My Outrage is Unoriginal but No Less Real

But her e-mails!

Look, I know this is not original, and than any number of commentators have said the same thing much better than I have, but the Republican complaint that impeaching Trump is divisive is an absolute outrage!

First of all, when Joe Biden was first elected and talked of unity, Trump supporters angrily rejected the offer, saying they were not willing to forgive the way Democrats had treated them for the past four years. And now they expect to be taken seriously talking about unity after spending the last two months denying the outcome of an election because they lost?

So it's divisive to impeach Trump, is it?  

You know what else is divisive?  Refusing the accept the results of a free and fair election.  Filing sixty completely frivolous lawsuits to overturn the outcome. Pressuring state legislatures to override the will of the voters and send their own slates of electors.  Pressuring Congress to refuse to certify the outcome.  Demanding that the Georgia Secretary of State rig the vote. And when all that fails, inciting your followers to to march on the Capitol and force Congress to vote your way.  Donald Trump did all those things.  So don't come whining to me that it is divisive to make him face consequences for it.

So what, you may say.  Granted it was divisive, but being divisive is not an impeachable offense.  Otherwise, what President would ever have escaped impeachment.

Granted.  Divisiveness is not an impeachable offense, although Trump's extreme instance of it makes any criticism of the other side look disingenuous.  And I agree that it is not impeachable to assert without evidence that an election was rigged.  It is not impeachable to file sixty completely frivolous lawsuits seeking to overturn the outcome (although it may be grounds for court sanctions).  It is not impeachable to bring political pressure on state legislatures or members of Congress to override the results. 

I am even open to argument that withholding military aid duly appropriated by Congress to force a foreign leader to give you dirt on an opponent is not impeachable.

But trying to rig the outcome of the Georgia election is clear electoral fraud and strikes at the core of our whole system of elective government.  That is (or should be) an impeachable offense.

And if inciting an insurrection against a lawful election is not an impeachable offense, I can't imagine what is.

Shocking but Not Surprising

But her e-mails!

A phrase that gets used a lot in describing Donald Trump is "shocking but not surprising."  The Capitol Hill Riot/Insurrection fits in that category.  Nothing of the kind has ever happened before in the history of our democracy, which makes it shocking.  

But it is not surprising.  It is consistent with everything Trump has done since the election, and before.  Even before the election, he made clear that if he had lost, he would sue to overturn that outcome.  That alone is deeply abnormal.  It might have been understandable, or even successful, if the outcome had turned on one state.  But to overturn the outcome in not one, but at least three states was a bridge too far, so the courts unanimously refused.

The next step after the courts was Republican voting officials and state legislatures.  But aside from a small number of dissents in Michigan, that, too failed.

The next step was Congress, although that was doomed from the start. To overturn the Electoral College, both houses of Congress would have to vote to reject the outcome.  That clearly was not going to happen because Democrats had a majority in the House and enough Republicans had declared for Biden to guarantee a win there as well.  My guess was that Trump would lose both houses by a razor-thin margin.  

Trump also seems to have considered using the military or the Department of Homeland Security to overturn the election, but both organizations refused.

That left only one possibility -- violent insurrection by supporters.  I speculated that Trump might be willing to try even that after his attempt to overturn the result in Congress failed.  In that I was half-right.  He was, indeed, willing to overturn the election by violent insurrection, but not to wait until losing in Congress.  And I suppose that was predictable, really.  There was certainly plenty of talk about a protest on the day of the vote count, and plenty of warning that the protest might turn violent.  So the attempt to overturn the outcome by violent insurrection was also predictable.

Also predictable is that this may not be the last.  Insurrections take some time to plan, there will necessarily be a lag after the first attempt fails.  But there is talk of another violent incident on inauguration day -- or possibly January 17.

It ain't over yet.

ETTD

 

Former Republican strategist Rick Wilson coined the term Everything Trump Touches Dies (ETTD for short).  Why should this be?  

Trump famously said that he prefers loyalty to integrity.  To some extent, this just sounds like he favors honor among thieves.  Except that to Trump, loyalty is a one-way street -- something other people owe him, while he never hesitates to throw a "coffee boy" under the bus any time he becomes inconvenient.  What he really wants is not loyalty, but fealty.

ETTD means that in order to work for Trump, you have to set aside all integrity in favor of fealty to Trump. But sooner or later, everyone fails to live up to Trump's standards and is cast aside.  And they find that they are ruined outside Trumpworld because they have given up all integrity and ruined in Trumpworld because they no longer have the Big Guy's support.

None of which is to say that choosing integrity over Trump is any guarantee of success.  Bob Corker (Republican Senator from Tennessee) and Jeff Flake (Republican Senator from Arizona) sacrificed their careers rather than submit to Trump and have no future.

The best bet may be to be rejected by Trump.  Chris Christie hoped to be Trump's chief of staff.  Jared Kushner intervened to block him.  Now Christie retains some degree of respectability.

But the more obvious example is Mitt Romney.  The illustration above shows Romney meeting with Trump in hopes of being appointed his Secretary of State.  Who can doubt that if Trump had said yes, Romney would have made one compromise in integrity after another and end up realizing that he had lost his soul -- only to be cast aside anyhow when Trump had no more use for him.  Doubtless Romney was disappointed at being turned down.  But how many time since must he have thanked his Mormon God that Trump said no, and Romney escaped with his soul intact.

Giving Credit Where it is Due (or Not)

But her e-mails!

I think that we should be generous to Republicans who were late in getting off the Trump train and give some thought to just how hard it is for them.

Consider the mobs chanting "Hang Mike Pence," crowds harassing Lindsey Graham at the airport, and crowds harassing Mitt Romney, not just at the airport, but on an airplane where there was no escape, I think we need to understand the sort of pressure Republican office holders are under and the sort of retaliation they face for standing up for the election.

So, much as we dislike their politics, let us acknowledge the real heroism of William Barr saying that there was no election fraud; of Brad Raffensperger refusing to rig the Georgia election; of Republican state legislatures refusing to override the voters; of Mike Pence doing his duty as law requires in presiding over the vote count; of Mitch McConnell passionately arguing that election outcomes must be respected; of Tom Cotton deciding not to join the objections; of Mick Mulvaney resigning his post; of Pat Cippollone refusing to abet law-breaking; and, of course, of Mitt Romney.  We may see these men as doing the minimum the law requires, but we really should appreciate how hard it is for them to do even that.

But I still just can't regard Lindsey Graham with anything but pure contempt.  
 

Donald Trump poses a serious problem.  On the one hand, any attempt to prosecute his actions will invariably be perceived as partisan persecution and invite retaliation (however unjustified). On the other hand, letting him get away with it will incentivize further law breaking.

 Up till now I have grudgingly favored a pardon.  Expose his actions (preferably by some neutral, non-partisan body), but avoid prosecution.

But the latest tapes from Georgia are a bridge too far.  This is a clear attempt to rig an election and must be treated as such.

Oh, yes, and I have decided that I do favor a blue ribbon commission to investigate fraud in the 2020 election.  Provided it includes post-election actions.

Seriously, Though

What do you have to lose?

 I get that winning either Senate seat in Georgia is a heavy lift, and winning both is even more so. Also, I don't trust polls showing the Democrats narrowly ahead.  If there is one thing the latest election has shown, it is that polls under state Republican support by several points.

I am, nonetheless, cautiously optimistic that at least one Democrat can win and maybe (maybe!) we can persuade one Senate Republican to bolt the party and caucus with the Democrats.  

Two things are driving me here.  

One is the Trump in particular and Republicans in general are engaging in extraordinarily self-destructive behavior.  Trump vetoing the defense bill and threatening to veto COVID relief, and Mitch McConnell blocking any further relief are a great campaign ad for Democrats.  Trump caught on tape trying to rig the Georgia election might yet persuade one Senator to jump parties.  Lin Woods (not working for Trump directly, but clearly in his corner) saying thing so far out there that he has to assure us that he is not insane is testing the theory that the nuttier Republicans are, the better they do.

But the other thing is Kelly Loeffler's increasingly shrill and hysterical attacks on Raphael Warnock.  Attack ads work up to a point, but they lose effectively when they start to smell like panic.  And these ones seriously reek.

Memo to Donald Trump

 

Maybe you should try pouring gasoline over the Republican Senate campaign in Georgia and setting it on fire.  Because that seems less harmful that what you are doing right now.