Today Trump continued his assault on our democracy, trying to overturn what at this point is a very clear victory for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.
What a terrible irony that today is the anniversary of Lincoln's brief address that shook the world. It is also Joe Biden's birthday (I just heard announced on NPR). That seems somehow fitting. Two profoundly human men with flaws but with the vision and will to push valiantly toward a better world, thwarted by people who, in my opinion, are the embodiment of evil.
The image published widely yesterday of Mad Hatter Giuliani, hair dye dripping down his face like black blood oozing out of his head, is the stuff of nightmares. What was coming out of his mouth was even more nightmarish. As reported in the WaPo: “That press conference was the most dangerous 1 hr 45 minutes of television in American history,” tweeted Chris Krebs, the cybersecurity official fired Tuesday by Trump after he bucked the president by contradicting misinformation about voter fraud. “And possibly the craziest.”
Most governors in the US--even most of the Republicans, with the exception of the Moron of Missouri, Mike Parson, and a few others (Texas . . . Florida . . .)--are only too aware that the pandemic situation in their states has reached a point that it can no longer be controlled and that they desperately need help in order to try to protect their citizens against themselves, as these very citizens in Gormless Outré Party-controlled states scream at healthcare workers that Covid is a hoax while the EMTs are attempting to save their lives. And TruNero fiddles (and golfs) while the country burns around him and his lackeys snuffle around his diaper-clad fundament telling him that everything is wonderful.
I want to see indictments. I want to see public trials for treason, contempt of court, corruption. I am fine with naming and shaming these revolting specimens of inhumanity. I have reached the point where my psyche seeks vengeance as well as justice.
Don't forget that the South Dakota Gov noem has refused a mask mandate or any mitigation efforts. We continue to watch her continually lie to her constituents. She is as crazy as our el president.
Thank you for focusing my thoughts on this issue today. Rage and depression are fighting it out in my head. The psychic seesaw is almost unbearable without a clear path forward.
These are indeed dangerous times. Even the faux-moderate Republican governor of NH, Chris Sununu (yes, he's the son of THAT one) has issued a mask mandate. True to form, though, he has made no effort to support the mandate with any enforcement nor has he made any effort to close public institutions and non-necessity businesses that may well be contributing to the spread.
Last night, after taking in all the ugly noise of the daily news cycle, I couldn’t sleep.
I missed your Thursday chat because it fell in the middle of dinner. I tried three times to play it, but each time it cut off after about 15 minutes. I sorely needed an HCR fix, so I re-watched your initial installment of “The American Paradox” and upon finishing that, noticed a video I had not seen before: “20 Questions | Heather Cox Richardson on Shock Events and the Trump Presidency” recorded on April 3, 2017. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6Z4aecY0c)
This video was recorded before you had appeared on my radar. Two things stood out to me. First, your voice – the voice you used was authoritative and confident as I would have expected it to be, but there was also a tone of urgency that was unfamiliar to me. You were seated with distinguished colleagues, all of whom had opinions on the matter being discussed, and it was clear from the outset that you had them in the palm of your hand. You had broken through the haze of the early Trump efforts to misdirect and dissimulate and had sounded the alarm that our Democracy was in danger. This was not so much an exercise in history or political science as it was a real-time call to action. I could see it in the eyes of the assembled scholars as they listened to you – and I suspect you sensed it too.
I am passing this on to my small group of friends and associates for three reasons: first, because of your prescience in naming the threat before many were aware of its depth; second, because the threat will not disappear with the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris; and finally, because of your full-throated belief in the Constitution and of the power of the American people to right the situation through active engagement in the process.
I realize this is slightly off-topic for today, but not completely. Your words back in 2017 are as relevant today as they were then. Today, as Trump’s increasingly overt and illegal efforts to subvert Democracy from inside the White House appear doomed to failure, you hold the torch of liberty high and bright. But you do so much more than that.
If Democracy is to endure, we will need you and people like you to help us all remain honest and focused on the truth of the matters at hand, but as importantly, to inspire us by the examples of those who came before us, people who “gave the last full measure of devotion” that we might know the joys of liberty.
Earlier this year I also found Heather's 2017 Shock Event video. I was impressed by her urgent plain speaking among a panel of academic pontificators. The term "shock event" took me back to the experience of so many of us that someone like trump had won the election to become our President. The years ticked by with a growing list of unbelievable trump administration transgressions, repeatedly taking our 2016 question, "How bad will it be," to lower and lower depths.
In 2017, Heather pointed out that the American political realignment following trump was cyclical, and had been previously experienced in this country in the 1860s, 1890s, and 1920s. During those times, the country's rulers espoused an ideology that was not based in reality, creating deep polarization, until those being "screwed" wake up and go back to basic political principles with the initiation of economic reforms that impact prevailing racism, sexism, and xenophobia.
Words of inspirational good sense and hope to carry us forward.
Heather, thank you and R Dooley thank you so much. I always find inspiration on this chat board. It's like a vacation from the current crazed disinformation served up by djt and his serfs.
I loves Heather's prediction that Trump would resign by the summer of 2017. If only that had come true! I valued the idea that there is no President who is without big mistakes and that people use those issues to "taint" a President's term. The perniciousness of this collection of "taints", if you will, falls short of a full reckoning of the whole of a President's history while in office. Thanks for posting the discussion. It's as if this happened yesterday because we remain mired in this "shock."
That word, "taint" brings to mind a word I heard growing up in the south- South Carolina in particular - "haint". I remember the first time I heard it - so evocative. It was used to describe a spirit or ghost, or to haunt - which seems appropriate in this context. People in the Low Country would,and still do, paint their doors with Periwinkle Blue to keep the haints at bay.
It was quite a parting shot in that forum - I heard one of panelists say something like - "I hope you're right" ... and Yes, it is as fresh today as it was then.
Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney (all of whom have congratulated Mr. Biden) should tell the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, that unless he urges President Trump to stop blocking the transition, they will leave the Republican caucus. This would mean that the G.O.P. would lose its Senate majority, and Mr. McConnell would lose his position as majority leader. (From Today's NY Times)
I just can't imagine any of them being brave enough to do this. At the same time, to what end are they all turning a blind eye to Trump's maddness? I understand some are most likely still being blackmailed (which needs serious investigation) but why still support Trump when most understand he has lost the election and is dangerous?
Are sure it was from The New York Times? As nice as that might be, it's the kind of speculation that the newspaper doesn't engage in unless it's in an opinion piece.
I’m just so furious, appalled, disappointed, saddened, sickened, and confounded by Mitch McConnell. He could help Americans and refuses to do so. I want someone to make a documentary expose’ about him.
As always, thank you, thank you, thank you for your nightly efforts at sanity. Your words this morning led me to write about a time in my life, long ago . . .
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272 Words:
We started country school that fall in 1963 in the hot and dry heat and wind of late August. Thirty-six or us in Kindergarten through 8th grade with two teachers. Without knowing why, all of us at all levels of age and ability began memorizing words - 272 of them. None of us asked why as the learning was just mixed throughout our curriculum. Later that fall we studied the civil war and touched on slavery as we learned more words and sentences. We had all begun to know that this was the “Gettysburg Address” written by one or our greatest Presidents.
Two hundred seventy-two words. Memorized. Memorialized. Delivered to our parents on Tuesday, November 19, 1963. It was a bright, warm, and sunny Friday afternoon outside by the flagpole. With parents around, we “bigs and littles” recited Lincoln’s words after raising the Stars and Stripes, to which we recited the Pledge of Allegiance. After it all, we finished this country school program by singing “America the Beautiful.” It was perfect.
Three days later, on a Friday, our teachers abruptly announced to us all that President Kennedy was shot and killed. We went home immediately. Our pride of performance earlier in the week shattered and laid waste and yet we all believed in President Lincoln’s direction and leadership when he stated years ago that “we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
I was in gym class and we were sent home. Not a dry eye, not a word was spoken for days (unusual in my opinionated family). I still choke up when I think about it. “Bye bye miss American pie”. And it seems to have deteriorated from there.
I was watching the President's car drive thru Dallas on tv; my son was about 1 year old running around the house. It was horrible - sitting there & seeing it happen. Still think about it & find it hard to believe. Like the good people being fired from this administration right now - it was so many good decent people KILLED for trying to make things better. Youre right, downhill from there.
It was, as you all say in one way or another, a horrific, terrifying day. I was working for the Post Office in NYC at the time and had the day off. I was listening to an all-news station when the bulletin was broadcast and was stunned and devastated. Then I began to realize just how tragic the event was, not only for the President’s family and friends, but also for every citizen of the nation; In fact, for every person in the world.
In many ways it was comparable to the death of FDR near the end of WWII. It was all the more terrible because it was murder — an assassination — the intentional taking of the life of a beloved public figure, this country’s vaunted leader, and by tradition, the leader of the Free World.
Within the African American community — I believe we were still “negroes” at that time — the impact mimicked that of the sudden death of “our” President Roosevelt. Many of us in the community were praying for, and expecting, an administration that would mirror the sorts of positive racial developments we had welcomed from the Great Depression and wartime leader and his First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Now those hopes were dashed; there would be no “second coming”. We were on our own again.
Still, the only social “downslope” we anticipated would be the crushing of our dreams for the revival of at least a modicum of upliftment from the “New Frontier”.
We were still on the bottom, and it appeared we would stay there for the foreseeable future. We certainly held out little chance of aid from a Johnson administration.
We were pleasantly, if only moderately, surprised!
And that wasnt the end of it - so many more - people who tried to make things better. Johnson did better than expected, as you said. It always seems there are more deaths of people who are doing the right thing. I could go on & make a comparison but I guess its better to leave it there.
I was in a bar in Rio with school friends. Waiter brought us our frothy Brahma Chopps & plopped a radio on the table, blasting the news in Portuguese of course.
This is not going to end well, no matter the actual outcome. I say this because he has poisoned his base past the point of reason and they now unquestioningly repeat his ridiculous lies and are in a froth about Democrats “cheating” when the only cheating identified has been by republicans. There are too many of them /his base for this to just die down and go away, even IF and when Biden and Harris are inaugurated. This is now our reality and we all must remain engaged in the political process and not become complacent if we are fortunate enough to have a Biden-Harris administration. If we become complacent we will surely face worse threats in the not-too-distant future. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people requires active participation and engagement by the people. We forgot that for a while. We are living through the unpleasant reminder. Let’s not forget again.
I worry about how easily Democrats cave. The way the close knit races went to Republicans and it never occured to the Democrat to challenge that. Maybe their state didn't allow for a recount but it just seems so easy for Republicans to walk over us all. They shout and everyone pays attention, we state clear sourced information and precedent and are ignored. Our calls for Munchin and the rest to come and explain their actions, ignored and we never press forward. Speaking of which, Munchin's actions yesterday seem frightening and destructive- anything to hurt Democrats and next Administration and no one challenges them.
Yes, I agree. What are the next steps? I did appreciate reading that some group of overseers wrote to Emily Murphy to demand her explanation for stonewalling the passing on of the keys to transition. But how can they bypass McConnell? I have become a troll on his twitter account, replying to every tweet, denouncing his lies and obfuscation. He makes me crazy.
One of my students' families living in a hotel were about to be evicted last night at 5pm in Minnesota. Five children and their single mom, with no car to move into. And I feel a seething rage at McConnell, who I hold directly responsible for their fear, sleeplessness and misery. He will go to hell if that really exists. If hell is that you live in people's memories as a horrible human being, Trump and many of his followers are on their way there. Luckily, our PTA covered the rent gap at the hotel. I work in the best school community. But meanwhile, Moscow Mitch keeps blaming Pelosi. 😡
And here is the goofy thing I keep coming back to: how has he made the lives of those that make up his base, better? ARe there lives better than they were four years ago? They are so fooled, so blinded. Woe unto all of us that they make up roughly half the country.
What's in a name? Democrats or Republicans....who knows? I have always found it fascinating to study the mirror reversal of philosophy and support that has occurred in the Democratic and Republican Parties. When you compare the Jacksonian/Plantation Democrats with their Biden descendants or the Lincoln Republicans with the Trumpian Orcdom GOP you have to wonder how this could be; parties changing, so to speak and without other than metaphorical thoughts, from black to white and vice versa over a period of 200 years. In other countries, when a party's philosophy falters and becomes irrelevant to the world that is evolving, it disappears or becomes a minor force, now and ever only on the fringes of power. A case in point is the UK Whigs, dominant and continually revolving with the Tories in the 19th C (Gladstone/Disraeli battles). They were amost totally replaced by the Labour Party as the Whigs couldn't adapt to the changes in their basic support and the world in the 20th C.... while the age-old Tory Party sails on as ever, stable in its attitude, values and basic beliefs....with a "little wink" now and again, of course, to the people....which is enough to maintain their relevance. Leaving the British people often voting against a particular party or politician rather than for the other!
The division between Tories and Whigs mirrors the original 17th/18th Cs structure of political parties in America. It is perhaps time to oblige the parties to evolve with their time. Parties must reflect a common set of values, ideas and beliefs in order to hold together and really represent the aspirations of all of their members. The stark differences between the Centrist and "Radical" Democrats and between the Orcdom and the Rino Republicans needs to be expressed by a schism in the parties structures. Wasn't it one of the ""Adam Presidents" that said that the 2 party structure was the biggest danger to American democracy.
It is time that the American people brought their party structure under their control and out of the hands of those who currently control and FINANCE them. The parties must both respond much more closely to their electorates and represent faithfully their points of view and not function as organizations that exist to "educate" the people on what they should want, think and feel. The age of the political party as "ecumenical councils" is over. It has led us to this situation where the only question is getting power and keeping it.
The 2 party system no longer truly represents the American People.....we must now go at least to a 4 party system or a multi-party arrangement and the obviously necessary consensual alliances or coalitions to govern democratically and effectively in the 21st C. It is time that we, as individuals, once are able to vote strictly for people and parties that truly reflect our individual views....and not just to reject the other! Only the people have the power to force the system to evolve and to truly reflect its needs.
Observed at close range coalition-based politics while living in Republic of Ireland for the better part of the decade of the 90's. Currently watching Borgen, a series about Danish politics which is all about how the multiple political parties forge alliances. Often wondered if we could really make it work here. I believe you are right in thinking that the time for political evolution has arrived. But it takes more than likeabilty or branding....demands real intelligence and tactical savvy as well as negotiating skills. All the while trying to hold on to personal and party integrity. So many of our current politicians have been "trained" for a system that no longer serves our needs as a country.. The evolution to something else will be interesting! Happy belated Birthday !
Too true ! Even when you have a multi-party system it certainly doesn't necesarily improve the intelligence, competence and capacity of the politicians. We are all undergoing a significant shortage even a total absence of that....and if you also require integrity and charisma...god forbid! It's the banal result of the growing irresponsibility of the people, the transfer of power to the judges and the concentration on uniquely material values.
"The parties must both respond much more closely to their electorates and represent faithfully their points of view and not function as organizations that exist to "educate" the people on what they should want, think and feel."
That is more likely to happen if Citizens United is overturned and dark money is eliminated from politics.
The Birthday news gets about! Thisweek I have agreed with much of what was said and wasn't inspired to add anything to the thoughts of you all.
Third Party break-aways have been attempted over the years. Pre-Civil war, I seem to recollect the formation of "western farmers party"....I forget the name...which threatened the dominence of the other 2, the formation of the Republican Party was a break-out from the Whigs, Teddy Roosevelte took the "Progressives" out of the Republicans in his failed bid for a final. It can be done! It hasn't worked yet but now the differences are so flagrant and widespread the only real thing that is keeping the Parties together is money and the thirst for power.
The "farmers' Party" i refer to was in reality my recollection of the "Populist (People's) Party of the 1890s ...Heather's West from Appomattox" pp255-6 amongst others.
I don’t know if I’m sadder or more outraged that day after day I hear this s—t pouring out of Washington and NO ONE DOES ANYTHING, or, in fairness, so it appears. My one Senator, Alexander, is at least responsive when I call or write, but he’s retiring. (He recently voted against another McConnell “must rush” nomination to the Fed Reserve and she was not confirmed.) Marsha Blackburn has her head so far up Trump’s butt I don’t know what she’ll do when he’s out of office. Her office hangs up on constituents when asked questions they don’t like. So, who represents me and other Tennesseans in this shitshow from today’s Republicans? It’s all about them and their power.
Chris Krebs, who until this week led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within DHS, said that Thursday’s Trump campaign press conference was “the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history."
Another day. Another trip on the bipolar express. Things are hurtling towards chaos.
What an incredible History Talk today! I listened to it twice, just to pick up some of the details I missed. It was almost symphonic.
In your voice, I heard a growing anxiety that the behavior we are witnessing today harkens back to a very, very dark time in our past; and that while the rule of law still holds, it’s grip is tenuous.
I have viewed almost everything already on her youtube channel, but do not see the most recent, ongoing chats referred to here. Maybe HCR has fallen behind in transferring them to youtube? I would love to see them reach a wider audience.
"And yet, the official Twitter account of the Republican Party endorsed Powell’s statements." WTF! Endorsing lies! Where will this all end? Many here have theories. Heather has history behind her and I value that, but at this moment, I'm afraid of what may come over the next days. That tRump can get away with bringing MI lawmakers to the WH is astounding to me. Not a word mentioning the potential illegality of this (on top of all the other illegal moves he's made over the last 4 years). I hope NY State sends him down the river big time....and Javanka with him.
I don't doubt that tRump will try to influence them in some way....promises of money or a fancy named position in his administration. Who will stop this mad man?
I no longer understand why we believe that the only way our vision of democracy can thrive is if the United States stays together. Can't there be a country that "“conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and another that wants an authoritarian, rich-white-men government in another country that shares the continent with the US, Canada, and Mexico? Since beginning to understand Republicans' aims, I've been asking this. Why didn't we just let the South go? Why don't we now figure out how the people who want to be ruled by rich white men can have that country? I know this may seem outrageous but why are we stuck on the form that the United States of America must take? Why must we insist on this measure based on that form as all the states that currently comprise the USA?
I always appreciate floating this idea, if only as an academic exercise. Case study: what to do with Georgia? How could we relinquish any state where we know voter suppression is rampant? HCR has written about this once or twice since last June, her conclusion being that our fortunes are intertwined in ways that make drawing a line through the country impossible. And the "red states” would never leave -- Their military bases are too dependent upon tax revenue from "democrat cities!".
Thanks to Stacey Abrams and her Fair Fight organization and others who fought voter suppression in Georgia, the state voted for Biden! That is a remarkable turnaround. Now to keep up the efforts to enfranchise more and more who can keep the state blue. The Democratic turnout for the January 5th runoff is going to be substantial to get Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock elected to the Senate. Let's make that happen!
As a free thinking progressive liberal that has voluntarily lived in the South the vast majority of my life, "let[ting] the South go" is super offensive to me. My preference is to engage, educate those who are open (and there are quite a few) and fight rather than have to move "to another country." I've also lived through the current administration watching my SO increasingly sucked into the cult of 45 and it's an addiction, so I have compassion and hope and a real drive and desire to understand how a person who used to think for themselves got hooked. Thanks so much for being willing to let us all go without really knowing ALL of us.
I’m a Hoosier that moved to first GA (the currently famous Floyd County) and then TN. I love the South and its people. I try not to generalize because, after being gone from a northern state for 40+ years, for all I know the north has its own problems. Although, I. It’s observe that Indiana is really a misplaced Southern state. 😙
You also have to consider that the "terrotorial split" is no longer North-South. Look at Atlanta, Detroite, Austin etc...the split is Urban/Rural. Look at the sociology and education, age and wealth breakdowns...this is about different visions of Amarica. There is no longer one dominent view of what the American Dream means.
This is also very much about those parts of the country that wield disproportionate power over Congress and the Electoral College and will NOT give that power up.
So, okay. Given this obstinance of theirs. Who benefits? The perseverance on how the "other" must change is driving me batty. It's a relinquishment of any possibility of creative thinking or personal power that only comes from self-scrutiny. You and I hold the power to transform. Our view, our motivations, our actions. We change ourselves and realize that it is we-me-us-that will and can break the stasis. There exists a "force" - the elephant in the room - behind the stasis (of rigid splintering of the whole) that benefits from it and promotes it. It throws out a red herring like using "socialism" (while simultaneously ignoring our socialistic structures: libraries, military, veterans hospitals, medicare, social security, police, public schools, national parks) to throw the fear of God into voting for a candidate advocating meaningful and science based changes. We collude with that that wants us divided by going reactive with fear instead of being open and questioning our own reactivity and assumptions and the motivations of those making the charge. I implore you to investigate what Wolin names as our "inverted totalitarianism" and the research done by professors Gilens and Page on the actual loss of people power in our legislative decisions. Our knowledge/awareness of this is critical. We cannot change what remains outside of our range of vision. As a sign up on a funky storefront in Oakland shouted: "Knowledge is Power."
They won't give it up voluntarily, for sure. That's why all those national Republicans who know better have kept silent all along while democracy is demolished - they know they profit from the shenanigans. Still, there are far more of us than there are of them. Biden/Harris won that election by plenty. The contest is not over.
Read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. It is a fictionalized account of exactly what you propose. The problem is that the people need to be able to choose which "America" they want to live in but herein is the conundrum - the old white dude government doesn't survive without underlings and workers.
Goodness -- what evidence at all is there that the South is any different from the North these days? If anything (and even this is dubious), it's more that the 2 coasts that are different from the center. But in any case, the point of quoting Lincoln is that we are one country.
Jettisoning entire geographic sections of our country, even as a thought experiment, misses the point entirely. The difference has never been geographical, even though the Southern states’ secession in 1860-1 made it look that way. Back then, as it is now, it’s a war of the oligarchs against the rest of us. For everyone who says we should’ve let the South go, let me just say as someone born in New Orleans, I am relieved and grateful I was born in the USA not the CSA. And as for the coasts being so different from the center, are you so sure about that? There are liberal bubbles and conservative bubbles scattered all over the US. We need to get away from thinking that the solution lies in red state/blue state map we’ve become accustomed to, and start addressing the causes behind the rise of oligarchy and the increasing acts of authoritarianism in our country.
This fact that the political divide today is not geographic is actually a strength on which to build social change. Like border towns, it’s when we are all mixed up—working together, engaging in commerce, attending school, even falling in love—that we stay grounded in each other’s humanity.
For those of us on this side of the trumpian divide, we must continue to amplify Reality and principles of democracy to counter the authoritarian narrative increasingly based on outright lies.
Ellie, Re your comment "that the political divide today is not geographic is actually a strength on which to build social change. Like border towns, it’s when we are all mixed up—working together, engaging in commerce, attending school, even falling in love—that we stay grounded in each other’s humanity."
Your wise comment strikes a deep cord in me, and provides a seed for co-creating a positive future. It's important for us to realize that this is a strength! It is in being in shared spaces and experiences that we have the possibility to find much needed common ground. For example, involving people in interfaith experiences will help us reach across the great divide of religion. In the meantime, we must poke holes in and mute the trumpian loudspeaker bombarding us with malicious misinformation. I would love ideas about how to do that.
The ideas of how to poke holes in the toxic narrative are rooted in the millions of variations of people interacting in, as you say, shared space. As we have learned from this pandemic, space can be shared by means of electronic technology.
For those of us on this side of the neoliberal Democratic divide, we must challenge the absence of authentic sighting of: the realities of the poor, joblessness, homelessness, children in cages, the abyss:wealth inequality, systemic racism, climate catastrophe, lack of access to medical treatment due to for-profit based health care, endless war, disintegrating infrastructure, the trail of tears wrought by the meritocracy neoliberal elite - all of which are rooted in the Old Guard/Corporate Democratic chronic compulsion to hinge themselves and their world view to that of Wall Street and corporate titans and billionaires. "Our inverted totalitarianism pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, civil liberties, freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the iconography, traditions and language of American patriotism, but it has effectively seized all of the mechanisms of power to render the citizen impotent." Wolin's analysis in www.Truthdig.org What changes people's minds, really? Is it citizens organizing together in greater and greater numbers to insist on "meaningful changed conditions" behind standard bearers who authentically "walk their talk" and attain meaningful political power to effect these changes? Or - "given" a corporate owned (slanted, propagandistic) media - proselytizing the Trumpian side about Reality and the principles of democracy? We assert the "Others" on the other side, just don't see the Reality. I've done so myself. A projection. Instead of focusing on the limitations of the "Other", we must pull back the projection. And, own the Reality we have co-created with the Corporatocracy through our passivity in confronting its octopus-like strangulation of the Public Good through its ownership of "levers of power."
I am in Floriduh, where the predominance of backward, ignorant ppl elected a Repugnant tRump Suckophant for governor. It was close but Ron DeathSantis is what we are stuck with. However, those of us in South Florida would probably build a wall if we became part of The Old South. Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade & Monroe would likely secede. The selling point would be No More Taxation Without Representation. We would keep all our sinful Money here.
Florida voters also passed a $15 minimum wage this year, and felon re-enfranchisement the last time around. I'm guessing there will be another referendum to remove the legislature's use of fines to block felons actually voting. That's likely to make a significant difference - the FL legislators certainly think so.
I rather enjoy the fact that Texas can legally secede because it became a state by treaty. Secession comes up pretty often in Texas which is becoming a blue state.
From what you have shared about your life, you are a walking textbook of how social change happens across divisions of race, sexual preference, and generations, particularly as reflected in your mother.
Agreed. Here in the bluest of states, Massachusetts, I see Trump bumperstickers when I walk around the block. A certain member of my family is dating a person whose father is a Trump fan (fortunately, he is also a covid realist)... The post Civil War South only voted white supremacist majority after everyone else had been terrorized out of voting.
Right on! It's a question about how many of us are willing to look the truth in the eye and acknowledge the reality. We no longer have a democracy. We have "inverted totalitarianism". Google: Wolin. Google: Gillens and Page. The inflammatory "Socialist" scam is a deliberate red herring. Oligarchs clearly know the only way they can maintain their political and economic domination - the abyss of wealth inequality - is keeping us - the people - in the dark about the extent of their insinuation into the levers of power and influence. Stay ignorant. And, go down. Wake up. We can change what "is" - but only by seeing "it."
I totally agree. As things now look Paul Krugman sees better than a 50/50 chance that America will become a failed state in the next four years with Senate obstruction. On top of that Dems won no, as in in zero, state legislative battles that will determine the next round of re-districting. Balance against that the Brookings report showing that Trump won over 2,400 counties in the U.S. compared to less than 500 for Biden. Yet the Biden counties account for 70 percent of GDP in 2018 while the Trump counties, just 29 percent. On top of all this America lacks the will and consensus to undertake deep constitutional reforms to right the substantive flaws in our system so abundantly made manifest in 2020.
IMHO — For the same reason that the south lost last time. Fantasies about rich white American aristocrats always require slaves. A new economic Underground Railroad would develop and bleed their new fantasy dry — after much chaos and loss.
Well then do millions of us move to settle into the right place? How can that possibly work? And how would a contiguous land mass be appropriated? Right now it would be a red country down the middle and two blue countries down the east and west coasts.
I don't know. I only raise it as a question so we can all discuss. People are already quite mobile. This is a difficult question for me to answer given that I'm from Massachusetts. Would I be willing to move from Alabama to Massachusetts - if it were all made manifest what the Republican Party is for, would I want to leave? Would I want to stay and fight? Why, or why not? Take a few steps back, and start over. Attract people to a place that really is a democracy and acts on that, rather than constantly fighting across such polar opposites. Get to where we really are just discussing different means toward the same end, not disputing the facts. Obama gives an interesting example in his interview with Oprah (maybe in the book too which I can't wait to read) of climate change - if we could at least agree to the facts, there might still be different approaches, like "let's adapt" vs "we've got to make deep changes."
I live in Illinois. The idea of a geographical split of the country doesn’t make any sense. It’s a division of political ideaology, not of geography. (There are several excellent comments making that point above.)
But the division is our democratic system or not. And now it's even deeper - we can't even agree on facts. I don't know how it would work but dismissing it out of hand means maybe we don't examine all the options or even see clearly what the stakes are.
I don’t know about you but I am tired of being patient and nice regarding the Repubs and Fake 45. I wish we could bash through the walls of the WH and overtake it. Does that sound crazy? Yes it does, but that is where my head is right now. Everyday is one in disarray and constant distractions. Speaking of craziness... hearing Rudy rant is annoying but seeing his awful hair dye drop down his sweaty face was hilarious. Gosh, I only thought women had menopause!
I think it is dangerous for journalists or any of us to repeat and normalize the Trump theories that (1) he could throw the election to the House (where it would be decided by one vote per state) by preventing states from certifying their results, and (2) Republican state legislatures could legally substitute a Trump slate of electors for the electors chosen in the popular vote election. The first would not be possible. The second would violate the Constitution and laws of the United States, as well as state laws. This does not mean they won't try it; they most likely will try it. We need to know that it is UNLAWFUL so that if it starts to happen, we will oppose it with all our might. Sign up here for updates on when that moment arrives. https://choosedemocracy.us/
1) The only way an election could be decided by the House is if there was an exact tie after all state and federal procedures were completed. That could theoretically happen, and is another reason to get rid of the Electoral College, but it can’t happen this year.
The states' certificates of electoral votes are opened and counted at a joint session of Congress on January 6. See 3 U.S.C. § 15. The Twelfth Amendment, which kicks in at the conclusion of that procedure, says: “The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then . . . the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President, … each state having one vote.”
Let’s pretend states could somehow skip over all state and federal legal requirements and just refuse to certify results, and that they would do so at Trump’s behest. If Trump got PA, MI and WI not to certify their 46 electoral votes, Biden would have 260 electoral votes (306-46), which is not a majority of 538. But the Twelfth Amendment does not say that a candidate must win a majority of the theoretical number of electors that might have been appointed, but that a candidate must win a “majority of the whole number of Electors appointed.” So, the votes of any state that failed to certify would be subtracted from both the numerator and the denominator.
If Trump got PA, MI and WI not to certify their 46 votes, Biden’s 260 votes would be a majority of the 492 Electors appointed (538 – 46). Even if Trump got PA, MI, WI, GA and AZ not to certify their 73 votes, Biden would have a majority of the Electors appointed; he would have 233 electoral votes (306 – 20 (PA) – 16 (MI) – 10 (WI) – 16 (GA) – 11 (AZ)), a majority of 465 (538-73), the “whole number of Electors appointed.”
If Trump somehow got another state not to certify its results, like Nevada with 6 electoral votes, so that Biden had fewer votes than Trump’s 232, the election still would not go to the House. Rather, Trump would be President. I believe that there is zero chance that states with electoral votes adding up to 75 or more will refuse to certify their results.
2) When Congress meets in a joint session on Jan. 6 to count the votes, Congress as a whole could not steal the election for Trump or allow a state legislature to steal the election for Trump.
To steal the election from Biden, 38 electoral votes he won would have to be transferred to Trump. Of the states that went for Biden, 5 have Republican legislatures (PA, MI, WI, AZ, GA), but 3 of those have Democratic governors (PA, MI, WI) and a total of 46 electoral votes. AZ and GA have Republican governors and a total of 27 electoral votes.
Under the Electoral Count Act, it is the "duty of the executive of each State," i.e., the governor, to certify under the seal of the state the electors that were appointed under and pursuant to the laws of the state. See 3 USC s. 6.
If Congress receives one slate of electors and it was certified by the governor, Congress must count those votes unless the House and Senate agree to reject them, which would not happen; the House would not agree even if the Senate would. See 3 U.S.C. s. 15.
If Congress receives two different slates, say one from the governor and one from the state legislature, and “if the two Houses shall disagree, in respect of the counting of such votes, then . . . the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof,” i.e., by the governor, “shall be counted.” 3 USC s. 15.
3) A Republican state legislature could not legally substitute a slate of Trump electors for the electors chosen by popular vote after the election. While the Constitution allows state legislatures to choose the "manner" of appointing electors, Art. II, s. 1, cl. 2, it gives Congress the power to determine the "time of chusing Electors," Art. II, s. 1, cl. 4. Congress has mandated that time as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every fourth year, November 3, 2020. Since long before November 3, 2020, the laws of every state have required electors to be chosen by a popular vote election. Under the Electoral Count Act, a state’s determination of its electors is "conclusive" and governs in the counting of electoral votes by Congress on January 6 only if the state chose its electors under laws enacted prior to November 3 and resolved any disputes by December 8. 3 USC s. 5. If a state submitted a slate of electors chosen by the legislature, contrary to laws enacted prior to November 3, both houses of Congress should agree to reject the legislature's slate. See 3 USC . 15. But if both houses did not agree, and the governor certified Biden electors, Congress would be bound to count only the Biden votes. Id.
Also, it would violate the voters' constitutional right to due process of law to retroactively nullify their votes.
4) In addition, state legislatures are required by their state constitutions to present laws to the governor and obtain his or her signature or override his or her veto. That is just what they did when they enacted laws requiring electors to be chosen by a popular vote election. The Supreme Court has held that when the Constitution authorizes a state legislature to exercise a lawmaking function (as it does in Art. I, s. 4 and Art. II, s. 1, cl. 2), it must comply with the method the state has prescribed for enacting laws, including obtaining the governor's signature or overriding his veto, and nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes them to bypass that method. See Brosofsky, Dorf, and Tribe, State Legislatures Cannot Act Alone In Assigning Electors, Dorf on Law (Sept. 25, 2020), http://www.dorfonlaw.org/2020/09/state-legislatures-cannot-act-alone-in.html; Smiley v. Holm, 285 U.S. 355 (1932); Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm’n, 576 U.S. 787, 817–818 (2015).
The Democratic governors in PA, MI and WI would veto any such law, and the legislatures in those states do not have enough votes to override the governor's veto.
5) If state legislatures submitted enough electoral votes for Trump to steal the election from Biden, and the case got to the Supreme Court as Trump is hoping, then we are on dangerous ground. The Supreme Court decides what the law is, even if every relevant statute and decision says something else. At the same time, the Court's only power lies in its perceived legitimacy.
"Justices" Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito and Thomas made clear in concurring and dissenting opinions in cases concerning a different issue (extended receipt deadlines) the week before the election that they think that because the Constitution allows state legislatures to direct the "manner" of appointing presidential electors and the "Times, Places and Manner" of holding congressional Elections, they have absolute power in doing so, regardless of what their state courts or governors or election boards say, and that the Supreme Court can overrule any other state actor's decision that it thinks does not sufficiently hew to the letter of the state legislature's dictates.
This theory is insane. Among other things, it would overthrow federalism, and it ignores the Court's prior precedent (Smiley, Ariz. State Legislature) requiring state legislatures to exercise their authority to make laws concerning elections in compliance with state constitutional requirements, including executive veto and state court judicial review.
In the same cases, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Kagan, Breyer and Sotomayor disagreed with the hard right "justices." That leaves Barrett, who should obviously recuse herself, or redeem her tarnished reputation by upholding the law. Roberts, who cares about the Court's legitimacy above all else, might convince her.
A la Lincoln, I'm starting to think about what I HOPE to hear from President Biden in his Inauguration speech. Bromides about "healing" will not do. I think the situation cries out for a strong ("strongly?") appeal to the American people for a real review of the last four years and for legislation to make sure that it does not happen again. Our system of governing norms has been trashed and it needs to be replaced with hard rules that have real consequences regarding the qualifications and behavior of candidates and occupants of high offices.
I especially appreciated the attached letter to @GSAEmily...I suddenly felt as though something was actually going to work...and maybe break through the colossal stupidity of the tangerine man's schoolboy prank.
What a terrible irony that today is the anniversary of Lincoln's brief address that shook the world. It is also Joe Biden's birthday (I just heard announced on NPR). That seems somehow fitting. Two profoundly human men with flaws but with the vision and will to push valiantly toward a better world, thwarted by people who, in my opinion, are the embodiment of evil.
The image published widely yesterday of Mad Hatter Giuliani, hair dye dripping down his face like black blood oozing out of his head, is the stuff of nightmares. What was coming out of his mouth was even more nightmarish. As reported in the WaPo: “That press conference was the most dangerous 1 hr 45 minutes of television in American history,” tweeted Chris Krebs, the cybersecurity official fired Tuesday by Trump after he bucked the president by contradicting misinformation about voter fraud. “And possibly the craziest.”
Most governors in the US--even most of the Republicans, with the exception of the Moron of Missouri, Mike Parson, and a few others (Texas . . . Florida . . .)--are only too aware that the pandemic situation in their states has reached a point that it can no longer be controlled and that they desperately need help in order to try to protect their citizens against themselves, as these very citizens in Gormless Outré Party-controlled states scream at healthcare workers that Covid is a hoax while the EMTs are attempting to save their lives. And TruNero fiddles (and golfs) while the country burns around him and his lackeys snuffle around his diaper-clad fundament telling him that everything is wonderful.
I want to see indictments. I want to see public trials for treason, contempt of court, corruption. I am fine with naming and shaming these revolting specimens of inhumanity. I have reached the point where my psyche seeks vengeance as well as justice.
I don’t need to write today. Your response says it for me. Thank you. ❤️🤍💙
Amen.
Don't forget that the South Dakota Gov noem has refused a mask mandate or any mitigation efforts. We continue to watch her continually lie to her constituents. She is as crazy as our el president.
Thank you for focusing my thoughts on this issue today. Rage and depression are fighting it out in my head. The psychic seesaw is almost unbearable without a clear path forward.
These are indeed dangerous times. Even the faux-moderate Republican governor of NH, Chris Sununu (yes, he's the son of THAT one) has issued a mask mandate. True to form, though, he has made no effort to support the mandate with any enforcement nor has he made any effort to close public institutions and non-necessity businesses that may well be contributing to the spread.
Absolutely in agreement with you.
Here, here!
Last night, after taking in all the ugly noise of the daily news cycle, I couldn’t sleep.
I missed your Thursday chat because it fell in the middle of dinner. I tried three times to play it, but each time it cut off after about 15 minutes. I sorely needed an HCR fix, so I re-watched your initial installment of “The American Paradox” and upon finishing that, noticed a video I had not seen before: “20 Questions | Heather Cox Richardson on Shock Events and the Trump Presidency” recorded on April 3, 2017. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji6Z4aecY0c)
This video was recorded before you had appeared on my radar. Two things stood out to me. First, your voice – the voice you used was authoritative and confident as I would have expected it to be, but there was also a tone of urgency that was unfamiliar to me. You were seated with distinguished colleagues, all of whom had opinions on the matter being discussed, and it was clear from the outset that you had them in the palm of your hand. You had broken through the haze of the early Trump efforts to misdirect and dissimulate and had sounded the alarm that our Democracy was in danger. This was not so much an exercise in history or political science as it was a real-time call to action. I could see it in the eyes of the assembled scholars as they listened to you – and I suspect you sensed it too.
I am passing this on to my small group of friends and associates for three reasons: first, because of your prescience in naming the threat before many were aware of its depth; second, because the threat will not disappear with the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris; and finally, because of your full-throated belief in the Constitution and of the power of the American people to right the situation through active engagement in the process.
I realize this is slightly off-topic for today, but not completely. Your words back in 2017 are as relevant today as they were then. Today, as Trump’s increasingly overt and illegal efforts to subvert Democracy from inside the White House appear doomed to failure, you hold the torch of liberty high and bright. But you do so much more than that.
If Democracy is to endure, we will need you and people like you to help us all remain honest and focused on the truth of the matters at hand, but as importantly, to inspire us by the examples of those who came before us, people who “gave the last full measure of devotion” that we might know the joys of liberty.
Thank you for all you do.
Earlier this year I also found Heather's 2017 Shock Event video. I was impressed by her urgent plain speaking among a panel of academic pontificators. The term "shock event" took me back to the experience of so many of us that someone like trump had won the election to become our President. The years ticked by with a growing list of unbelievable trump administration transgressions, repeatedly taking our 2016 question, "How bad will it be," to lower and lower depths.
In 2017, Heather pointed out that the American political realignment following trump was cyclical, and had been previously experienced in this country in the 1860s, 1890s, and 1920s. During those times, the country's rulers espoused an ideology that was not based in reality, creating deep polarization, until those being "screwed" wake up and go back to basic political principles with the initiation of economic reforms that impact prevailing racism, sexism, and xenophobia.
Words of inspirational good sense and hope to carry us forward.
Wonderful remarks, Ellie.
Heather, thank you and R Dooley thank you so much. I always find inspiration on this chat board. It's like a vacation from the current crazed disinformation served up by djt and his serfs.
I loves Heather's prediction that Trump would resign by the summer of 2017. If only that had come true! I valued the idea that there is no President who is without big mistakes and that people use those issues to "taint" a President's term. The perniciousness of this collection of "taints", if you will, falls short of a full reckoning of the whole of a President's history while in office. Thanks for posting the discussion. It's as if this happened yesterday because we remain mired in this "shock."
That word, "taint" brings to mind a word I heard growing up in the south- South Carolina in particular - "haint". I remember the first time I heard it - so evocative. It was used to describe a spirit or ghost, or to haunt - which seems appropriate in this context. People in the Low Country would,and still do, paint their doors with Periwinkle Blue to keep the haints at bay.
It was quite a parting shot in that forum - I heard one of panelists say something like - "I hope you're right" ... and Yes, it is as fresh today as it was then.
I had no idea these were on YouTube. I’m so excited for so many reasons. Good watching tonight!
Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney (all of whom have congratulated Mr. Biden) should tell the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, that unless he urges President Trump to stop blocking the transition, they will leave the Republican caucus. This would mean that the G.O.P. would lose its Senate majority, and Mr. McConnell would lose his position as majority leader. (From Today's NY Times)
From this page, to God's ears...
That will happen after we observe the first incidence of porcine aviation.
Better porcine than 737Max.
Excellent idea! The late Senator McCain would applaud you. Maybe some Senators will join the Party of Lincoln and leave the Party of Trump frailing.
They want to be re-elected.....they need to appear loyal...
I just can't imagine any of them being brave enough to do this. At the same time, to what end are they all turning a blind eye to Trump's maddness? I understand some are most likely still being blackmailed (which needs serious investigation) but why still support Trump when most understand he has lost the election and is dangerous?
Can you please provide a link, Steven? I can't find the article. Thanks.
MimE is right. It was a comment in a letter to the editor by
Emrys Westacott
Alfred, N.Y.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/opinion/letters/trump-election-concession.html
Well done, Nancy. Thanks.
I just found it on the app. I don't recall if there was an article.
Are sure it was from The New York Times? As nice as that might be, it's the kind of speculation that the newspaper doesn't engage in unless it's in an opinion piece.
Brilliant!
I’m just so furious, appalled, disappointed, saddened, sickened, and confounded by Mitch McConnell. He could help Americans and refuses to do so. I want someone to make a documentary expose’ about him.
Well put. As some of my commercial fishing shipmates would put it, he is lower than pond scum.
A wonderful description. But, he’s evil, too.
far lower
What do you have against pond scum?
To quote Mitch himself, as reported by President Barack Obama in his new book: "You must be under the mistaken impression that I care."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-book-biden-trump-palin/2020/11/13/36c4828a-25b8-11eb-8599-406466ad1b8e_story.html
https://twitter.com/jonmladd/status/1327652287519596549
As always, thank you, thank you, thank you for your nightly efforts at sanity. Your words this morning led me to write about a time in my life, long ago . . .
-----------------------------------
272 Words:
We started country school that fall in 1963 in the hot and dry heat and wind of late August. Thirty-six or us in Kindergarten through 8th grade with two teachers. Without knowing why, all of us at all levels of age and ability began memorizing words - 272 of them. None of us asked why as the learning was just mixed throughout our curriculum. Later that fall we studied the civil war and touched on slavery as we learned more words and sentences. We had all begun to know that this was the “Gettysburg Address” written by one or our greatest Presidents.
Two hundred seventy-two words. Memorized. Memorialized. Delivered to our parents on Tuesday, November 19, 1963. It was a bright, warm, and sunny Friday afternoon outside by the flagpole. With parents around, we “bigs and littles” recited Lincoln’s words after raising the Stars and Stripes, to which we recited the Pledge of Allegiance. After it all, we finished this country school program by singing “America the Beautiful.” It was perfect.
Three days later, on a Friday, our teachers abruptly announced to us all that President Kennedy was shot and killed. We went home immediately. Our pride of performance earlier in the week shattered and laid waste and yet we all believed in President Lincoln’s direction and leadership when he stated years ago that “we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
Amen!
I was in gym class and we were sent home. Not a dry eye, not a word was spoken for days (unusual in my opinionated family). I still choke up when I think about it. “Bye bye miss American pie”. And it seems to have deteriorated from there.
I was watching the President's car drive thru Dallas on tv; my son was about 1 year old running around the house. It was horrible - sitting there & seeing it happen. Still think about it & find it hard to believe. Like the good people being fired from this administration right now - it was so many good decent people KILLED for trying to make things better. Youre right, downhill from there.
It was, as you all say in one way or another, a horrific, terrifying day. I was working for the Post Office in NYC at the time and had the day off. I was listening to an all-news station when the bulletin was broadcast and was stunned and devastated. Then I began to realize just how tragic the event was, not only for the President’s family and friends, but also for every citizen of the nation; In fact, for every person in the world.
In many ways it was comparable to the death of FDR near the end of WWII. It was all the more terrible because it was murder — an assassination — the intentional taking of the life of a beloved public figure, this country’s vaunted leader, and by tradition, the leader of the Free World.
Within the African American community — I believe we were still “negroes” at that time — the impact mimicked that of the sudden death of “our” President Roosevelt. Many of us in the community were praying for, and expecting, an administration that would mirror the sorts of positive racial developments we had welcomed from the Great Depression and wartime leader and his First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt.
Now those hopes were dashed; there would be no “second coming”. We were on our own again.
Still, the only social “downslope” we anticipated would be the crushing of our dreams for the revival of at least a modicum of upliftment from the “New Frontier”.
We were still on the bottom, and it appeared we would stay there for the foreseeable future. We certainly held out little chance of aid from a Johnson administration.
We were pleasantly, if only moderately, surprised!
And that wasnt the end of it - so many more - people who tried to make things better. Johnson did better than expected, as you said. It always seems there are more deaths of people who are doing the right thing. I could go on & make a comparison but I guess its better to leave it there.
I was in a bar in Rio with school friends. Waiter brought us our frothy Brahma Chopps & plopped a radio on the table, blasting the news in Portuguese of course.
This is not going to end well, no matter the actual outcome. I say this because he has poisoned his base past the point of reason and they now unquestioningly repeat his ridiculous lies and are in a froth about Democrats “cheating” when the only cheating identified has been by republicans. There are too many of them /his base for this to just die down and go away, even IF and when Biden and Harris are inaugurated. This is now our reality and we all must remain engaged in the political process and not become complacent if we are fortunate enough to have a Biden-Harris administration. If we become complacent we will surely face worse threats in the not-too-distant future. Government of the people, by the people, and for the people requires active participation and engagement by the people. We forgot that for a while. We are living through the unpleasant reminder. Let’s not forget again.
I worry about how easily Democrats cave. The way the close knit races went to Republicans and it never occured to the Democrat to challenge that. Maybe their state didn't allow for a recount but it just seems so easy for Republicans to walk over us all. They shout and everyone pays attention, we state clear sourced information and precedent and are ignored. Our calls for Munchin and the rest to come and explain their actions, ignored and we never press forward. Speaking of which, Munchin's actions yesterday seem frightening and destructive- anything to hurt Democrats and next Administration and no one challenges them.
Yes, I agree. What are the next steps? I did appreciate reading that some group of overseers wrote to Emily Murphy to demand her explanation for stonewalling the passing on of the keys to transition. But how can they bypass McConnell? I have become a troll on his twitter account, replying to every tweet, denouncing his lies and obfuscation. He makes me crazy.
One of my students' families living in a hotel were about to be evicted last night at 5pm in Minnesota. Five children and their single mom, with no car to move into. And I feel a seething rage at McConnell, who I hold directly responsible for their fear, sleeplessness and misery. He will go to hell if that really exists. If hell is that you live in people's memories as a horrible human being, Trump and many of his followers are on their way there. Luckily, our PTA covered the rent gap at the hotel. I work in the best school community. But meanwhile, Moscow Mitch keeps blaming Pelosi. 😡
And here is the goofy thing I keep coming back to: how has he made the lives of those that make up his base, better? ARe there lives better than they were four years ago? They are so fooled, so blinded. Woe unto all of us that they make up roughly half the country.
Fox News could stop this, and here and there, they leak the truth.
What's in a name? Democrats or Republicans....who knows? I have always found it fascinating to study the mirror reversal of philosophy and support that has occurred in the Democratic and Republican Parties. When you compare the Jacksonian/Plantation Democrats with their Biden descendants or the Lincoln Republicans with the Trumpian Orcdom GOP you have to wonder how this could be; parties changing, so to speak and without other than metaphorical thoughts, from black to white and vice versa over a period of 200 years. In other countries, when a party's philosophy falters and becomes irrelevant to the world that is evolving, it disappears or becomes a minor force, now and ever only on the fringes of power. A case in point is the UK Whigs, dominant and continually revolving with the Tories in the 19th C (Gladstone/Disraeli battles). They were amost totally replaced by the Labour Party as the Whigs couldn't adapt to the changes in their basic support and the world in the 20th C.... while the age-old Tory Party sails on as ever, stable in its attitude, values and basic beliefs....with a "little wink" now and again, of course, to the people....which is enough to maintain their relevance. Leaving the British people often voting against a particular party or politician rather than for the other!
The division between Tories and Whigs mirrors the original 17th/18th Cs structure of political parties in America. It is perhaps time to oblige the parties to evolve with their time. Parties must reflect a common set of values, ideas and beliefs in order to hold together and really represent the aspirations of all of their members. The stark differences between the Centrist and "Radical" Democrats and between the Orcdom and the Rino Republicans needs to be expressed by a schism in the parties structures. Wasn't it one of the ""Adam Presidents" that said that the 2 party structure was the biggest danger to American democracy.
It is time that the American people brought their party structure under their control and out of the hands of those who currently control and FINANCE them. The parties must both respond much more closely to their electorates and represent faithfully their points of view and not function as organizations that exist to "educate" the people on what they should want, think and feel. The age of the political party as "ecumenical councils" is over. It has led us to this situation where the only question is getting power and keeping it.
The 2 party system no longer truly represents the American People.....we must now go at least to a 4 party system or a multi-party arrangement and the obviously necessary consensual alliances or coalitions to govern democratically and effectively in the 21st C. It is time that we, as individuals, once are able to vote strictly for people and parties that truly reflect our individual views....and not just to reject the other! Only the people have the power to force the system to evolve and to truly reflect its needs.
Observed at close range coalition-based politics while living in Republic of Ireland for the better part of the decade of the 90's. Currently watching Borgen, a series about Danish politics which is all about how the multiple political parties forge alliances. Often wondered if we could really make it work here. I believe you are right in thinking that the time for political evolution has arrived. But it takes more than likeabilty or branding....demands real intelligence and tactical savvy as well as negotiating skills. All the while trying to hold on to personal and party integrity. So many of our current politicians have been "trained" for a system that no longer serves our needs as a country.. The evolution to something else will be interesting! Happy belated Birthday !
Too true ! Even when you have a multi-party system it certainly doesn't necesarily improve the intelligence, competence and capacity of the politicians. We are all undergoing a significant shortage even a total absence of that....and if you also require integrity and charisma...god forbid! It's the banal result of the growing irresponsibility of the people, the transfer of power to the judges and the concentration on uniquely material values.
"The parties must both respond much more closely to their electorates and represent faithfully their points of view and not function as organizations that exist to "educate" the people on what they should want, think and feel."
That is more likely to happen if Citizens United is overturned and dark money is eliminated from politics.
So, Stuart, we do this how? And Happy Belated Birthday! We missed you yesterday.
The Birthday news gets about! Thisweek I have agreed with much of what was said and wasn't inspired to add anything to the thoughts of you all.
Third Party break-aways have been attempted over the years. Pre-Civil war, I seem to recollect the formation of "western farmers party"....I forget the name...which threatened the dominence of the other 2, the formation of the Republican Party was a break-out from the Whigs, Teddy Roosevelte took the "Progressives" out of the Republicans in his failed bid for a final. It can be done! It hasn't worked yet but now the differences are so flagrant and widespread the only real thing that is keeping the Parties together is money and the thirst for power.
The "farmers' Party" i refer to was in reality my recollection of the "Populist (People's) Party of the 1890s ...Heather's West from Appomattox" pp255-6 amongst others.
Bonne anniversaire, Stuart.
Milles merçis, Marcy.
I don’t know if I’m sadder or more outraged that day after day I hear this s—t pouring out of Washington and NO ONE DOES ANYTHING, or, in fairness, so it appears. My one Senator, Alexander, is at least responsive when I call or write, but he’s retiring. (He recently voted against another McConnell “must rush” nomination to the Fed Reserve and she was not confirmed.) Marsha Blackburn has her head so far up Trump’s butt I don’t know what she’ll do when he’s out of office. Her office hangs up on constituents when asked questions they don’t like. So, who represents me and other Tennesseans in this shitshow from today’s Republicans? It’s all about them and their power.
Chris Krebs, who until this week led the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency within DHS, said that Thursday’s Trump campaign press conference was “the most dangerous 1hr 45 minutes of television in American history."
Another day. Another trip on the bipolar express. Things are hurtling towards chaos.
What an incredible History Talk today! I listened to it twice, just to pick up some of the details I missed. It was almost symphonic.
In your voice, I heard a growing anxiety that the behavior we are witnessing today harkens back to a very, very dark time in our past; and that while the rule of law still holds, it’s grip is tenuous.
I would love to hear HCR's history talks; is there any way to access them without signing on to the evil facebook? Anyone?
They are also posted on her You Tube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnbKOlm6H9njgmN-Yil90Rg
I have viewed almost everything already on her youtube channel, but do not see the most recent, ongoing chats referred to here. Maybe HCR has fallen behind in transferring them to youtube? I would love to see them reach a wider audience.
I believe it takes a few days to post to you tube.
And do we have a current-day Lincoln out there somewhere?
I think Joe Biden comes close
Where do you listen to HCR History Talks? Thanks
Her Facebook page under videos
Thank you 🙏🏻
Also YouTube. See above link.
"And yet, the official Twitter account of the Republican Party endorsed Powell’s statements." WTF! Endorsing lies! Where will this all end? Many here have theories. Heather has history behind her and I value that, but at this moment, I'm afraid of what may come over the next days. That tRump can get away with bringing MI lawmakers to the WH is astounding to me. Not a word mentioning the potential illegality of this (on top of all the other illegal moves he's made over the last 4 years). I hope NY State sends him down the river big time....and Javanka with him.
That the Michigan legislators agreed to go is appalling. That’s on them.
This is an opinion piece expanding on why the Michigan legislators are making a mistake to subject themselves to Trump's pressure/sales tactics: https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/19/michigan-legislators-trump-meeting-438538
This Michigander is APPALLED that these two men are going to take this meeting with tRump 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬
Is there any pushback from Michiganders about this? letters, phone calls, demonstrations?
I don't doubt that tRump will try to influence them in some way....promises of money or a fancy named position in his administration. Who will stop this mad man?
That is the question. Also, are we going to have to pour out into the streets after all to stop a coup?
I'm happy to take to the streets if we need to, in spite of my advancing age. I'm so done with this.
Same here.
I’m beginning to believe it could come to that . . .
I no longer understand why we believe that the only way our vision of democracy can thrive is if the United States stays together. Can't there be a country that "“conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal" and another that wants an authoritarian, rich-white-men government in another country that shares the continent with the US, Canada, and Mexico? Since beginning to understand Republicans' aims, I've been asking this. Why didn't we just let the South go? Why don't we now figure out how the people who want to be ruled by rich white men can have that country? I know this may seem outrageous but why are we stuck on the form that the United States of America must take? Why must we insist on this measure based on that form as all the states that currently comprise the USA?
I always appreciate floating this idea, if only as an academic exercise. Case study: what to do with Georgia? How could we relinquish any state where we know voter suppression is rampant? HCR has written about this once or twice since last June, her conclusion being that our fortunes are intertwined in ways that make drawing a line through the country impossible. And the "red states” would never leave -- Their military bases are too dependent upon tax revenue from "democrat cities!".
Thanks to Stacey Abrams and her Fair Fight organization and others who fought voter suppression in Georgia, the state voted for Biden! That is a remarkable turnaround. Now to keep up the efforts to enfranchise more and more who can keep the state blue. The Democratic turnout for the January 5th runoff is going to be substantial to get Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock elected to the Senate. Let's make that happen!
Self-edit: ...is going to have to be substantial...
Yes! I am writing postcards every day for Warnock and Ossoff! Go team!
Yes! I just wrote about the same thing, a bit differently, before I saw this comment. Thank you, Rebecca. (My comment is just above.)
As a free thinking progressive liberal that has voluntarily lived in the South the vast majority of my life, "let[ting] the South go" is super offensive to me. My preference is to engage, educate those who are open (and there are quite a few) and fight rather than have to move "to another country." I've also lived through the current administration watching my SO increasingly sucked into the cult of 45 and it's an addiction, so I have compassion and hope and a real drive and desire to understand how a person who used to think for themselves got hooked. Thanks so much for being willing to let us all go without really knowing ALL of us.
I’m a Hoosier that moved to first GA (the currently famous Floyd County) and then TN. I love the South and its people. I try not to generalize because, after being gone from a northern state for 40+ years, for all I know the north has its own problems. Although, I. It’s observe that Indiana is really a misplaced Southern state. 😙
One reason it isn't done is that the GOP wants it all and won't accept to cede any territory to the Dems!
You also have to consider that the "terrotorial split" is no longer North-South. Look at Atlanta, Detroite, Austin etc...the split is Urban/Rural. Look at the sociology and education, age and wealth breakdowns...this is about different visions of Amarica. There is no longer one dominent view of what the American Dream means.
This is also very much about those parts of the country that wield disproportionate power over Congress and the Electoral College and will NOT give that power up.
So, okay. Given this obstinance of theirs. Who benefits? The perseverance on how the "other" must change is driving me batty. It's a relinquishment of any possibility of creative thinking or personal power that only comes from self-scrutiny. You and I hold the power to transform. Our view, our motivations, our actions. We change ourselves and realize that it is we-me-us-that will and can break the stasis. There exists a "force" - the elephant in the room - behind the stasis (of rigid splintering of the whole) that benefits from it and promotes it. It throws out a red herring like using "socialism" (while simultaneously ignoring our socialistic structures: libraries, military, veterans hospitals, medicare, social security, police, public schools, national parks) to throw the fear of God into voting for a candidate advocating meaningful and science based changes. We collude with that that wants us divided by going reactive with fear instead of being open and questioning our own reactivity and assumptions and the motivations of those making the charge. I implore you to investigate what Wolin names as our "inverted totalitarianism" and the research done by professors Gilens and Page on the actual loss of people power in our legislative decisions. Our knowledge/awareness of this is critical. We cannot change what remains outside of our range of vision. As a sign up on a funky storefront in Oakland shouted: "Knowledge is Power."
They won't give it up voluntarily, for sure. That's why all those national Republicans who know better have kept silent all along while democracy is demolished - they know they profit from the shenanigans. Still, there are far more of us than there are of them. Biden/Harris won that election by plenty. The contest is not over.
Exactly. And how did the fracturing of the American Dream happen? Who benefits?
Read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. It is a fictionalized account of exactly what you propose. The problem is that the people need to be able to choose which "America" they want to live in but herein is the conundrum - the old white dude government doesn't survive without underlings and workers.
Goodness -- what evidence at all is there that the South is any different from the North these days? If anything (and even this is dubious), it's more that the 2 coasts that are different from the center. But in any case, the point of quoting Lincoln is that we are one country.
Jettisoning entire geographic sections of our country, even as a thought experiment, misses the point entirely. The difference has never been geographical, even though the Southern states’ secession in 1860-1 made it look that way. Back then, as it is now, it’s a war of the oligarchs against the rest of us. For everyone who says we should’ve let the South go, let me just say as someone born in New Orleans, I am relieved and grateful I was born in the USA not the CSA. And as for the coasts being so different from the center, are you so sure about that? There are liberal bubbles and conservative bubbles scattered all over the US. We need to get away from thinking that the solution lies in red state/blue state map we’ve become accustomed to, and start addressing the causes behind the rise of oligarchy and the increasing acts of authoritarianism in our country.
This fact that the political divide today is not geographic is actually a strength on which to build social change. Like border towns, it’s when we are all mixed up—working together, engaging in commerce, attending school, even falling in love—that we stay grounded in each other’s humanity.
For those of us on this side of the trumpian divide, we must continue to amplify Reality and principles of democracy to counter the authoritarian narrative increasingly based on outright lies.
🇺🇸
Ellie, Re your comment "that the political divide today is not geographic is actually a strength on which to build social change. Like border towns, it’s when we are all mixed up—working together, engaging in commerce, attending school, even falling in love—that we stay grounded in each other’s humanity."
Your wise comment strikes a deep cord in me, and provides a seed for co-creating a positive future. It's important for us to realize that this is a strength! It is in being in shared spaces and experiences that we have the possibility to find much needed common ground. For example, involving people in interfaith experiences will help us reach across the great divide of religion. In the meantime, we must poke holes in and mute the trumpian loudspeaker bombarding us with malicious misinformation. I would love ideas about how to do that.
The ideas of how to poke holes in the toxic narrative are rooted in the millions of variations of people interacting in, as you say, shared space. As we have learned from this pandemic, space can be shared by means of electronic technology.
For those of us on this side of the neoliberal Democratic divide, we must challenge the absence of authentic sighting of: the realities of the poor, joblessness, homelessness, children in cages, the abyss:wealth inequality, systemic racism, climate catastrophe, lack of access to medical treatment due to for-profit based health care, endless war, disintegrating infrastructure, the trail of tears wrought by the meritocracy neoliberal elite - all of which are rooted in the Old Guard/Corporate Democratic chronic compulsion to hinge themselves and their world view to that of Wall Street and corporate titans and billionaires. "Our inverted totalitarianism pays outward fealty to the facade of electoral politics, the Constitution, civil liberties, freedom of the press, the independence of the judiciary, and the iconography, traditions and language of American patriotism, but it has effectively seized all of the mechanisms of power to render the citizen impotent." Wolin's analysis in www.Truthdig.org What changes people's minds, really? Is it citizens organizing together in greater and greater numbers to insist on "meaningful changed conditions" behind standard bearers who authentically "walk their talk" and attain meaningful political power to effect these changes? Or - "given" a corporate owned (slanted, propagandistic) media - proselytizing the Trumpian side about Reality and the principles of democracy? We assert the "Others" on the other side, just don't see the Reality. I've done so myself. A projection. Instead of focusing on the limitations of the "Other", we must pull back the projection. And, own the Reality we have co-created with the Corporatocracy through our passivity in confronting its octopus-like strangulation of the Public Good through its ownership of "levers of power."
Excellent point! Thank you.
I am in Floriduh, where the predominance of backward, ignorant ppl elected a Repugnant tRump Suckophant for governor. It was close but Ron DeathSantis is what we are stuck with. However, those of us in South Florida would probably build a wall if we became part of The Old South. Palm Beach, Broward, Miami-Dade & Monroe would likely secede. The selling point would be No More Taxation Without Representation. We would keep all our sinful Money here.
Florida voters also passed a $15 minimum wage this year, and felon re-enfranchisement the last time around. I'm guessing there will be another referendum to remove the legislature's use of fines to block felons actually voting. That's likely to make a significant difference - the FL legislators certainly think so.
I rather enjoy the fact that Texas can legally secede because it became a state by treaty. Secession comes up pretty often in Texas which is becoming a blue state.
From what you have shared about your life, you are a walking textbook of how social change happens across divisions of race, sexual preference, and generations, particularly as reflected in your mother.
Monroe voted Republican two weeks ago.
Agreed. Here in the bluest of states, Massachusetts, I see Trump bumperstickers when I walk around the block. A certain member of my family is dating a person whose father is a Trump fan (fortunately, he is also a covid realist)... The post Civil War South only voted white supremacist majority after everyone else had been terrorized out of voting.
Right on! It's a question about how many of us are willing to look the truth in the eye and acknowledge the reality. We no longer have a democracy. We have "inverted totalitarianism". Google: Wolin. Google: Gillens and Page. The inflammatory "Socialist" scam is a deliberate red herring. Oligarchs clearly know the only way they can maintain their political and economic domination - the abyss of wealth inequality - is keeping us - the people - in the dark about the extent of their insinuation into the levers of power and influence. Stay ignorant. And, go down. Wake up. We can change what "is" - but only by seeing "it."
Well said!
Illinois, Land of Lincoln, asked to be recognized. We exist and we are very, very blue. ;)
The South has a history of wanting to secede, No? And, Lincoln is dead. The earth was once flat, until it wasn't. Understandings change.
I totally agree. As things now look Paul Krugman sees better than a 50/50 chance that America will become a failed state in the next four years with Senate obstruction. On top of that Dems won no, as in in zero, state legislative battles that will determine the next round of re-districting. Balance against that the Brookings report showing that Trump won over 2,400 counties in the U.S. compared to less than 500 for Biden. Yet the Biden counties account for 70 percent of GDP in 2018 while the Trump counties, just 29 percent. On top of all this America lacks the will and consensus to undertake deep constitutional reforms to right the substantive flaws in our system so abundantly made manifest in 2020.
IMHO — For the same reason that the south lost last time. Fantasies about rich white American aristocrats always require slaves. A new economic Underground Railroad would develop and bleed their new fantasy dry — after much chaos and loss.
Someone always has to collect the garbage.
Well then do millions of us move to settle into the right place? How can that possibly work? And how would a contiguous land mass be appropriated? Right now it would be a red country down the middle and two blue countries down the east and west coasts.
I don't know. I only raise it as a question so we can all discuss. People are already quite mobile. This is a difficult question for me to answer given that I'm from Massachusetts. Would I be willing to move from Alabama to Massachusetts - if it were all made manifest what the Republican Party is for, would I want to leave? Would I want to stay and fight? Why, or why not? Take a few steps back, and start over. Attract people to a place that really is a democracy and acts on that, rather than constantly fighting across such polar opposites. Get to where we really are just discussing different means toward the same end, not disputing the facts. Obama gives an interesting example in his interview with Oprah (maybe in the book too which I can't wait to read) of climate change - if we could at least agree to the facts, there might still be different approaches, like "let's adapt" vs "we've got to make deep changes."
The red country could well be at a considerable economic disadvantage. Making it a very dangerous next door neighbor.
I live in Illinois. The idea of a geographical split of the country doesn’t make any sense. It’s a division of political ideaology, not of geography. (There are several excellent comments making that point above.)
But the division is our democratic system or not. And now it's even deeper - we can't even agree on facts. I don't know how it would work but dismissing it out of hand means maybe we don't examine all the options or even see clearly what the stakes are.
Maybe we'll just go back to walled cities. With a bike path around the top like Lucca, Italy has.
But even neo-Nazis lurk among the populace in those seemingly idyllic towns in Europe.
Yes, And supposedly White Supremacists are infiltrating the police in US cities.
And Europe.
I share with you your sentiment. Let the Red get along on their own dollar - freed of the largesse awarded them by the Blue states, think: California.
I don’t know about you but I am tired of being patient and nice regarding the Repubs and Fake 45. I wish we could bash through the walls of the WH and overtake it. Does that sound crazy? Yes it does, but that is where my head is right now. Everyday is one in disarray and constant distractions. Speaking of craziness... hearing Rudy rant is annoying but seeing his awful hair dye drop down his sweaty face was hilarious. Gosh, I only thought women had menopause!
It wasn't hair dye it was motor oil. He'd blow his head gasket.
HA!
I think it is dangerous for journalists or any of us to repeat and normalize the Trump theories that (1) he could throw the election to the House (where it would be decided by one vote per state) by preventing states from certifying their results, and (2) Republican state legislatures could legally substitute a Trump slate of electors for the electors chosen in the popular vote election. The first would not be possible. The second would violate the Constitution and laws of the United States, as well as state laws. This does not mean they won't try it; they most likely will try it. We need to know that it is UNLAWFUL so that if it starts to happen, we will oppose it with all our might. Sign up here for updates on when that moment arrives. https://choosedemocracy.us/
1) The only way an election could be decided by the House is if there was an exact tie after all state and federal procedures were completed. That could theoretically happen, and is another reason to get rid of the Electoral College, but it can’t happen this year.
The states' certificates of electoral votes are opened and counted at a joint session of Congress on January 6. See 3 U.S.C. § 15. The Twelfth Amendment, which kicks in at the conclusion of that procedure, says: “The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed; and if no person have such majority, then . . . the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President, … each state having one vote.”
Let’s pretend states could somehow skip over all state and federal legal requirements and just refuse to certify results, and that they would do so at Trump’s behest. If Trump got PA, MI and WI not to certify their 46 electoral votes, Biden would have 260 electoral votes (306-46), which is not a majority of 538. But the Twelfth Amendment does not say that a candidate must win a majority of the theoretical number of electors that might have been appointed, but that a candidate must win a “majority of the whole number of Electors appointed.” So, the votes of any state that failed to certify would be subtracted from both the numerator and the denominator.
If Trump got PA, MI and WI not to certify their 46 votes, Biden’s 260 votes would be a majority of the 492 Electors appointed (538 – 46). Even if Trump got PA, MI, WI, GA and AZ not to certify their 73 votes, Biden would have a majority of the Electors appointed; he would have 233 electoral votes (306 – 20 (PA) – 16 (MI) – 10 (WI) – 16 (GA) – 11 (AZ)), a majority of 465 (538-73), the “whole number of Electors appointed.”
If Trump somehow got another state not to certify its results, like Nevada with 6 electoral votes, so that Biden had fewer votes than Trump’s 232, the election still would not go to the House. Rather, Trump would be President. I believe that there is zero chance that states with electoral votes adding up to 75 or more will refuse to certify their results.
Here's a good review of when key states will certify. https://www.nytimes.com/article/us-election-results-trump-biden.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage
2) When Congress meets in a joint session on Jan. 6 to count the votes, Congress as a whole could not steal the election for Trump or allow a state legislature to steal the election for Trump.
To steal the election from Biden, 38 electoral votes he won would have to be transferred to Trump. Of the states that went for Biden, 5 have Republican legislatures (PA, MI, WI, AZ, GA), but 3 of those have Democratic governors (PA, MI, WI) and a total of 46 electoral votes. AZ and GA have Republican governors and a total of 27 electoral votes.
Under the Electoral Count Act, it is the "duty of the executive of each State," i.e., the governor, to certify under the seal of the state the electors that were appointed under and pursuant to the laws of the state. See 3 USC s. 6.
If Congress receives one slate of electors and it was certified by the governor, Congress must count those votes unless the House and Senate agree to reject them, which would not happen; the House would not agree even if the Senate would. See 3 U.S.C. s. 15.
If Congress receives two different slates, say one from the governor and one from the state legislature, and “if the two Houses shall disagree, in respect of the counting of such votes, then . . . the votes of the electors whose appointment shall have been certified by the executive of the State, under the seal thereof,” i.e., by the governor, “shall be counted.” 3 USC s. 15.
3) A Republican state legislature could not legally substitute a slate of Trump electors for the electors chosen by popular vote after the election. While the Constitution allows state legislatures to choose the "manner" of appointing electors, Art. II, s. 1, cl. 2, it gives Congress the power to determine the "time of chusing Electors," Art. II, s. 1, cl. 4. Congress has mandated that time as the Tuesday after the first Monday in November every fourth year, November 3, 2020. Since long before November 3, 2020, the laws of every state have required electors to be chosen by a popular vote election. Under the Electoral Count Act, a state’s determination of its electors is "conclusive" and governs in the counting of electoral votes by Congress on January 6 only if the state chose its electors under laws enacted prior to November 3 and resolved any disputes by December 8. 3 USC s. 5. If a state submitted a slate of electors chosen by the legislature, contrary to laws enacted prior to November 3, both houses of Congress should agree to reject the legislature's slate. See 3 USC . 15. But if both houses did not agree, and the governor certified Biden electors, Congress would be bound to count only the Biden votes. Id.
Also, it would violate the voters' constitutional right to due process of law to retroactively nullify their votes.
For more on this, see https://campaignlegal.org/update/can-state-legislature-overturn-presidential-election-results; https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e70e52c7c72720ed714313f/t/5f625c790cef066e940ea42d/1600281722253/State_Legislature_Paper.pdf.
4) In addition, state legislatures are required by their state constitutions to present laws to the governor and obtain his or her signature or override his or her veto. That is just what they did when they enacted laws requiring electors to be chosen by a popular vote election. The Supreme Court has held that when the Constitution authorizes a state legislature to exercise a lawmaking function (as it does in Art. I, s. 4 and Art. II, s. 1, cl. 2), it must comply with the method the state has prescribed for enacting laws, including obtaining the governor's signature or overriding his veto, and nothing in the U.S. Constitution authorizes them to bypass that method. See Brosofsky, Dorf, and Tribe, State Legislatures Cannot Act Alone In Assigning Electors, Dorf on Law (Sept. 25, 2020), http://www.dorfonlaw.org/2020/09/state-legislatures-cannot-act-alone-in.html; Smiley v. Holm, 285 U.S. 355 (1932); Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Comm’n, 576 U.S. 787, 817–818 (2015).
The Democratic governors in PA, MI and WI would veto any such law, and the legislatures in those states do not have enough votes to override the governor's veto.
5) If state legislatures submitted enough electoral votes for Trump to steal the election from Biden, and the case got to the Supreme Court as Trump is hoping, then we are on dangerous ground. The Supreme Court decides what the law is, even if every relevant statute and decision says something else. At the same time, the Court's only power lies in its perceived legitimacy.
"Justices" Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Alito and Thomas made clear in concurring and dissenting opinions in cases concerning a different issue (extended receipt deadlines) the week before the election that they think that because the Constitution allows state legislatures to direct the "manner" of appointing presidential electors and the "Times, Places and Manner" of holding congressional Elections, they have absolute power in doing so, regardless of what their state courts or governors or election boards say, and that the Supreme Court can overrule any other state actor's decision that it thinks does not sufficiently hew to the letter of the state legislature's dictates.
This theory is insane. Among other things, it would overthrow federalism, and it ignores the Court's prior precedent (Smiley, Ariz. State Legislature) requiring state legislatures to exercise their authority to make laws concerning elections in compliance with state constitutional requirements, including executive veto and state court judicial review.
In the same cases, Chief Justice Roberts, and Justices Kagan, Breyer and Sotomayor disagreed with the hard right "justices." That leaves Barrett, who should obviously recuse herself, or redeem her tarnished reputation by upholding the law. Roberts, who cares about the Court's legitimacy above all else, might convince her.
A la Lincoln, I'm starting to think about what I HOPE to hear from President Biden in his Inauguration speech. Bromides about "healing" will not do. I think the situation cries out for a strong ("strongly?") appeal to the American people for a real review of the last four years and for legislation to make sure that it does not happen again. Our system of governing norms has been trashed and it needs to be replaced with hard rules that have real consequences regarding the qualifications and behavior of candidates and occupants of high offices.
I especially appreciated the attached letter to @GSAEmily...I suddenly felt as though something was actually going to work...and maybe break through the colossal stupidity of the tangerine man's schoolboy prank.