Today is a big day in American history, one likely to be remembered for a long time.
Firstly, we are finding out the results of the Georgia runoff election. The state's two Senate seats were up for grabs. Normally, Georgia is a solidly red state. Republicans tend to enjoy success there, and Democrats tend to be shunned. But not all that surprisingly, Trump has changed all of that. I have heard numerous reports that he has become positively toxic in urban areas, as well as in many suburban areas. And he became the first Republican presidential candidate in nearly three decades to lose the state, mostly because of urban and suburban votes.
To this point, only one race appears to have been decisive enough to have come up with a winner. Democrat Raphael Warnock had defeated GOP Senate candidate Kelly Loeffler, In the other race, Democrat Jon Ossoff is apparently clinging to a very narrow lead over Republican David Perdue, although the race remains too close to call at this time. If those results hold, which is to say if Warnock indeed knocked off Senate incumbent Loeffler, and if Ossoff holds that very narrow lead and defeats Perdue, then the Democrats would effectively control the Senate, as Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris, a Democrat, would become the Senate President, and would hold the tie-breaking vote.
That is indeed a testament to how toxic - and not coincidentally, how polarizing - Trump is for the Republicans.
Of course, Trump himself is absurdly inflated ego personified. So, you just know that he will not concede anything. And other than a few statements that, when taken out of contest, would indeed suggest that he has some semblance of a grasp on reality, he has conceded nothing, and proudly declares as much, to boot.
This is the day when Congress is supposed to open and count certificates in order to formally certify the election results, which time and time again show that Joe Biden won, and is the President-elect. Historically, the tradition has been that this has been a non-event. Unfortunately, almost like everything else during these days of Trump, it has become anything but.
Trump has continually tried - and been repeatedly and consistently enabled in his efforts by his supporters and the sniveling, self-serving politicians who cater to his supporters - to move the goal posts. First, he said that he wanted to stop the votes from being counted, then that he would demand a recount, then that he would challenge in state courts, and that he would go all the way to the Supreme Court. He did everything that he said he would in this regard, for once.
He and his supporters kept failing with each challenge. Yet after each failure, he kept saying wait until the big challenge, when everything is revealed. And these dates came and went. The Texas court case was supposed to be the big reveal, but it was not. Then December 14th was going to be the date, but nothing happened.
Now, the latest (and let us hope, for the sake of the country, the last) date is here. January 6th, which again, is when Congress (and VIce-President Mike Pence, as the Senate President) officially certifies the election results. Normally just a formality. Joe BIden, the Democratic Vice-President at the time, and current President-elect) went ahead with it back in January of 2017, officially certifying Trump's election win of 2016. Somehow, though, you knew Trump was not going to go quietly. Not someone with his enormous ego. And since he has his base of loyal supporters, and many members of the Republican party (some feel it should be considered the Trump party at this point) who do not want to upset that base or lose their support, than this normally non-event has become an actual event. Many Republicans in both chambers of COngress promised to challenge the election results, and are doing so even as I write this in the early afternoon of December 6th.
Additionally, Trump called for a rally in Washington of his supporters, and promised that it would be "wild." Some fear that his supporters might grow violent.
What a dark age this era of Trump is.
Let us hope that it is short-lived.
But let us also understand that, whether or not Trump himself finally and deservedly exits the political theater permanently, this absurd state of affairs is unlikely to change. Indeed, many on both sides of the traditional political aisle recognize this unfortunate - perhaps even tragic - fact as well. Whatever it's flaws, the Republican party was only recently a serious political party. Now, it is the party of Trump, and reflects his absurd world view and political doctrine. Some might say that it is less of a political movement, as it is a cult of personality centering around this pathetic and needy man, and his increasingly overtly authoritarian tendencies and worldview.
This includes former prominent Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who is also is one of the founding members of the Lincoln Project. Schmidt was a major Republican leader until recently, when he defected from the party that he could no longer identify with since it came under the political umbrella of Donald Trump. Earlier this month, he predicted that this day would be the one where we would effectively begin to see the Republican party fall apart. the fragmentation would not be immediately obvious, he suggested, but the events of this day would have long term ramifications that would effectively be the death knell for the Republican party as we know (or once knew) it. He stated:
The die is cast for the Republican Party.
It will be destroyed on Jan. 6th in much the same way the Whig Party was destroyed by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The act unraveled the Missouri Compromise and allowed for the westward expansion of slavery.
He elaborated:
It turns out JFK was right. The problem of trying to ride the tiger is the likelihood of winding up inside the tiger. The poisonous fruit from four years of collaboration and complicity with Trump's insanity, illiberalism and incompetence are ready for harvest. It will kill the GOP because its pro-democracy faction and autocratic factions can no more exist together then could the Whig Party hold together the abolitionist with the slave master.
It won’t happen overnight, but the destination is clear. The conservative party in America is dead. It may continue to bear the name “Republican,” but it will be no such thing. Fascism has, indeed, come to America, and as was once predicted, it is wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
He termed the Trump movement "autocratic"movement, and went on to conclude:
This movement must be defeated. It cannot be appeased, accommodated or negotiated with. It must be recognized for what it is, and we must all recognize the new age of American politics it has wrought. It has reset the debate entirely.
There are only two sides in American politics now. There is the American side and the autocratic side.
Sounds about right.
This is the link to the article from which the quotes used above were taken:
Fascism Has Come to America' by Nathan Max, January 3, 2021:
Right on cue, a group of Trump-supporting "patriots" stormed the US Capitol today. You've undoubtedly heard about this by now. Bill Maher warned everyone for three years that Trump wouldn't go peacefully and quietly, and whenever he asked candidates what their plan for dealing with that would be, they always gave canned, non-answers. Well, here we are.
ReplyDeleteYup. Predictable as any national news events could be. Yet, they are all acting shocked and appalled now. Pathetic.
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