A coup d’état in plain sight
23rd November 2020 · 0 Comments
For the past three years and 11 months, the nation watched Donald J. Trump Sr. abuse his presidential powers in an all or nothing strategy to stay in the White House: Not only has Trump never stopped campaigning for reelection; as the loser of the 2020 presidential election, Trump is now trying to pull off a governmental coup in plain sight to stay in power.
To stay in the Oval, Trump continued to fire everyone who opposes him or knows the truth about Trump’s illegal acts. Before the election Trump had been chipping away at democratic norms and trying to position himself as an autocratic dictator with the help of elected Republicans, who he is still counting on to support him in his “lost cause.”
Trump has violated the Constitution, charged exorbitant room rates to for his secret service detail, when he golfs at his resorts, and hollowed out important departments like the Office of Government Ethics, the Pentagon, Homeland Security and others so he could “do anything I want,” balance on his way to becoming a dictator.
Trump fired Christopher Krebs, the U.S. government’s top cybersecurity official, after Krebs contradicted the election-related conspiracy theories Trump and his allies have promoted to deny the legitimacy of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, according to Politico.com.
Krebs expected to be fired after his agency rejected Trump’s claims that he was robbed of re-election by bugged voting machines and millions of fraudulently cast ballots. On Nov.12, Krebs said: “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” and that the November 3 election was “the most secure in American history.”
After losing the November 3, election to former Vice President and President-elect Joseph Robinette Biden and former U.S. Senator and Vice President-elect Kamala Devi Harris, Trump, Senator Lindsey Graham, Trump lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, and a host of other sordid characters, hit the ground running to overturn a legitimate election.
Trump and his backers are no longer trying to finesse or cover up their voter suppression tactics. They are openly doing it and clearly don’t mind blowing up America’s democracy to stay in power.
They are trying to orchestrate a coup by invalidating the election results and pressuring state officials to appoint “faithless electors” who will vote against the state’s popular vote for Biden and award Trump the electoral votes, instead.
Trump last week summoned Michigan’s top GOP leaders to the White House to lean on them to appoint Republican electors who will vote for Trump instead of Biden, despite the fact that Biden won the state.
The radio silence we hear from Republicans on Capitol Hill is due to their fear of losing their seats if they dare to speak out against Trump or confirm that Biden won.
As Rudy Giuliani’s hair dye ran down both sides of his face, he looked like a clown, a buffoon, as he spat out spurious lies about widespread voter fraud, repeated QAnon’s conspiracy theories (The FBI lists QAnon as a domestic terrorist group), and demanded that electors vote for Trump on December 14 in 2020.
Giuliani and his predecessors’ attempt to get the courts to throw out the election have failed. At press time, most of the 31 cases had been dismissed.
After being impeached for lying about a trumped-up plot to discredit former Vice President Joe Biden, Trump conspired with Republicans senators, representatives, the Republican National Committee, and other sycophants to steal the election.
As the campaigns accelerated, Trump continued to brainwash his followers by repeating his 2016 mantra, that if he loses, “the election was rigged.”
In August, news broke about Trump’s hand-picked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s efforts to keep voters from casting absentee ballots by slowing down the mail. DeJoy testified before a House Committee that he would not replace the sorting machines removed from post offices nor the mail collection boxes he took off the streets. DeJoy also forced carriers to deliver partial batches of mail and he cut overtime hours.
Trump’s plan to disrupt the election went even further. In some red states polling stations were removed (in predominantly Black and brown counties) to discourage turnout and the number of ballot-drop boxes were drastically reduced.
Nonetheless, on November 3, the majority of American voters told Trump: “We don’t want you, pack your bags and git.”
Biden won six million more popular votes than Trump, but he also won 306 electoral votes, 36 more than the 270 votes needed to become president. Trump got 232.
One can only imagine how Trump reacted to news that the Biden-Harris ticket flipped Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin blue.
While Trump is seeking recounts and ranting like a petulant child on social media platforms, Senator Lindsey Graham is engaged in questionable activities.
Because of the tight race in Georgia, a hand audit of the ballots was completed, and the votes certified. Trump can still request a recount in Georgia, and he is paying $3 million for a partial recount in Wisconsin, specifically in the predominantly Black counties of Milwaukee and Dane.
Political pundits say Trump, who has carried out a racist agenda against people of color, is carrying out a campaign to disenfranchise Black voters.
Trump has gotten help from some Republicans who have joined him in attempting to disenfranchise Black voters. Two Michigan Republicans on the bipartisan Wayne County Board of Canvassers initially refused to certify the results in that country, which includes predominantly Black Detroit. After a deluge of withering criticism, they reversed themselves and certified the votes.
Meanwhile, Graham was caught allegedly trying to get Georgia’s Secretary of State to commit a felony.
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last week accused Graham of pressuring him to find ways to exclude or invalidate legally cast absentee ballots and reverse Trump’s loss in the state, an accusation the South Carolina Republican called “ridiculous,” according to news reports.
Graham also arrogantly admitted that he had also spoken with Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and was briefed about the process in Nevada, both swing states that helped Joe Biden beat Trump.
Now the Republicans are trying to figure out how to stop Democrats from winning Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats in the January 5, run-off elections. If Democrats win those seats, they will gain control of the Senate with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris casting deciding votes, and end 10 years of gridlock by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the self-proclaimed “grim reaper.”
McConnell has refused to allow a vote on the floor for the more than 300 House bills sitting on his desk, including The Heroes Act, the House’s $2 trillion coronavirus economic stimulus bill, which has been on his desk since May.
Republican shenanigans aside voters are kicking Trump out of the White House because of his racist dogma, his failure to support reasonable gun control measures, harmful industry deregulations, climate change denial, civil and human rights violations, separating children from their parents and caging them, immigration bans, verbal attacks on elected officials, stolen Supreme Courts seats, and the lack of a national plan to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump will not overturn the election, but opinion polls show his court battles have a political benefit, with as many as half of Republicans believing the election has been rigged.
Trump’s intention from the beginning was to win in the court of public opinion. He is using his role as victim to fundraise, retain both his base and political power, and remain the leader of the GOP. As the leader of the Republican Party or as an influencer post-elect, Trump will continue to exert control of Republican candidates, who will have to dance with the devil to get his support.
Trump is still trying to get his allegations of voter fraud before the U.S. Supreme Court, in the hope that the 6-3 Republican majority will overturn the election.
Trump Republicans are no longer trying just to move the goal post. They are trying to take and hold onto the ball or blow up the entire game. Will our democracy survive?
This article originally published in the November 23, 2020 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
