Trump Staging America’s First Attempted Coup

Safe harbor day seemed to slam the door shut on Donald Trump's hope for overthrow. It was the day — December 8th this year — when, by an act of Congress in 1867, the states

must confirm they have certified the people's choice of the next president. After much contention and attempts at disruption all 50 states certified.

But then the attorney general of Texas, Ken Paxton, petitioned the Supreme Court to block four states — Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin — from casting "unlawful and constitutionally tainted votes" when they formalize their choice when the Electoral College of all states meet in their state capitols on December 14th. Paxton's suit contended that pandemic-caused changes in the procedures of those states violated federal law. So, just throw out what the people voted for.

Under what's called "original jurisdiction" any state suing another must go through the high court. It was called a publicity stunt by Michigan's attorney general and Wisconsin's AG said, "I feel sorry for Texans that their tax dollars are being wasted on such a genuinely embarrassing lawsuit". It can't be overlooked that The FBI is investigating allegations made by eight of Paxton’s former top aides that he illegally used the power of his office by intervening several times in legal matters involving a friend and real estate investor who donated to Paxton’s campaign in 2018.

Nothing should astonish us anymore, but it did when the attorneys general of 17 Republican states immediately filed a brief in support of Paxton. At least Republican Sen. Mitt Romney called it "madness, it's just simply madness". More stunning still, 125 Republicans in the House — more than half of them — filed their own brief to the Supreme Court. Apparently only the top line of ballots — the vote for president — was corrupted by fraud. The lines lower down on those same ballots that got those 125 House Republicans elected or re-elected, that part of the illegal mailed-in ballots was just fine.

Trump joined the suit. "We will be INTERVENING in the Texas (plus many other states) case. This is the big one. Our country needs a victory!", he tweeted.

This happened on a day when more people died from Covid-19 than on 9/11. The nation was experiencing a 9/11 death toll every day, yet this is what Trump and 18 state attorneys general and 125 in Congress view as the nation's priority.

The attorneys general and Congress members have parallel support from a list that includes Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, pro-Trump lawyers Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, and retired Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney, all of whom are now endorsing a military coup. Powell and Flynn have been on Fox since calling for it. We are in the midst of what one brief against the Texas action called "seditious abuse of judicial process".

The Supreme Court declined to hear the case, declaring that Texas did not have standing in challenging how another state conducts its elections

That Republican leaders in the states and in Congress remain silent, avoiding acknowledgment that Biden won the election, only serves to persuade Trump supporters that there must be something wrong with the election, proof unneeded. The reticence of these politicians to speak out is viewed on the left as fear for their political future should they take on a man whom their cowardice these four years has elevated to the status of a tyrant. But the rush of states and Congress turncoats to embrace an attempt to reverse the election says something well beyond.

What stands suddenly revealed by these authoritarian actions is that Republicans no longer want a democracy. They foresee an America less than 50% White by 2040. They have been working for years to choke off immigration and repress the vote of those who are, for them, undesirable so as to preserve minoritarian rule for themselves. "You’d never have a Republican elected in this country again", said Trump in March about Democratic steps to make it easier to vote.

Biden had said, "Incredibly damaging messages are being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions. It sends a horrible message about who we are as a country." The messages may be perceived as a signal that half of America is abandoning democracy. That our two-party system will be democratic versus authoritarian.

After World War II we told ourselves, "It can't happen here". It is happening — right now. If we had thought that Americans were of a sort that would stand up to a tyrant, we now find we were mistaken.

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