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When is Now.
Author: Raine    Date: 05/10/2021 13:04:27

Thursday, I wrote a blog about defending our small d democracy. While the topic was mostly about a certain congressional representative from Wyoming, it touched upon a bigger problem than the 'big lie' and the opposition party. While much of the media focus on why they are doing this, most are missing what I consider to be the bigger, and far more concerning, picture.

It's not about appealing to the TFG base -- or even TFG himself. What happened during the past 5 years is that the GOP saw a way to do the thing they have been trying to achieve for decades. They've made advancements over the years but restricting voting. They've purged people of the voting roles. They've lied to point that they no longer have any policies. All of this was done for the sole reason of gaining power.

Then came the 'Big Lie' and the discovery by very bad, but much smarter people than TFG that they didn't have to use trickery and suppression to keep power and money. They could simply deny democracy. and it is happening right now, in front of our eyes, for all to see.
But there’s another even more sinister trend among conservative politicians that deserves greater attention: an unwillingness to concede any electoral victory by a Democrat as legitimate, and an eagerness to punish any Republican elected official who concedes the will of the voters. The Big Lie that Trump really won the election is now canon among a majority of Republican voters. Any Republicans who refuses to toe the line is branded a heretic, and elections officials who dared to certify Biden’s win are being censured or stripped of their power. Arizona Republicans have sponsored a bogus “audit” of the election full of crackpot conspiracy theories, and Republican legislatures have been busy taking control of both running and certifying elections out of the hands of county official in Democratic-run cities and counties. The context of the January 6th insurrection at the Capitol was the attempt by Congressional Republicans to refuse to certify the Electoral College tally, in the hopes of sending the election back to gerrymandered Republican state legislatures, thus handing Trump a win as part of an anti-democratic coup. It was a physical coup attempt designed to intimidate Congress into enforcing a legislative coup. Republicans who refused to back the latter are facing steep primary challenges. (snip)

It’s hard to overstate how dangerous this is, and what its consequences might entail in the very near future. As Greg Sargent notes, the “GOP appears to be plunging headlong into a level of full-blown hostility to democracy that has deeply unsettling future ramifications.”

Biden’s electoral college win was only certified because enough Republican secretaries of state and county election board officials did their duty to democracy and resisted pressure to thwart the will of the voters. Every lever of Republican power has since been wielded to punish them. Minor county board officials have been receiving organized harassment and death threats. Georiga Secretary of State Raffensperger is not only facing a major primary challenge, he was also stripped of his power to certify the election in the future. Every Republican not already committed to preserving their power by any means necessary has been put on notice that if they do not cooperate they will be physically threatened and politically replaced.

So what happens in 2024 if President Biden or Vice President Harris win the Electoral College, but local Republicans on county boards with majority Democratic votes refuse to certify the election; when state legislatures who have seized control of certification refuse to certify their state tallies; when a potential Republican majority in the House of Representatives refuses to certify the Electoral College tally? What happens when they refuse to certify Democratic wins in purple state Senate races, throwing control of the Upper Chamber into limbo and chaos? What happens if Biden/Harris wins the popular vote by 8 million votes and 30 electoral college votes, only to see Republicans in states like Georgia and Wisconsin decide that their GOP legislatures will send electors for Trump or Tucker Carlson or Josh Hawley instead? What happens if Democrats legitimately add to their lead in the Senate, only to see Republicans refuse to certify those tallies as well, keeping GOP Senators in place for the next session?
(all sources are linked in the article) The new laws in Georgia, Florida, Arizona and Texas, just to name a few states off the top of my head are doing just what is described above. It's not just on a national level it is micro-local.

We got rid of TFG, but we still are in an insurrection. This is not distant hypotheticals. If you are paying attention, you know the threat is real. We passed the 'what if' and the 'when' phase a couple of years ago, the word we need to use is NOW.

&
Raine






 
 
 

13 comments (Latest Comment: 05/10/2021 22:20:20 by TriSec)
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Comment by Raine on 05/10/2021 13:21:25
Good Morning!

Comment by Scoopster on 05/10/2021 13:37:43
Mornin' all

So now Wyoming is threatening to sue other states/entities for not buying coal from them.

Not enjoying that invisible hand so much now are we? Sorry, Free markets are free to not buy your toxic & polluting rocks.

Comment by wickedpam on 05/10/2021 13:38:01
Morning

Comment by Raine on 05/10/2021 13:47:37
Quote by Scoopster:
Mornin' all

So now Wyoming is threatening to sue other states/entities for not buying coal from them.

Not enjoying that invisible hand so much now are we? Sorry, Free markets are free to not buy your toxic & polluting rocks.

Is that legal?

Comment by Scoopster on 05/10/2021 13:54:14
Quote by Raine:
Quote by Scoopster:
Mornin' all

So now Wyoming is threatening to sue other states/entities for not buying coal from them.

Not enjoying that invisible hand so much now are we? Sorry, Free markets are free to not buy your toxic & polluting rocks.

Is that legal?

That depends. I'm not sure if it's actually against Federal law to file a frivolous bullshit lawsuit like this. I am 100% certain it would get laughed out of court tho, and at Wyoming's expense.

Comment by livingonli on 05/10/2021 15:17:25
Good morning. There were a few things that I was reading that would remind us that the GOP has been this way before Trump. They are now just out in the open about it.

Comment by Scoopster on 05/10/2021 15:38:07


Comment by Scoopster on 05/10/2021 15:39:14
Hearing something about a shooting near an immigration & naturalization office in Florida.. ugh not this shit again!

Comment by Raine on 05/10/2021 16:54:03
Great news!



Comment by Raine on 05/10/2021 16:55:28
Quote by Scoopster:
Hearing something about a shooting near an immigration & naturalization office in Florida.. ugh not this shit again!

Oh no!

gdmnt!!!

Comment by Raine on 05/10/2021 16:56:01
Quote by Scoopster:


That's wonderful and about time!


Comment by livingonli on 05/10/2021 21:30:31
SUNY and CUNY will require all students to have Covid-19 vaccines before returning in the fall.

Comment by TriSec on 05/10/2021 22:20:20
I had speculated on Twitter this morning that going after Liz Cheney is not unlike the "Night of the Long Knives".

I wonder what step on the nazification trail the GOP has reached.