May13

electoral-vote.com

Dem 51

   

GOP 49

Republicans Are Anti-Democracy

That's a pretty loaded headline, but if the shoe fits, well...

Donald Trump has already made very clear that he will only accept the results of this year's presidential election if the voting is "honest" (with "honest" defined as "resulting in a Trump victory"). There are many Republican politicians who spend their days kowtowing to him on every single issue, either because they want his endorsement, or they hope to be his running mate, or because they fear that he will attack them. Therefore, by transitive property, there are many Republican politicians who are making it very clear that they will only accept the results of this year's election if the voting is "honest" (according to the same definition that Trump uses). A rundown of some of the more prominent ones:

• Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) told The New York Times he would "adhere to the rule of law" on accepting results, but is fine with legal challenges.
  
  
• Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) was on Meet the Press yesterday, and said that he'll accept the results if "there's no massive cheating."
  
  
• Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) refused to answer repeated inquiries on Meet the Press, calling it a "hypothetical question."
  
  
• Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) was on State of the Union and said he'll accept the results if they're "fair and free."
  
  
• Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) told reporters she'll accept the results if they are "constitutional," but also said the 2020 election did not meet that standard.
  
  
• Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) told a crowd at a political convention that he will accept the results if he thinks they're fair and if states follow their own laws.

You could argue that Johnson might be the exception, but either five of these six people, or all six of them, are using the same mealymouthed language as Donald Trump, so they can position themselves correctly for a Trump victory ("totally legitimate!") or a Biden victory ("totally fake!"). In a democracy, there is only one correct answer to the question "Will you accept the results?" and that answer is "Yes." Period. End of story. Obviously, if clear fraud, backed by evidence, was uncovered after the election, a person who answered "yes" would still have room to object to the tainted results. The only reason to pre-qualify one's answer is in anticipation of phony, unsubstantiated election "fraud."

The damnable thing is that none of these people are True Believers. It is at least possible that a Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) or a Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) actually believes the 2020 election was rigged. But none of the people on the list above believe that. It's all about pandering to The Donald for political purposes. That said, in so doing, they have made clear what their values are, and what their priorities are, and a healthy democracy is not on the list. In a sane world, they would be expelled from Congress, as anyone who helps chip away at the foundations of the Constitution is not suited to be a servant of the people. But that's not how it works, unfortunately. (Z)