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OpEdNews Op Eds    H1'ed 12/24/20

The Sorry State of our Republic

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Scott Baker
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Trump is tearing apart democracy, American norms, and the Republic itself.
Trump is tearing apart democracy, American norms, and the Republic itself.
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President Trump has almost unlimited power, and he's doing everything he can to retain it, even if it means undermining democracy and everything the American republic stands for.

Here is a list of post-election cases challenging the election results by Trump and/or his allies, 51 in all:

Click Here

Most have been dismissed and appealed, where they are likely to be dismissed again, perhaps ruled moot by then too.

The moot, lack of standing, and time-limited (usually not from the legislature, but imposed by the court itself) rulings are unsatisfying to some, because they don't seem to be ruled on the "merits." But those are merited reasons in our legal system too, just on procedural grounds, not evidentiary reasons argued in court. No doubt, no ruling against the republican plaintiffs would satisfy a good portion, maybe most, of Trump's followers. Trump has so poisoned the minds of his voters that probably most of them will never see Biden as legitimate. That has been his plan all along, which I and a handful of others, were warning about around election time.

Trump's attempts to overthrown results he didn't like were entirely predictable. He doesn't care about America, democracy, or anyone but himself, and in his ability to retain power.

His latest tweets to his followers almost, but not quite, encourages groups like the Proud Boys to "stand up," when he had previously told them to "stand by and stand down." From anyone else, it might be seen as incitement to riot, and a crime. But he has a proven agitator's instinct of where to draw the line. It would not be the first time he has incited his followers to take physical action.

Watch Michael Flynn - newly pardoned and open for a new job, possibly as leader of a specially appointed militia? (like George Washington's Whiskey Rebellion militia, which Washington personally led, but with a much more anti-democracy tilt). And watch Mike Pence - on the other side as Flynn, who wants to just get the certification of the electoral college vote done and the term over with; Pence will leave the country immediately after the certification to avoid Trump's predictable ire, his European itinerary as uncertain as his near-term plans, assuming there are no challenges in Congress. But there might be, as there were when Gore did not get the votes when the Supreme Court stopped the count prematurely, and controversially in 2000. The SCOTUS does not want a repeat of that fiasco, but then again, there are 6 very conservative Justices on the bench, and Justice Alito has already given oxygen to the cause by saying post-election Pennsylvania ballots should not be counted, though the state had already set them aside and has not counted them in its total. This case still has to be decided.


More on Pence and a possible 25th Amendment invocation later, after Jan. 6, but I don't think that will be necessary. Trump has no desire to be a martyr. That would hurt or kill him, and if there's one thing consistent about "president bone spurs" it is that he will do nothing that will harm himself. His only true cause is himself.


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Scott Baker Social Media Pages: Facebook Page       Twitter Page       Linked In Page       Instagram Page

Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:
http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...)
 

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