John Harrington, a late 16th and early 17th century courtier to Queen Elizabeth and King James I, once famously wrote, "Treason doth never prosper, what's the reason? For if it prosper, none dare call it Treason."
This quote has been running through my mind this week as the State of Texas filed suit with the United States Supreme Court to overturn the votes of four states, thus dis-enfranchising millions of Trump and Biden voters. The basis of the suit is a legal mumbo jumbo, but the gist of it is that ostensibly Texas just didn't like the electoral outcome in those states.
Perhaps if a coup attempt is dressed as lawsuit, none will dare call it treason.
Put aside that this suit has no merit. It provides no evidence other than the "evidence" asserted and rejected by the courts in over 55 separate cases, both at the state and federal levels. Texas has no standing to bring and sustain this action unless the Court is willing to allow one state to interfere with the electoral processes of another because it doesn't like the results, in which case democracy dies in broad daylight.
There is no legal basis for this suit. Texas tries to get around this by asserting that because of the alleged (and consistently discarded) voter fraud committed in four states - because if not fraud, how could Biden have won - actually devalued the good voters who all cast "legal" ballots in Texas, In other words, this is a wholly lacking in accepted legal theory or merit, backdoor attempt to score an equal protections argument so that Ted Cruz can argue this case before the Supreme Court.
Ignore the Texas claim that extending the application period for mail ballots was illegal - the same extension provided sua sponte by Governor Abbott of Texas. And ignore the fact that some of the states - I'm looking at you, Utah - provides for the exclusive use of mail ballots in its elections.
And what's the evidentiary crescendo of Texas' suit? That maybe - just maybe - mail ballots provide too much and opportunity for mischief. Not that any mischief in fact occurred; oh no, that would require actual evidence of a crime. Only that it was possible for some shenanigans to occur.
It's also possible that by the time you get this far the Sun will go into super nova and wipe out the universe. It's possible, but not likely, so don't put the house money on it happening. The state of Texas did more than put the house money on the potential of voter fraud occurring in four states - they put our democracy on the line.
Seventeen states along with over 100 members of Congress have also put our democracy on the line by joining with Texas and filing amicus briefs with the Court. Bear in mind that none of these briefs have any more evidence than Texas, so these are the legal equivalent of saying "what he [Texas] said."
The action before the Court is the conclusion of a slow motion coup that has been attempted since November 3. This is no less than a perversion of democratic institutions and the rule of law in an attempt to impose authoritarian rule in America.
To be clear: there is no evidence of widespread systematic voter fraud anywhere; all 50 states certified their results on December 8; the Electoral College is scheduled to count its votes on December 14. Joe Biden will official be declared the victor of the 2020 Presidential Election.
Let me state to the cheap seats: Biden Won! TRUMP LOST!!!
That is if the Court doesn't intervene before hand. My guess as of this writing is that the Court will pitch this suit into the trash basket where it belongs. My hope is that this Court along with the lower courts will seek to impose sanctions on the attorneys and parties they represent for wasting time and money filing frivolous lawsuits. If sanctions are not imposed, this gives a future generation of legal grifters license to file any damned fool thing they wish, violating the various jurisdictional rules of evidence, court, and professional conduct.
But more important than the Insane Clown Posse attempt to pervert democracy is what it reveals about a dangerous, if not lethal, strain running through America; a strain that is so tribal that it cannot tolerate any fact or occurrence that runs counter to its world view. What this joke of a suit before the Court does to our democracy is insignificant compared to the seeming inexorable erosion of democracy at the heart of these efforts.
When I was younger, there were bumper stickers placed on the vehicles of those who supported the status quo and resisted change that stated, "America. Love it or Leave it." The counter to that was, "America. Fix it or Forget it."
I fear we are at the point where we need to fix our democracy, its institutions and traditions that make America unique in all the world, or we will need to forget it and allow America to descend to the dustbin of history as many/all of the previously great nations have done.
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