That beautiful blindfolded lady holding the scales of justice, weighing truth against deceit, fact against falsehood, and the just cause against the malevolent scheme—she is the true heroine of this tormented election season.
French philosopher Baron de Montesquieu greatly influenced our diminutive founding giant, James Madison, to insist on a wholly independent judiciary to provide checks and balance against the executive and the legislative branches of our fledgling government. While each of the three separate branches provides checks and balances against abuse by the other branches, the arbiters of our constitutional law disputes are our courts, from the lowest to the most supreme. Neither Montesquieu nor Madison could have envisioned that two-and-a-half centuries later their wisdom would literally save the great American experiment in democracy.
All of the various court verdicts regarding the partisan claims of election fraud have been unambiguous. The spectacle of Trump’s lawyers and partisans arguing that the election should be euthanized has failed everywhere, from the lowest courts to the highest court in the land. The hired guns and Trump campaign’s flacks have twisted and turned like contortionists in a uniformly failed effort to assassinate an election.
For the numerous justices patiently witnessing the onslaught of the Trump campaign’s gaggle of lawyers delivering furious but fatuous arguments for nullifying a national election, it must have been like watching clowns at court trying to pick up dung by the clean end. No justice in the land, whether Republican or Democrat, was having any of it. The election was honorable and honorably administered, notwithstanding the efforts of dishonorable political hacks dishonorably flacking for nullification of a national election. Try as they might, the Trump lawyers haven’t been able to put a good face on a horrid cause. Courts at every level, including the US Supreme Court (twice and unanimously), have now turned away Trump’s legal marauding, seeing it for what it is; a menacing, desperate, and disingenuous attack on an American election.
In the attempt to nullify the election, President Trump put through hell good and decent men and women, Democrats and Republicans alike. Trump’s irresponsible statements and those of his lawyers have, quite deliberately, endangered good and decent Americans, some elected, some selected, and many simply volunteers who oversaw the nation’s balloting through the many and varied election procedures. They did so conscientiously and honorably and with relatively few errors. It is against these good men and women that President Trump has committed a calumny of historic proportions.
According to President Trump, hidden among these conscientious and dedicated men and women were a cabal of devious fraudsters, stealing America’s greatest treasure, the national election. In essence, Trump has claimed without evidence that among these American election workers and officials were shills who were either duplicitous in a massive fraud or too stupid to recognize what he and his acolytes have represented as the greatest scam in American election history. We have witnessed a shameful and failed spectacle of an American President savaging an American election
President Trump’s scam offense was dog-eared in his election playbook and rehearsed well before the election. The 2020 election, he had claimed repeatedly, could only be lost if the Democrats had rigged the election. He was, of course, merely dusting off his prior election rhetoric, whereby he had made the same ridiculous claim over and over again in the run up to the 2016 contest. Four years ago, also without evidence, he protested that only widespread fraud could cost him that election. It has become a worn and tired Trump mantra.
When pushing through Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, Trump telegraphed that he might very well have intended for the Supreme Court to be his ace-in-the-hole. “I think this will end up in the Supreme Court,” Trump announced to reporters the month before the election. Given his transactional mentality, Trump probably assumed I elevate these judges (Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett) to the Supreme Court and, if push comes to shove, they elevate me to the presidency. However, that is not what James Madison had in mind, nor is it what Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett, or any other Supremes had in mind.
In multiple state and federal suits and the most conservative US Supreme Court in recent memory, Trump has challenged the election outcome while also pressing state Republican officials to throw out the election results and simply declare him the winner.
Republican officials who have supported Trump and voted for him in the just-concluded election, but have refused to show fealty to him like vassals to a feudal lord, have incurred the wrath of the President and his minions of sycophants. Georgia Lieutenant Governor Geoff Duncan, a proud and loyal Republican, who voted for Trump and strongly supports the two Republican senators running in Georgia’s special election on January 5th, lamented that the President’s misinformation campaign is duping Georgians. He and many other honest Republicans are simply not prepared to misrepresent the truth in the service of a corrupt cause.
President Trump resides in a world of his own. He is fixated on the reality that more than 70 million Americans voted for him and dismissive of the fact that more than 80 million Americans have rejected him.
***
Invite friends, family, and colleagues to receive “Of Thee I Sing 1776” online commentaries. Simply copy, paste, and email them this link—https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/ILPzgKS –and they can begin receiving, free of charge, these weekly essays every Sunday morning.
All comments regarding these essays, whether they express agreement, disagreement, or an alternate view, are appreciated and welcome. Comments that do not pertain to the subject of the essay or which are ad hominem references to other commenters are not acceptable and will be deleted.
Invite friends, family, and colleagues to receive “Of Thee I Sing 1776” online commentaries. Simply copy, paste, and email them this link— www.oftheeising1776.substack.com/subscribe –and they can begin receiving these weekly essays every Sunday morning.
You never disappoint me!
The most interesting takeaway this week was the 9-0 vote from the Supreme Court.
Our system works.
Bravo, Hal! Perfectly stated. Now let’s hope the courts do their job again and put this pathetic and dangerous cult leader behind bars for the bulk of his remaining years. Our country will not be safe until he is removed from civil society, without a cell phone or computer.
Even more important, Congress needs to strengthen our laws and especially our requirements for entry into a presidential election – (beginning with mandatory release of tax returns)- to make sure our democracy can never be hijacked and destroyed again.
I never believed democracy was fragile in America. I do now. Our country has been torn apart by the actions of our President. If the Supreme Court didn’t reject our President’s frivolous attempts to overturn the election, we would have another civil war. Indeed, the Texas Republican leader has called for states to succeed from the United Sates. For the good of our Country, we must intensify our search for bipartisan solutions to our problems, not warfare.
Right on Hal, When are the Mitch McConnell’s of the GOP going
to acknowledge that the current occupant of the White House
lost the election? I guess, as the President said. “it is what it is”.
Always a profound read, yet the continued silence from Republican legislators enabling Trump to prevail in influencing thousands to defend, support and chant, “as long as he (Biden) and his administration fight to save the steal, so will we fight to stop the steal, reminding everyone that if it comes to civil war, we’re the ones with guns.” Lady Justice is a mighty force, I truly hope she remains so.
Republican Party now has major leadership problems. Shielding Trump is risky. What to do? Reagan’s impact is long gone. So disappointing.
Hal, to you and your followers, to suggest that this election was honorable and honorably administered suggests a a stunning level of naïveté.
Yet it is consistent with your writings of the past coup,e of months. In October, the New York Post and Fix were savagely attacked for bringing up the “fake news” Hunter Biden story. Low and behold, it was all true. And Bill Barr and the DOJ knew about it as far back as May But you and your readers chose to believe the mainstream media instead of asking “is it true?”
We know for a fact that some level of fraud occurred. I don’t think any sane or objective person disputes that. Whether it was the Dominion software changing 6000 ballots from Trump to Biden or the debacle of laws being changed in Pa and WI to accommodate late ballots, what we don’t know is the magnitude of the fraud. And when you see the politicians in Michigan fighting the release of the report on the forensic studies of the Dominion machines, you have to at least wonder “what are they afraid of?”
Since we don’t know the magnitude, we don’t know if it was sufficient to overturn the results. And we are not likely to know it before tomorrow when the election gets certified. But to suggest that it didn’t occur is choosing to ignore reality. I believe that is called denial.
I mention this because you and your readers are choosing to ignore what numerous data scientists have called a statistically impossible outcome. Four cities/counties were shut down for the evening within minutes of each other (Philadelphia, Detroit/Wayne County, Milwaukee, and Atlanta/Fulton County). At the time of the shutdown Trump was up by at least one hundred thousand votes in every area and in Pa , over 800,000 votes. Hours later, he is down and you have 140,000 votes cast for Biden in a matter of five seconds. You have voter turnouts never seen before, 100,000 plus ballots where the only vote was for Biden and the down ballot results which are incongruous with the Presidential election.
But in your eyes, all was “honorable and honorably administered.”
Two final thoughts. First, I blame Trump and the Republicans for losing. Doing stupid things like alienating the MCCain family cost him Arizona. And failing to adequately train the Republican judges and judicially challenging the process for mail in ballots before the election allowed the Democratic A/G’s In Mi, Pa, and Wi to disregard voter verification measures.
Second, Biden will be sworn in but within a year we will be swearing in President Kamala Harris. I don’t know if you’re the praying type Hal, but if you are it would be best for all of us to pray that the Republicans win at least 1 of the two Senate Seats in Georgia.
Response to Mike: Perhaps one person’s naïveté is another person’s paranoia. Yes, I believe the Republican election officials and the dozens of judges, Republican and Democratic, who have looked at the charges Mike and the Trump campaign have presented have come to the correct assessment of them. As one conservative, Trump-appointed Republican jurist opined regarding the charges the Trump campaign presented, “(they) are strained legal arguments without merit, speculative and stitched together like a Frankenstein Monster.” A serious charge does not make a serious offense. That takes evidence. Notably, not once has the Trump campaign alleged “fraud” in court where a modicum of truth is required. Yes, I believe the election was honorably administered, as do virtually all of the election officials, and judges, both Republican and Democratic, who have heard the Trump campaign’s arguments in both federal and state courts. There is much to the old saying that lies can travel halfway around the world before the truth can get its shoes on.
Enough of this bashing of our duly elected President. You have refused to list all the positive things he has done for our country. You obviously refused to see any good that has come out of his four years in office, all the time with the resistance movement against him.
How about changing your tune. Let us hear from you what we can expect from the new regime to be installed in January. I think that would be of some interest to your readers.
Response to evg:Actually, these columns have, on a number of occasions, given the President a “thumbs-up” for various actions he has pursued. I have also been critical of the highly partisan manner in which certain aspects of the Congressional investigations into his actions were conducted. That I believe his behavior with respect to the election is reprehensible, historic, and a threat to our democracy is also true.
I agree with evg and Mike in their comments and assessments.
And I totally agree regarding the Trump-bashing. Enough!
Your guy won! So the absolute hatred for Trump needs to stop. It is very destructive and only destroys those who continue to harbor the hatred.
If we truly want to heal the divisiveness then please publish what the new administration’s plans are going forward…..heaven only knows what that is since the Biden campaign nor the Democratic Party failed to articulate that before the election.
Hopefully, mail-in balloting and voter ID legislation will be high on their agenda, so that our election officials and judges can be spared the catastrophe that was created in this election.
The title of the book written by Donald Trump’s niece called him “the most dangerous man in America”. I thought that was a little bit of hyperbole, even from a family member he had stolen millions from. But now I understand. Many great men (and one woman) have lost election to the Presidency. NONE have done as much damage to our democracy in the course of losing the election. Now it may be almost irreparable. I ask those who are defending him now, even after the loss of 50 court cases plus being denied by the Supreme Court, what do you suggest should happen if he declines to leave the White House on January 20?
Actually the trump haters have been proven wrong again. The various media elements have been saying that trump wouldn’t leave the White House and would have the military defend him or that he would have to be dragged out by the military if he refused to leave. Instead he is taking his objections through the courts which he is entitled to do. Also the Supreme Court judges he named have proven to be of an objective caliber. Have the left wing previously existing current judges ever been anything other than consistently left wing. Trump has proven to be a clear thinker on so many issues that needed a fresh clear revamping. . The Middle East, trade with Mexico and Canada,our getting treated unfairly in trade with our trading partners around the world,our trading relations with China, our nato allies not paying their contractually owed defense payments, and on and on. For example Previous presidents and their advisors stated that no Arab countries would make peace deals with Israel if they didn’t have a deal with the Palestinians first. Tell that to the 4 muslem countries that just made deals. Also why does a car made in the USA and sold in the eu get a 10per cent tariff and a car made in the eu and sold in the USA get only a 2 and a half per cent tarriff. This disparity was common in most of our dealings with most countries. Trump recognized these problems and dealt with them. Why do people focus on his mouth and notrecognize that he awakened this nation to the fact that we are in danger of becoming a second rate nation because we think we are still the rich fat Uncle Sam. Does anyone think trumps successor administration will solve our many problems? This gang will make trump look like a genius. Or do you think the condition of the democrat led big cities is a thing of beauty to be emulated by the Biden gang?
Response to Robert Borns: Therefore what? Abrogate the election?
Robert Borns: You have explained the scenerio perfectly. Well done! Compare our USA as to a person with an extreme addiction of some sort. One has to fall to the lowest of lows prior to changing things in their own lives. So goes the USA! This is what President Trump did. He was and is not a Politican, for which we thank God! Do you all not understand, he is an outsider. He has thretened the long standing generational “nest” of the political pool (i.e., families) of curruption, lies, greed, crime, etc. etc. The bad, along with the ugly had to be exposed and broken up, like pouring poison on a nest of deep rooted “cockroaches”. As uncomfortable as this to watch and understand. This is the ONLY way our Country will be able to heal and rebuild. We are a strong nation of good people, and we will most certainly prevail and once again become a nation that other countries respect. Unforunately, we will suffer many pains, just as an addict does, as to obtain the decency and law and order we once had so many years ago. Trump just happened to be the non-political instrument that came forward to do what was necessary to bring our country back to what it was; by beginning the rebuilding of a failing nation that was built on honesty, integrity, patriotism, lack of self interest and instilling God back into our Country once agan. Above all, we must be able to trust the legitimacy of our elections before we can rebuild and move forward. President Trump is the only person who “has nothing politcally to lose”. As I mentioned, he is not a politician. Therefore, the Clintons, Bidens, Obama’s, Soros’, Pelosi’s, Shumers, Shiff’s, Nadlers, etc. etc. etc. need to be exposed for what they are and have been for years, along with the corruption they have embedded into this country for way too many years. The legal system will prevail in the end, in order for our country to rebuild on a sound foundation as our forefathers intended it. I, along with millions of others pray that President Trump continues to pursue his efforts to bring our Country back to us. Hal, to abrogate the election may not be the worst solution after all. As I mentioned earlier in my comments, sometimes, we have to hit the “low of all lows” before we can move forward. Yes it will cause upheaval and it will be uncomfortable for everyone. But, we WILL rebuild and possibly our beauitful Americal will be whole once again.
Jean Wylie
BRAVO!!!
Response to Hal. No,as we are a nation of laws let the judicial system play out. We are all entitled to excersise our legal rights even when doing that isn’t so pretty or tidy.
Yes Biden won. Probably fair and square based on the judges decisions. But now begins the real deal. Do you really want Biden and Harris running our country? Seriously! Think about this (Hal this is a good analogy for you) would you want a person in the same business for over 47 years coming in to oversee your company rather than some fresh blood that is younger and has the energy to take the helm to grow the business. Not to mention, Biden’s right hand is a radical. He’s just a puppet and always will be. It will be interesting to see how this Chinese mess untangles.
It shocks me that people think so well of Trump. Shocks and frightens me the most. Trump Is an out and out crook ——no a better word than Hal came up with a true grifter. Are these people who read your Blog for real? Or are they simply interested in their pocketbooks and Trump gave them a tax break. Is there not more empathy for those in need or is that not the Trumpian way. Think of only yourself which is what Trump preaches
Helen Lewis
Helen and Hal
Helen, the fact that your hatred for Trump precludes you from having any critical thinking skills in assessing the Trump Presidency is your problem not mine. Three Constitutional Supreme Court Justices, energy independence, a Middle East peace deal, the most pro-life presidency to counter balance all but six of the Democratic Congressional Representatives who voted against the Born Alive Act which would have required extending medical care to babies who survive an abortion…. and the list goes on.
And if and when the full extent of Biden corruption ever gets exposed, you’ll get to see what an out and out crook really looks like. And yes, Helen, I am interested in my pocketbook, but I adore interested in my Country. And I believe a Biden Presidency will weaken our country. Maybe this will help you deal with your “shock” – but since you obviously suffers from TDS (Trump Derangement Syndrome) I think you will continue to attack anyone who has a balanced perspective on the Trump Presidency.
Hal, thank you for your response. The last week has not been a good week for those who want to see the “election was stolen” theme go away. The release of the forensic results from the Anthim County Dominion machines coupled with the whistle blowers allegations that the CEO of Dominion flat out lied in his testimony, will fuel the beliefs of those who believe that the election was stolen.
That said, I think you missed my point about the election. You don’t know, I don’t know and nobody knows the magnitude of the fraud. The fact that Trump’s legal team has almost been embarrassingly weak may have more to do with the fact that given the limited amount of time, they have not had the ability to get all the facts. Of course, there is the possibility that they are incompetent, but that does not mean there was not a significant level of fraud – certainly enough to have swung the results n States such as Wisconsin.
In closing, I think Trump should listen to Karl Rove. To wit, Americans can accept the legal challenge but they will not like a sore loser. And if you were once, as you have said, a Republican, please pray that the Republicans hold the Senate.
To your audience, Hope youeither enjoyed Hanukkah or plan on having a Merry Christmas.
Hal, again you draw fire…… and this was a post more about the history of the Judicial System than anything else.
The fact that sharing history highlights how un-respectful of the judicial system the post-election President is, is not your fault.
That you are correct about the many meritless cases that judges have had to sit through – most notably judges appointed by the man himself – is also not your fault.
As to continuing to talk about the man:
I would imagine the best way that stops – is if the man did not behave as he has these string of days after the election. He keeps himself front and center.
Unfortunately, the subjects are all about himself – without even a nod to those suffering from the effects of COVID in his country.
Nor, much on any other topic pertinent to the people he was employed to care for, and that he is obligated to create a smooth transition for – just like every other outgoing President before him.
Should his behavior change on that….. there would be less to write (in bashing, or any other, fashion) about him.
Though his behavior also indicates – his goal is to always be talked about.