The Trumpian attempts to sink a fair and free American election will live in infamy. It will have been as much an attempt to sink American Democracy as was the dastardly attack on our nation nearly eighty-two years ago. And yes, "dastardly," the adjective, and "infamy," the noun, are as appropriate in describing the calculated attempt to sink the American presidential election nearly three years ago as they were to describe an enemy's attempt to sink the American fleet 82 years ago.
In 1941 we were attacked by a foreign enemy. Nearly three years ago, the attempt to bring America to heel was hatched and carried out by domestic perpetrators. And while the perpetrators were all Republicans, we should remember that those who stood in the breech and kept it from happening were also Republicans who would have no part of it. History, at least concerning the failure of the 2020 election plot, will give a well-deserved nod to Republicans such as Mike Pence, Brad Raffensperger, Rusty Bowers, Liz Cheney, Adam Kinzinger, Brian Kemp, and many others as well.
If we take no other lesson from the 2020 election, the attempted coup is the lesson we must understand. That is the lesson we must teach to ensure it never happens again. It is a message that should be widely shared so that we recognize the treachery of the coup plotters because if we fail to acknowledge the coup for what it was, it will happen again.
As the federal and state indictments make clear, the attack on our democracy was multi-faceted. The main event was the actual attack on the Capitol, which the world witnessed in real-time. And there were the many concurrent and initially less apparent attacks, all hatched and largely coordinated from the Oval Office or by those closely connected to the Oval Office. It was the greatest political outrage in American history, and it is ongoing in real-time as the perpetrator(s) and their followers continue to attack American democracy and its institutions.
At the macro level, there was the President of the United States and his high-profile band of conspirators cajoling and excoriating lower-profile public officials, including governors, lieutenant governors, states attorneys, election supervisors, and simple election workers, to join the conspiracy. Those at the macro level were merciless and viewed those who were in the way as expendable road kill, as discardable political flotsam and jetsam.
The most breathtaking and heartbreaking examples were the vicious attacks in Fulton County, Georgia, scurrilously leveled at two innocent election workers, Ruby Freeman and her daughter Shaye Moss. Rudy Giuliani and former President Trump viciously attacked them simply because they seemed so vulnerable and defenseless. The former President and Giuliani deliberately schemed to create the appearance of smoke in the utter absence of fire, and mother and daughter, Freeman and Moss, were the expendable nobodies they would use.
Without offering a shred of evidence, Giuliani testified before the Georgia state Senate committee investigating the 2020 election, "It's obvious they were cheating and that they pulled out suitcases of illegal ballots and committed other acts of fraud to try to alter the outcome of the race. He claimed that Freeman and Moss were "passing around USB ports like they were vials of heroin or cocaine." Actually, they were passing a ginger mint.
Not to be outdone, Trump verbally attacked Ruby Freeman 18 times, calling her a "hustler," a "known political operative," and a professional vote scammer" who "stuffed ballot boxes."
It challenges the imagination to contemplate a President of the United States sinking so low as to baselessly attack simple Americans simply because they were so easy to attack. Who would care, he must have thought. After all, Ruby Freeman was a lowly $16.00 an hour temporary worker, and her daughter, Shaye Moss, earned a meager $36,000 a year working full time for Fulton County, Georgia. The abuse these two women were subjected to because of the former President and Rudy Giuliani is heartbreaking for the two women and any American who believes we are better than this.
Then, there were the so-called fake electors in seven states who were simply too naive or too eager to please the former President to understand the vortex into which they were being sucked. They signed fake, counterfeit documents made to look like actual certificates of election. The fake electors' scheme ranks high in the annals of what-in-the-world-were-they-thinking acts of stupidity.
Regardless of whether it was stupidity or excess zealousness, they were first and foremost imposters, and now they are simply criminally indicted co-conspirators.
The fake electors in Pennsylvania and New Mexico had the presence of mind to stipulate that their documents would only count if their state's legislatures somehow changed the election results. In other words, if a rogue legislature overturned an election, they would certify the legislature's illegal act.
Here's the thing to keep in mind. Every state already had official electors during the November 2020 election, all of whom cast their electoral ballots on December 14, 2020. Regardless of how the fake electors tried to paper over what they were doing, they were still fake electors.
The former President seems to believe that he has a get-out-of-jail-free card as long as he maintains that he believed and still believes the 2020 election was rigged and stolen. That may assuage his sense of righteousness, but willful ignorance will be a failed defense in any court in America. Everyone around him knew he had lost the election, and those who managed the election knew it and told him so. Nonetheless, Donald Trump wanted to remain in power and in the White House, and he was perfectly willing to savage the Constitution and those who stood in his way, such as his Vice President, Mike Pence.
In many respects, it was the worst moment in American History. Trump pitted Americans against Americans, savaged the Constitution, stultified the Republican Party, and came perilously close to stealing the Presidency and ending our constitutional order. And for what? Simply to luxuriate in power and never have to admit that he lost an election, especially to someone he had so adolescently ridiculed and for whom he held such unrestrained animus. For this, Trump was prepared to torch and sink the American experiment.
It was, indeed, the Pearl Harbor of American Politics.
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Senator Barbara Boxer
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Hal,
Enough of Trump. We know he is an AH. You know that I'm a right winger die-hard, but I know Trump is crazy. Talk about Biden and his nonsense. Seriously, does anyone believe that this guy does not know anything about his son's business? I find it fascinating, that senior claims that he knows nothing of his son's activities, but loves him so much. What father loves his son so much and doesn't engage him about his life and livelihood? I am sure that all of your readers certainly are inquisitive when it comes to their children even though they're not children anymore. I know if my dad, mom grandfather, and uncle saw me flying in private jets and buying luxury cars, and living the high life they would ask me how I was making the money to support all of that cool stuff. Seriously, this guy is as crazy as Trump. The difference is that Trump actually knows what planet he is on.
I'm not a lawyer so cannot pass judgement on the indictments or the ex-President's actions except to say they were inappropriate, unnecessary, and self-defeating. There is no excuse for the behavior of the far right groups that participated in the January 6 riot - OR for those who instigated it and gave support to it. As far as Maro Lago and Georgia are concerned both seem to be self-inflicted errors by Trump .. and to me, the NY case is old and inconclusive. It should not have been brought through our legal system.
I am a No-Labels fan and will work to defeat Biden and Trump if they are the nominees in 2024.