Sedition

This is how it starts.

The attorney general of Texas sued four other states in the Supreme Court, demanding their 2020 election results be overturned, which in addition to sowing chaos within those states and in Congress (because, let us not forget, those ballots were for more offices than one), would deny Joe Biden enough electoral votes to be inaugurated.  What seemed at first a public relations gambit and a nuisance suit by a politician looking for a preemptive pardon while being seriously investigated for federal crimes when all of his deputies accused him of corruption, quickly became a Trump loyalty test and a litmus test for a statistical majority of AlwaysTrumpers.  Seventeen other Republican attorneys-general signed on, supported by 126 US House Republicans.  (Trump requested the congressional signatures, and he made it clear he was checking the list to see who was naughty and who was nice.) 

This inspired the first use of the S word when the four states being attacked issued their withering responses, with the attorney general of Pennsylvania calling the suit a "seditious abuse of the judicial process."  

 Eventually 20 states, mostly but not all with Democratic governors and administrations, joined to oppose the case.  They and many commentators expressed shock that so many Republicans would join in denying the basis for elected representative government, otherwise known as democracy.  But sedition? 

Following the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court denying the suit brought by the attorney general of Texas that demanded essentially that the 2020 election be overturned. the chairman of the Texas Republican Party issued a statement suggesting that in response: "Perhaps law abiding states should bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the Constitution."

Okay.  Now that's sedition.  

Even before this, Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) requested that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuse to seat any members of the newly elected Congress in January who signed on to this suit.  He specifically cited Section 3 of the 14th Amendment "written after the Civil War to bar from government any traitors who would seek to destroy the Union." 

 He said this applies to 126 Republicans who signed as supporters of the Texas suit.  They included the Member who would likely become the Speaker if Republicans regain the majority.   "Stated simply, the men and women who would act to tear the United States government apart cannot serve as Members of Congress."  He called them " Members trying to overturn the election and make Donald Trump an unelected dictator."  

So this is what I meant about the Civil War.  Sedition is a loaded word and dodgy legal concept in a democracy, but when it involves issues that hark back to the War Between the States, it's clear, and it's a fighting word.

 Do Republican party leaders seriously want to start a civil war?  Probably not, at least not directly.  They support Trump's dictatorship perpetuation effort because 1) it's a spectacular money-raiser, 2) they all want the fealty of the AlwaysTrumpers once Trump is off center stage, and 3) solidifying the idea that Joe Biden is not a legitimate President will make it much easier for Mitch McConnell etc. to undermine and paralyze the incoming administration, setting Republican up for congressional victories in 2022 which could easily win them both Houses.

 But it's a dangerous game.  History tells us that Hitler was first elected because of a lot of factions out for themselves, trying to knock each other off.  They didn't started out enthralled with the Furher.  But that's where they soon found themselves.

If they don't necessarily want two sets of states at war with each other, they are fine with two utterly different realities at war with each other, creating an ungovernable country is a time of obvious crisis, apart from the underlying meta-crisis which threatens civilization and life as we know it on the planet.

This particular circus could have been much worse. Resisting it took heroic election officials in the states, the state and federal courts on every level that have turned back some 60 cynical suits so far, the media that won't swallow this.  Notably no Senators actually signed on, and several Republican Senators spoke against the suit (including one from Texas.)  

But it's still pretty bad.  Three-quarters of the Republicans in the US House, who were fine with the elections that elected them, joined the chief law enforcement officers of 18 states in demanding that the results of lawful elections be overturned, with no evidence behind their assertions, in a document that would get a high school sophomore flunked in Civics (if they still taught that),  Composition, arithmetic (a mad assertion that Biden's victory was mathematically impossible) and even spelling.  There must be law professors up on ledges all over academia.

 There will likely be more cynical court cases filed and thrown out, and there may be a play to try to get Congress to challenge electors in early January.  It takes only one Rep. and one Senator to start the process, which involves each house debating the challenges for two hours and then voting.  It takes both Houses to support the challenge, and the Trumpeteers are unlikely to get even the Senate. (I count at least 4 Republican votes against.)  

But that word is out there, and the idea is bigger than it's been, maybe since the Civil War.  (The S word being Sedition or Secession, depending on which side are you on.)  There may yet be violence around this.  But even if this particular typhoon blows itself out, the damage is probably deeper and longer. 

This Week in American History

More Americans were killed by the Covid crisis on December 7, 2020--earlier this week-- than were killed in the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, that led to America declaring war on Japan and entering World War II, committing billions of dollars and the full attention of American society on the goal of winning that war fought across two immense oceans.

  Some 405,000 Americans were killed in the four years of that war, the largest death toll of any American war before or since, except the Civil War.  America is currently on track to see more than 405,000 Covid deaths in less than one year, by the end of 2020.  We're at some 286,000 now, the equivalent in American deaths of 5 Vietnams.

More Americans were killed by the Covid crisis on December 9, 2020--namely, yesterday-- than were killed in terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, which led to the expenditure of many billions of dollars in conflicts that are still not over.  Both events thoroughly transformed American society.

Congress has currently allocated zero new dollars to addressing the Covid crisis or its economic and human effects.  The President of the United States is AWOL.  So are Republicans in Congress, and many Republican officeholders in the states.

This is America as 2020 ends.

The Dreaming Up Daily Quote: 12/9/2020

 

"...the song of the siren which is heard only by those who no longer travel, no longer exert themselves, who are exhausted, and want to remain transfigured in a single place which contains all places."

Carlos Fuentes

Defining the Precipice

 Let us recognize the historical moment, for what it is and what it may become. For what it is, because we are befogged by denial that is natural self-protection, helpful if we successfully whistle past the dark, but it can also make us more vulnerable and less capable. For what it may become, because if the worst happens there will be voices loudly crying out, who could have foreseen this? 

 First: We are in the teeth of an extraordinary infectious disease pandemic, ignored and brutally denied by the Executive branch and effectively--and just as brutally-- ignored by Congress. This pandemic is accompanied by a growing economic crisis, with millions unemployed, losing unemployment insurance lifelines, facing evictions, hunger and collapse.

 At the same time we are on the edge of an extraordinary political and perhaps societal crisis of potentially disturbing proportion. While the current Administration blunders around the margins of the Covid crisis, it is consumed by what is variously described as an attempted coup or official insurrection, trying to scuttle election results and retain the dictator apprentice by any means.

 This is a seriously dangerous combination. The Covid infections, hospitalizations and deaths are just going to get higher for at least the next six weeks. Collapse of the health care system in some places is threatening or underway, and that is almost certainly going to spread. When hospitals are overwhelmed and deaths are doubling in a month’s time, other aspects of society are also threatened, beginning with grocery stores and the food chain. Covid alone—and the failure to confront it as an urgent national crisis—could seriously compromise American society as we know it. But instead of addressing this utterly obvious prospect, the current Chief Executive is denying it in favor of causing a political crisis which looks increasingly like it will threaten the social order for some considerable time to come, all on its own.

 But especially in combination with the Covid crisis in its upcoming darkest days, this political crisis could lead to serious societal breakdowns in the near future. So far the strength of democratic traditions and institutions, and in particular the election officials and the jurists who are doing their jobs (many in both categories are Republicans), are holding things together.  Others with power are responsibly supporting order by their restraint.

 Absent a sudden shocking decision from the US Supreme Court, it appears that the 2020 election results will hold. So apart from a long-term political struggle with potentially devastating effects, the near future threat then becomes the eruption of violence. 

 That it hasn’t happened yet seems to indicate that the residual stability in our society is holding. But the ground for violence is certainly being overtly prepared. That the Michigan Secretary of State, who oversees elections, should face 16 or so armed men outside her home cursing and threatening her in the presence of her four year old son as they decorate the house for Christmas is but the latest incident.

 Behind these threats is the contention made by Republican leaders on every level, as well as the vast majority of Republican voters, completely without credible proof, that the 2020 election results are illegitimate. This has led Heather Cox Richardson to cite the election of 1888 as an historical precedent, when Republicans subverted that election, and in 1892, when they subverted the American economy in order to defeat the Democratic President. It was a series of crises that caused devastating pain, just so that wealthy Republican backers could keep and expand their power.

 But others see an earlier precedent for not only an undemocratic and anti-Constitutional political crisis, but a societal one as well. Rep. James Clyburn calls it insurrection, and so does William Saletan in his Slate piece, “Republicans are the party of Civil War”: 

" The insurrection has been boiling at pro-Trump rallies in the past few weeks. In Georgia, amid chants of “victory or death,” speakers have vowed to “remove” a new Democratic administration, arguing that it “doesn’t have the military on their side.” At a rally led by Donald Trump Jr., a speaker warned, “We’re getting ready to start shooting.” Last weekend in Michigan, a crowd cheered as a member of the Proud Boys declared, “We don’t want a civil war, but we’re already in one. And we’re in it to win it.” In Florida, rally leaders called the election result a “war on our homeland” and pledged, “We will not allow them to fire a man for doing his job perfect.”

 In Arizona, a speaker demanded the imprisonment of President-elect Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton. “We have to protect [Trump] at any cost,” he said. Another speaker denounced House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, calling for “rebellion” and adding, “I’d love to see half of these people hung by the neck.” The crowd shouted its approval."

 Fueling this mob violence fervor are Trump’s fascistic tactics in a multiple of impeachable offences were he not voted out in a month, from firing or threatening to fire members of his own administration who don’t support his blatant coup attempt, and demanding “the names” of the pitiful two dozen Republican lawmakers the Washington Post found would admit he lost the election, to directly pressuring governors and other officials in battleground states to reverse their state’s voting results, a criminal act.

 The next step is actual violence, and whether it sparks widespread violence. It is not inevitable but the table is set for it. Then in the teeth of pandemic we are in brand new territory, at least since the Civil War. What would be the state and federal response? If a Trump “enemy” is murdered, will he pardon the murderers?

 More Saletan: "Some zealots are already taking action. They’ve targeted election supervisors in several states, issuing death threats against officials in Vermont, calling for violence against the family of Arizona’s secretary of state, and orchestrating a hunt for a voting machine contractor who is now in hiding. On Monday, Gabriel Sterling, the Republican manager of Georgia’s elections, reported a death threat against an election worker, harassment of the worker’s family, and sexual threats against Raffensperger’s wife. “Stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence,” Sterling pleaded, addressing Trump at a televised briefing. “Someone’s going to get shot. Someone’s going to get killed.”

 That night, on Twitter, Trump posted a video of Sterling’s plea. He dismissed it. He accused Raffensperger and Kemp of knowing about, and refusing to uncover, “massive voter fraud.” The next day, in a speech recorded at the White House, he denounced both men again. And at Wednesday’s rally in Georgia, Wood and Powell, accompanied by Flynn, joined the attack. Wood accused Sterling of conspiring with China to manipulate the election. He demanded that Kemp and Raffensperger be thrown in jail. “We’re going to slay Goliath, the communists, the liberals,” he vowed. “Joe Biden will never set foot in the Oval Office.”

 So far it’s limited to incendiary talk, and not a lot of people.  But the matches—and the guns—are real.

Poetry Monday: Wish

 My lizard, my lively writher,

 May your limbs never wither,

 May the eyes in your face

 Survive the green ice

 Of envy’s mean gaze;

 May you live out your life

 Without hate, without grief,

 And your hair ever blaze,

 In the sun, in the sun, 

When I am undone, 

When I am no one.

 -Theodore Roethke 

 These days I tend to be hungry for the worn words of poets writing when they are older. They engage me for the obvious reason. But occasionally I recall a poem of my youth, if not by an absolutely youthful poet.

 I read this Roethke poem for the first time when I was 18, in the pages of a literary magazine in the college library during my first year. Although it is addressed to a young wife by a slightly older voice, it embodied in its words and cadences a feeling it evoked and expressed in me, surrounded as I was by lovely young women every day. I ardently wished this for them all. 

 When I took my first literature classes the following year, I would never have mentioned this poem, which would have therefore been exposed to the smirking charge of sentimentality. And perhaps it is sentimental and embarrassing. But now too old to care about that anyway, I find this feeling has lasted, from the day I first heard these lines in my mind and held them in my heart.

 This poem was in the queue for a future Monday, but I moved it up after belatedly learning of a death this past August of someone significant in my past. Perhaps the poem does not pertain since I have outlived her, though despite the recurrent health challenges, she had a rich, full—one may even say fabulous-- life. But in the end the poem is not about the life, but the wish. And it was always my wish for her.