Daily Archives: December 13, 2020

They Sent Robespierre to the Guillotine

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There are plans afoot to mess with the congressional tally of the Electoral College vote on January 5, the New York Times says.

But as the president continues to refuse to concede, a small group of his most loyal backers in Congress is plotting a final-stage challenge on the floor of the House of Representatives in early January to try to reverse Mr. Biden’s victory.

Constitutional scholars and even members of the president’s own party say the effort is all but certain to fail. But the looming battle on Jan. 6 is likely to culminate in a messy and deeply divisive spectacle that could thrust Vice President Mike Pence into the excruciating position of having to declare once and for all that Mr. Trump has indeed lost the election.

Overturning the election at that stage would require a majority vote in both houses of Congress, which isn’t going to happen. But it’s Mike Pence’s constitutionally appointed task to tally the votes of the states and announce the winner. What if he refuses? And if he does his duty, what does that do to his political future? Not that I care about Pence’s political future, but it’s a measure of Trump’s narcicissm that he would ask his vice president to commit political suicide.

Trump has also turned against Attorney General Bill Barr and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. Nobody gave more fawning deference to Trump that these two, but it wasn’t enough. And in yesterday’s street theater in Washington, pro-Trump protesters chanted “Destroy the GOP” and booed the Georgia Republican Senate candidates.

This is radicalism worthy of la Terreur. And do not doubt these are dangerous people. If the Republican establishment has any sense left it will back away from Trump and Trumpism, now, to give people a couple of years to get over it before the 2022 midterms. Because there will be no such thing as being pure enough to appease these people. Even Trump may have to be careful they don’t turn on him eventually.

Last night a counter-protester was shot in Olympia, Washington, and several people in Washington DC were stabbed. This won’t stop any time soon.

On the streets in the District of Columbia last night.