Election denial
If elections are rigged, fraudulent, and unreliable, then Americans will confer legitimacy another way.
Good news from Georgia.
Covid protocols gave cover and an excuse for Biden's "front porch" campaign. He spoke to a camera from the basement of his home in Wilmington, Delaware. His "events" were tiny, with people spread out at 6 foot intervals. It gave an impression that Biden lacked support from real voters. Below is a photo of a campaign event with steelworkers in Detroit.
Trump's rallies were huge and enthusiastic. They were superspreader events and few seemed to care. Those rallies communicated that Trump is so popular that people will risk death to see him--except that COVID is no big deal, just like Trump says and just like worrywart ninnies like Dr. Fauci deny.
The disparity in campaign crowds had an unexpected consequence, which emerged as Trump denied the validity of the 2020 election. There were few visible signals of Biden's support. Had there been images of huge lines of voters at Democratic strongholds, then even Fox News’ viewers might see the support. Instead, there were huge bins of mailed ballots that arrived without fanfare.
Yesterday's post noted Trump's costume play with the trappings of being king. Monarchs are not always wise leaders, but they exist in human history because they can bring stability and order--at least on the issue of succession. Dictatorships and Strong-Man governments are proto-monarchies, formed the way the original European ones were, by force of arms from enough people inside and outside the military. Then control is passed from father to heirs.
Trump found a weak spot in America's democracy. He attacked elections. Americans were ready to hear it. (Bernie Sanders' supporters did as well, after the Iowa caucuses in the 2020 election. How could that young gay twerp Buttigieg possibly do as well as our wonderful Bernie? Bernie himself did not sign on to the conspiracy, so it dropped out of sight.) Trump attacked the legitimacy of the Iowa caucus that Cruz won in 2015. He later attacked the 2016 November election. Trump posited a different confirmation of his legitimacy, the size of his rallies and then inauguration crowd. Don't believe the popular vote totals, he said. Those are corrupt. Millions of illegal aliens voted for Hillary. Trust instead the size of my crowds. Trump criticized the 2020 election, before, during, and after. It was rigged, he said. And now, in Pennsylvania, he urges his favored senatorial candidate simply to "declare victory" and stop counting votes.
Elections need not be overturned by crowds. It can be done under a veneer of Constitutional law. There is one Justice--and perhaps more--within the Supreme Court who take the position that state legislatures--not state governments or the voters in a state--have plenary power to choose the electors. Even if a legislature establishes laws for voting in a state, and even if a state's constitution and its courts provide for a voting procedure, a state legislature has complete power to name presidential electors. They do not constrain themselves by earlier promises or laws. Clarence Thomas openly supports that position. His wife, Virginia Thomas, publicly urged the legislature in Arizona to exercise that presumed power, notwithstanding the Arizona election result, and to bring the issue to the Supreme Court.
Is this crazy? Not if elections aren't credible and legitimate. There are Republican majorities in the legislatures of swing states.
Election legitimacy is on its sickbed. Trump openly criticizes them and most GOP officeholders mumble along in general assent. In Pennsylvania, the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate race is too close to call. The result may depend upon whether absentee ballots that were signed, but not dated, by the voter are legal ballots. The law in Pennsylvania said voters must put in the date beside their names. However, Pennsylvania courts have ruled that "immaterial" errors that do not bring into question voter intent do not disqualify a ballot. Issues like this make the whole election thing seem arbitrary to voters.
Amid this, there is good news. Last night we learned the results from Georgia. GOP voters re-nominated the three incumbent officeholders who oversaw the 2020 election, audited it, investigated it, and recounted it, and then certified it for Biden in the face of huge pressure. They didn't cave. GOP voters rewarded them.
Leadership conveyed by democratic process is not a sure thing, even in America. Legitimacy is fragile. If elections don't seem legitimate, alternative methods will take their place. Close elections, and flawed ones like the one taking place in Oregon's Clackamas County, give credence to those alternatives.