I originally posted the following on Facebook to family and friends. Like many of you, I know people in both categories who call themselves “conservatives.” I am definitely NOT given to political arguments and rants on Facebook; this is only the second time I have ever posted anything there about Donald Trump. I just felt the need to say something about what we have all gone through, and thought some of you might find it worthwhile. (And yes, I am fully aware of the racist dog whistle meaning of terms like ‘state’s rights’ and ‘Blue lives matter’ when I invoke them below. As I was trying at least in part to speak to Trump-loving conservatives, however futile that might be, I wanted to use some of the native language).
I know I posted my opinion of Donald Trump before the election. But I find I can’t remain silent following the events of the last few weeks. No funny memes – just my personal opinion. So feel free to skip if you are a Trump supporter and cannot bear the thought of hearing anything critical about him, and we’ll all be friends down the road anyway. But we have seen events unlike any in my lifetime, and I’ll be damned if I don’t speak up about them. No, I’m not going to get sidetracked providing links for everything; feel free to fact-check anything I say here.
Let’s be clear about what has happened over these last few weeks: the President of the United States, his supporters and followers, have attempted to overthrow representative democracy in the U.S. I will repeat that: they have attempted to overthrow representative democracy. And this culminated in a violent mob assault on the Capitol that left 5 dead.
Mr. Trump, whom I will no longer dignify with the title of “President,” laid the groundwork for this before the election. He lied ceaselessly to his followers that vote-by-mail was fraudulent and that he could only lose if the election was rigged. Never mind that vote by mail has been in place in the U.S. for centuries, and was first widely used for American soldiers during the Civil War (go ahead, look it up); never mind that the groups traditionally most likely to use vote by mail, seniors and military members, have generally voted Republican; never mind that in every state where it occurs, there are multiple safeguards against illegal votes being cast; never mind that in every state where it occurs, both Republicans and Democrats verify and open and count all the votes; never mind that 5 states, including ruby-red Utah, now conduct their elections entirely by mail; he ceaselessly claimed that it would be fraudulent. And in so doing, he has undermined the faith Americans have in our own elections, tearing down bit by bit the civic trust that we all must have, regardless of our political or ideological beliefs, for the American republic to be healthy and enduring. (By the way, they actually found a dead person who voted in Pennsylvania! However, it turned out to be a Trump supporter who voted in his dead mother’s name as well as his own. Go ahead, look it up).
Then Trump lost. Not by a little bit, but by a lot: 7 million legally certified votes and a count of 306 to 232 in the electoral vote. And next came the lawsuits. Trump’s lawyers, or other parties acting on his behalf, brought suits in state and Federal courts in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, demanding that votes be discarded. They have lost dozens of these cases, so many that people are having trouble keeping track (40? 50? 60?), and won one or two small and limited rulings that changed no vote counts anywhere (Google tip: try the search words ‘Trump election lawsuits scorecard’). They have lost in state courts and Federal courts. They have lost before appointed judges and elected judges. They have lost in front of judges liberal and conservative, including judges appointed by Trump himself. Judges have found the claims brought to be irrelevant or unreliable and the suits themselves to be filled with errors of law, fact, and logic; one described the claims presented as “hearsay upon hearsay” and another described a filing by Giuliani as a “Frankenstein’s monster” of bad arguments pasted together. In a case brought to the Supreme Court, President Trump joined in a petition brought by the Attorney General of the state of Texas, Ken Paxton, joined by Republican AGs of 17 other states and by over 100 GOP members of Congress, asking the court to block certification of Biden’s electors from the states of Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, or to allow Republican legislatures in those states to select their own (presumably pro-Trump) electors. In other words: disenfranchise tens of millions of voters by throwing out the results of those state elections, and installing Trump in a second term. The Supreme Court – with a 6-3 conservative majority, with 3 justices appointed by Trump himself – refused to even let the case brought by Texas be filed. Seven justices – including the 3 placed on the Court by Trump – would not even let the complaint be filed, while the other 2 (Alito and Thomas) stated that they would have let it be filed as a matter of principle, but they would NOT grant the “relief” demanded. The Court also refused to even hear a Trump case challenging the votes in Pennsylvania This is an astonishing record of losing, and there is good reason for that: all these lawsuits lack a factual and legal basis. Trump’s lawyers have even repeatedly stated, when asked by judges, that their suits are not about fraud and they are not alleging fraud; perhaps this is because they understand they may face actual legal consequences if they lie to judges and misrepresent evidence. So instead they come up with other reasons: election officials or other judges or the legislatures or someone, anyone, has acted improperly or unconstitutionally and therefore votes must be tossed out. And they keep losing. (By the way, it is entirely possible that Mr. Paxton was doing nothing more than cynically trying to get a Federal pardon from Mr. Trump before he heads out of office; the astonishingly corrupt Paxton has been under indictment for securities fraud for 5 years, and just recently had 7 top aides resign while all accusing him of bribery, abuse of office, and other corruption).
Then came the open solicitation of criminal election fraud by Trump himself. In a January 2 call to the Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger (R), Trump – recorded on tape – told Mr. Raffensperger exactly how many votes to find (11,780, or one more than Biden’s margin of victory), and told him he might face vague “criminal penalties” if he failed to do so. If you or I did this, the state police or FBI would be leading us away in handcuffs. To his credit (or out of simple self-preservation), Mr. Raffensperger (R) stood his ground against the titular leader of his party and refused to conjure votes out of thin air. His reward for this integrity – for simply doing the job of counting the votes honestly – was a stream of tweets from the President insulting and belittling him, including a favorite term of Joseph Stalin and the old Soviet Communists: “an enemy of the people.” (You are aware that the votes in Georgia were counted, audited by hand, and then counted again before Biden’s win was certified, right?)
Then came the wholly imaginary claims about how the election could be overturned. Mr. Trump and his lawyers proclaimed that Vice President Pence could, during the official counting of the electoral votes by Congress, simply discard slates of electors that had already legally certified by the duly authorized officials of each state. You really don’t even need a civics class to know that this power has never before been ascertained in the Constitution or laws of the United States by any politician or legal scholar or court. (By the way, if it had been, then sitting Vice President Biden could have saved us all a great deal of trouble in January 2017, by simply discarding the votes of a few states won by Trump). But Trump persisted in this frankly delusional belief, and began telling his rallies that he expected Pence to come through for him, or maybe he wouldn’t like Pence so much. Pence finally had to issue a statement that he could see no authorization anywhere in the Constitution or law that enabled him to do such a thing.
Then came January 6th. And Mr. Trump, who had told his followers on Twitter to show up that day, and had promised them a “wild time,” addressed the crowd. He told them to “fight like hell” and he told them “we’re going down Pennsylvania Avenue” and “we’re going to the Capitol” and he told them “you’ll never take back this country with weakness…you have to be strong” (go on, watch the video, look up the transcript; I have). And the mob (no longer a mere crowd) took Mr. Trump’s words both literally and seriously, and did exactly that. The entire world saw what happened next. The mob broke through multiple barriers. The mob pushed back the vastly outnumbered Capitol police (a suspiciously massive security failure, but that’s another discussion). The mob broke windows and battered down doors and ransacked and looted offices, carrying away Federal property. The mob forced the evacuation of Congress and the Vice President. The mob killed a Capitol policeman, Brian Sicknick, who had been a National Guardsman and served two tours of duty in the Middle East before he became a member of the force. The mob injured dozens of other officers. The mob chanted “hang Mike Pence” (watch the tape; I have). This is how Mr. Trump paid back a man who had been a loyal supporter and defender of his for years, a man who in counting the electoral votes and certifying Biden’s win was simply doing his job as prescribed by the Constitution and laws of the United States.
Now, maybe some of you – I emphasize only “some” - approve of what happened at the Capitol on January 6th. That’s your opinion; like any American, you are entitled to it. However, I do have one small favor to ask of you, if this is your viewpoint. Don’t ever tell me you believe in the U.S Constitution and in representative democracy; you clearly do not, if you approve of a violent mob invading the Capitol and literally chasing away the Congress of the United States. Don’t ever tell me you believe “Blue lives matter.” The dead body of Office Sicknick says otherwise, as do the injuries of dozens of his fellow officers. Don’t ever tell me you believe in “state’s rights.” You clearly do not, if you think it is legitimate to disenfranchise tens of millions of your fellow Americans across multiple states because you don’t like the way those state’s elections turned out. Don’t ever tell me you believe in “law and order.” You clearly do not, if trespass, unlawful entry, vandalism, theft, assault, murder, and seditious conspiracy are activities of which you approve (By the way, do look up “seditious conspiracy.” It’s what you’re doing if two more more people conspire “by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States.” Forcing Congress to flee while they are engaged in the Constitutionally prescribed activity of counting the electoral votes from a Presidential election certainly qualifies).
Now the consequences will follow for those who participated in this violent insurrection. The FBI is already tracking participants down and arresting them. Participants are being identified because they helpfully posted evidence of their crimes on Twitter and Facebook and Instagram, or were otherwise caught on camera. The FBI is arresting suspects. Others are being fired from their jobs (if you think this is unfair, I invite you to consider supporting strong unions that will protect everyone from being fired without more extensive due process). All of which reminds me of two things I have often heard self-proclaimed conservatives say: “Actions have consequences” and “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” I actually agree with that. See? Something we have in common.
It is worth long and hard discussion to consider how we came to this sorry place in our national politics. Donald Trump is a symptom; the disease has been building for many years. May we find a way to work together, across the political spectrum, to form a more perfect union. Thanks for reading.