumpist officials such as Cruz & Co.
The fronts on which the struggle against the forces of darkness will be waged are many and varied – we all need to be engaged.
Unworthy they are indeed. As long as groups like the Sedition Caucus can use tens of thousands of false accusations to create a lasting impression of non-existent election theft, this maneuver will repeat every time Republicans lose the Presidency.
Lies will always travel faster than the truth but I'm relieved our institution's speed bumps slowed them down 60 times in great fashion. The only cure for the power of ignorance and lies is the wisdom that comes from people being informed of the truth.
Social media and a complicit Press give lies validity but newsletters such as this one, not podcasts or YouTube videos, can erase pseudo-certainty with undeniable truth grounded in fact.
That last sentence of the closing paragraph sums it up so precisely:
"Democracy depends on a willingness to transfer power peacefully from one group of leaders to another. By revealing that they refuse to do so, the members of the “Sedition Caucus,” as they are being called on social media, are proving they are unworthy of elected office."
We need to get them voted out of office. We cannot relax our vigilance until democracy is secure once more. Indeed, perhaps we and future generations can never again assume that democracy will survive despite a "few" corrupt self-serving legislators, because it has turned out that so many Republicans are cut from the same cloth. Not that every Democrat is guaranteed to be morally straight, but these past 4 years under 45 seems to have brought out a lot more sycophantic morally broken Republicans than I ever expected to exist.
Thanks as always to Dr. Heather for tipping over the rocks and shining her light on the evil that would've remained hidden. Rest well! 💜
Properly applied, modern wood glue forms a bond between two pieces of wood that is stronger that the wood itself. And so it is with the “movement conservatives”. The glue is poverty, which gives permission to generations of under-education, flourishing of beliefs in the fanciful and the vile. There is one true religion, there is one best color of skin, there is one best government, there is no good government, unfettered capitalism will eventually provide the best living for all people, and there is no right to privacy in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
Given enough stress, the wood fails. Or in this case the muscle, bone, heart, brain and soul fails. There is civil war ongoing in the conservative movement. In the case of the men like Cruz, Harley, Cotton and the fellow acolytes, their brains and hearts simply cannot comprehend their version of truth being exposed as false.
Millions of self-aware people of all persuasions have seen the lie that the government is the enemy. Good government is the essential ingredient in a massive society. The young generations will not accept racism, sexism, systemic injustice, nor generational poverty in any group of humans. I believe(and I pray) that djt and the current version of conservatism is the nadir for our journey. Let us stand witness to their demise.
Sedition Caucus indeed ... and each member should be charged and convicted accordingly, followed by removal from office. Their actions cannot go unaddressed.
Truly outrageous how thoroughly Trump has corrupted the Republicans in both Houses of Congress. I never expected anything non-corrupt from Trump, but have been astounded over and over again, even when his grip on power ought to be loosening, that Trump has the GOP politicians scared of the shadow of this charlatan and his "base." -- Thank goodness for the simply ordinary degree of ethical behavior from state level GOP officials (esp the Secretary of State and Governor in GA, but many others nationwide). I respect them for standing up to Trump and his minions even if I disagree with them on policy.
A little humour, if I may, from the irrepressible Andy Borowitz (another "rock" I rely on to get through all this!). In the spirit of Andy Borowitz, a friend of mine reminded me of a quote about Cruz from the much-missed Al Franken: "You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz."
Thank you for calling attention - with data - to the role of the NY Times and other publications in endlessly repeating and recycling lies, conspiracy theories, tweets, and other mayhem from Trump and the Kamikaze Caucus of the Republican Party. Their aim plainly being to disrupt, not govern, the daily bouts of hyperventilating concern and outrage just add fuel, and credibility, to their scorched earth politics. Of course the "news" must be reported - but they might fulfill their journalistic obligations by removing coverage of these antics to small, discrete sections in their publications that readers might access (or not) at their leisure.
The use of repeated baseless investigations seems like an extension of the Karl Rove tactic of repeating a lie over and over again until it becomes accepted as truth. Rove didn’t invent it, but he certainly made extensive use of it. And it seems to work. Just look at how Republicans kept trickle down economics alive when all evidence has been to the contrary. The curious part is that the conservative base doesn’t just allow the GOP to promote false narratives, they seem to understand it’s their duty to amplify them. So there is a positive feedback loop of strategic lying taking over the conservative playbook. The bigger the lie, the louder it gets and the more it gets repeated. Unless there is a serious penalty for creating lie storms like this, they will only continue to propagate.
Once again I arise to the onset of a severe headache after reading the first paragraph or two of this column. Two points in particular set me off today.
First - Who exactly are the representatives of representative government representing? "Biden’s transition spokesperson ... called their efforts a “stunt.” He isn’t wrong." There is no public groundswell of concern about election fraud and to the best of my knowledge there never was been.
Trump introduced the notion of fraud BEFORE he was elected the first time, screaming about RIGGED elections. Had the media been more demanding of evidence at the time perhaps the "issue" would have been muted. He introduced it again well before the general election this time and again the media abetted the claim by failing to demand that he show his cards. In both cases the Democrats failed to push back forcefully, presumably because they thought he had no chance in 2016, and because they overestimated the degree of voter fatigue with his antics in 2020
So these "representatives" seem to have chosen to die on a hill of their own making, despite the 60+ legal challenges having produced nothing. Nada. Zip. Zero. They've manufactured a case, couched in the gravitas of "precedent." It's a doomed effort that benefits no one but their image in Trump's eyes. It only serves as justification for their own future forays into greater voter suppression.
Second - What cat's got the Democrats' tongues? Taking the high road is morally admirable and has yielded exactly nothing. George McGovern vs Richard Nixon? Too liberal. Jimmy Carter as contrapoint to the corrupt Richard Nixon? One and done. Michael Dukakis after 8 years of Reagan? Blown out, wins only 10 states, yet "improves upon" the results of the Democrats in the previous two elections.
The GOP has thrown chaff in the radar of Democrats' messaging for years through the dirty tactics of Lee Atwater, the groundless yet persistent hearings on Benghazi, and flooding the media with the noise of Clinton's emails. Coupled with the media vascillating between "balanced" coverage and the "entertainment value" of Trump, the Democrats have failed, yet again, to adopt tactics to parry the GOP's obstructive strategies. They seem powerless to either borrow from the GOP playbook (and its associated stench) or to just become more adept at developing aggressive approaches to counter the GOP by uncovering its individual and collective failings to serve its constituents and the country as a whole.
I could go on but it's only 5:00 AM and it's been an exhausting day already. As comedian Wanda Sykes said of Black people in America, "we need a better PR person."
Oh, if we could only take a break from this seditious nonsense and rest peacefully for a day. Our work can never be done as informed, engaged citizens if we are to protect ourselves from these autocrats and preserve our democracy. None of this is just about Trump and what he has created. He has been their useful idiot. As we now know, there are other autocrats in waiting - more polished and even more duplicitous. I read a very informative, revealing thread about Josh Hawley on Twitter tonight and how he has been working toward this moment since he was a teenager. We need to know the “Hawleys” and their agendas. You can read the thread here (no Twitter account required): https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1345464374593519617.html?fbclid=IwAR2kh5s9MrPpJtrOBjGjJ2YaD6PVdXecZKX4GQjRAkgdGbgsUEeFsfVYVL4
Thank you HRC, for pointing out the fact that modern elections, especially the 2020 election, are probably the most honest in our history.
The Republicans know they cannot win a fair, open, honest election. What the Sedition Eleven are doing now, what the Republican Party has been doing over the last forty years, is to undermine small d democracy in our country, but not by old school, third world stuffing of ballot boxes. Without voter suppression, gerrymandered congressional districts, the Electoral College system, ginning up investigations into nothing by the ongoing coordinated mis-information campaign of the talk radio/Fox News propaganda industrial complex, meaningless congressional votes, (how many votes to repeal ACA? 40? 50?) the Republicans know they would become politically irrelevant. They are masters at getting enough people to vote against their own best interests to remain politically viable.
In other words, Republicans do all they can to avoid democracy and the democratic processes of government. This is sedition. This is treason.
The Lincoln Project recently released a brilliant new video introducing us to the Senators from the new #JimCrowCaucus.
#RememberTheirNames: @HawleyMO @tedcruz @RandPaul @SenTomCotton
and the corporate America titans who are funding them: @ATT @Citibank @CharlesSchwab
#EveryVoteCounts
https://www.newsweek.com/new-lincoln-project-ad-calls-ted-cruz-others-jim-crow-caucus-amid-election-challenges-1558522
Thank you Dr. Richardson, for once again enunciating so well the current political situation.
I am furious at the Senators and Representatives who are perpetrating this sham, and shameful, fraud. I am furious that the current President has refused to peacefully transfer power. I am furious that the current Vice President, ever the faithful lap dog, is now egging on these people.
These Senators and Reps talk about wanting to satisfy the concerns of their constituents. Apparently they do not realize that some (many?) of their constituents are part of the 85 million plus people who voted for Presodent-Elect Biden and Vice President -Elect Harris. They are, as you have so often written about, deligitimizing our votes - we are the mudsills who don't deserve to vote, in their opinion, and certainly don't deserve to elect who we want to steer our country forward. They won't succeed, but their actions are so damaging. "Sedition Caucus" indeed.
AND they are doing all of this while hundreds of thousands of us are dying from a pandemic. Disgusting.
I am exhausted by this never-ending election, but I won't sit down and shut up either. January 20th can't come fast enough.
What can or should we the people do about this latest mockery of our government? I am in GA and I am sure Tuesday will turn into a circus. I am so disgusted by these white men’s antics to gain personal power that I want to do something. I work Voter Protection now to help assure the frightened electorate that they can vote and have their vote count but it just doesn’t seem like enough. These men should not be holding a public office.
Gomert, whose moronic case was thrown out of court yesterday, last night called for violence to happen in order to prevent Biden's assumption of office. https://www.thedailybeast.com/louie-gohmert-calls-for-street-violence-as-pence-lawsuit-loss-sends-maga-world-spiraling
This is a felony, my friends. Incitement to violence is a federal crime. I don't understand why DAs are not arresting these people. It isn't just the complicity of the media, which love to focus on scandals if they involve women as the baddies (for instance the appalling graft, corruption, and bribery of rich people to get their kids into colleges--most people are aware of only a couple of these cases, which indicted [and jailed in the former instance] Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, but the rest of the iceberg is mostly male). The entire political and legal system is designed to ignore what morons like Cruz and Co do on the basis of "white boyz will be boyz" (and yes, I know some female enablers of the patriarchy are in there too). Instead of simply laughing at them, we need to demand that they be treated like other criminals and prosecuted and punished for their crimes.
I hold the op-ed columnist (and Pulitzer alumna) Maureen Dowd in contempt because of her relentless campaign against the Clintons, whom she hates with a level of vitriol that makes it, well, weird. I don't like them either, but Dowd did a lot to make the Cheeto palatable to some NYTimes readers because they bought into her animus. Her whining for the last four years and her poor-meism infuriates me--and a lot of other readers who persist in pointing out that she helped get the deranged corn chip elected. The media need a reboot, but so does the entire political system, and "professional' politicians need to be indicted and imprisoned for that to happen. Bring it on.
I don't know how Biden and Harris are holding up under this onslaught of fascist propaganda. I don't know why there seem to be only two principled pols in the Gormless (Russian) Operative Party left--and they (Sasse and Romney) are unreliable actors at the best of times. The cognitive dissonance is absolutely blowing my mind.
The next two days are going to be awful.
How can we, citizens, effectively push back?
The current effort by the Sedition Caucus will likely fail, but it is a prologue to the behavior we will see in the coming session of Congress and throughout the land.
This behavior will be cloned in State Houses controlled by Trumpists, parroted in allied media outlets, and spread far and wide through social media. The threat to Constitutional Democracy is manifest and the likelihood that far-right extremists will take to the streets to mirror the behavior of their elected representatives is high.
I’ve begun researching the issues, looking at Biden’s agenda and the likely challenges. Climate, taxes, policing reforms – for example – will all be met by objections, many of which will be constructed from the cloth of Trumpist propaganda and not from math, science, or historical experience. The other area of great concern is the growth of far-right extremist groups and their symbiotic relationship with Trumpist officials such as Cruz & Co.
The fronts on which the struggle against the forces of darkness will be waged are many and varied – we all need to be engaged.
Unworthy they are indeed. As long as groups like the Sedition Caucus can use tens of thousands of false accusations to create a lasting impression of non-existent election theft, this maneuver will repeat every time Republicans lose the Presidency.
Lies will always travel faster than the truth but I'm relieved our institution's speed bumps slowed them down 60 times in great fashion. The only cure for the power of ignorance and lies is the wisdom that comes from people being informed of the truth.
Social media and a complicit Press give lies validity but newsletters such as this one, not podcasts or YouTube videos, can erase pseudo-certainty with undeniable truth grounded in fact.
Here's to the New Pamphleteers!
That last sentence of the closing paragraph sums it up so precisely:
"Democracy depends on a willingness to transfer power peacefully from one group of leaders to another. By revealing that they refuse to do so, the members of the “Sedition Caucus,” as they are being called on social media, are proving they are unworthy of elected office."
We need to get them voted out of office. We cannot relax our vigilance until democracy is secure once more. Indeed, perhaps we and future generations can never again assume that democracy will survive despite a "few" corrupt self-serving legislators, because it has turned out that so many Republicans are cut from the same cloth. Not that every Democrat is guaranteed to be morally straight, but these past 4 years under 45 seems to have brought out a lot more sycophantic morally broken Republicans than I ever expected to exist.
Thanks as always to Dr. Heather for tipping over the rocks and shining her light on the evil that would've remained hidden. Rest well! 💜
Properly applied, modern wood glue forms a bond between two pieces of wood that is stronger that the wood itself. And so it is with the “movement conservatives”. The glue is poverty, which gives permission to generations of under-education, flourishing of beliefs in the fanciful and the vile. There is one true religion, there is one best color of skin, there is one best government, there is no good government, unfettered capitalism will eventually provide the best living for all people, and there is no right to privacy in the pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness.
Given enough stress, the wood fails. Or in this case the muscle, bone, heart, brain and soul fails. There is civil war ongoing in the conservative movement. In the case of the men like Cruz, Harley, Cotton and the fellow acolytes, their brains and hearts simply cannot comprehend their version of truth being exposed as false.
Millions of self-aware people of all persuasions have seen the lie that the government is the enemy. Good government is the essential ingredient in a massive society. The young generations will not accept racism, sexism, systemic injustice, nor generational poverty in any group of humans. I believe(and I pray) that djt and the current version of conservatism is the nadir for our journey. Let us stand witness to their demise.
Sedition Caucus indeed ... and each member should be charged and convicted accordingly, followed by removal from office. Their actions cannot go unaddressed.
Truly outrageous how thoroughly Trump has corrupted the Republicans in both Houses of Congress. I never expected anything non-corrupt from Trump, but have been astounded over and over again, even when his grip on power ought to be loosening, that Trump has the GOP politicians scared of the shadow of this charlatan and his "base." -- Thank goodness for the simply ordinary degree of ethical behavior from state level GOP officials (esp the Secretary of State and Governor in GA, but many others nationwide). I respect them for standing up to Trump and his minions even if I disagree with them on policy.
A little humour, if I may, from the irrepressible Andy Borowitz (another "rock" I rely on to get through all this!). In the spirit of Andy Borowitz, a friend of mine reminded me of a quote about Cruz from the much-missed Al Franken: "You have to understand that I like Ted Cruz probably more than my colleagues like Ted Cruz. And I hate Ted Cruz."
https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/study-average-american-can-stand-four-seconds-of-ted-cruz?fbclid=IwAR15U8HZZKthQJCPZ-O269f8v84Vq4JC-pQA8Sj1D65v3GqCJbPJOrtkkuM
Thank you for calling attention - with data - to the role of the NY Times and other publications in endlessly repeating and recycling lies, conspiracy theories, tweets, and other mayhem from Trump and the Kamikaze Caucus of the Republican Party. Their aim plainly being to disrupt, not govern, the daily bouts of hyperventilating concern and outrage just add fuel, and credibility, to their scorched earth politics. Of course the "news" must be reported - but they might fulfill their journalistic obligations by removing coverage of these antics to small, discrete sections in their publications that readers might access (or not) at their leisure.