When we said President Trump might destroy the Republican Party and the conservative movement, this is what we were talking about.
Trump lobbied Georgia’s Republican secretary of state to overturn the election results in that state, citing only bad logic and conspiracy theories. It’s a power grab of the sort that normally would best be called shameless or brazen, but listening to Trump, the best descriptor might be idiotic. Trump seems bull-headed enough to actually believe he truly won and that the election is being stolen from him. As a narcissist, he is incapable of believing anything else.
And now the test of being a Real Republican is whether you support this destructive farce.
Yes, it’s destructive. This whole charade by Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz and most House Republicans can’t be excused as just “asking questions.” These Republicans are not making some reasonable demand for a much-needed audit of Georgia’s election results. There’s no reasonable case that Trump really won the election.
Hawley, Cruz, and dozens of House Republicans are instead putting on an undemocratic show as part of a pathetic loyalty ritual. In order to position themselves as the leaders of the post-Trump party, they believe they must flex every possible muscle in Trump’s absurd election dispute. Whether they believe what they say is an academic question. That they are willing to strain our constitutional system condemns them.
People of a certain neurological or intellectual disposition have long understood that a bicameral majority in Congress could install the president in any given election. Follow the roadmap laid out by the Constitution, and you realize that any majority of the House, if aligned with a majority of the Senate, could block the ratification of enough electors in order to throw the presidential election to the House. Then, if the House majority also controls a majority of state delegations, they could choose the runner-up (or even the third-place finisher) as the president. Even worse, the House majority could choose a speaker of the House who would become the acting president if nobody else won the election.
Congress choosing the president would be an insane abuse of power except in extreme circumstances. The Founders intended Congress to be supreme (commentators who speak of “co-equal branches” miss this), and one could imagine a circumstance where the election results were legitimately disputed. The drafters of the Constitution didn’t want judges (or just as bad, the president) adjudicating this dispute. Congress, and especially the People’s House, ought to make the decision.
But the 2020 election is not legitimately a disputed election. Yes, it was close, but Joe Biden won Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona, and Wisconsin. Despite furious efforts, Trump’s forces haven’t come up with anything approaching evidence that Trump deserved to win any of these states.
That means objecting to the Electoral College votes is a raw exercise of power.
Properly, states are the judges of their own elections for presidential electors. Congress is the ultimate arbiter in case of disputes, abuse of power, corruption, or so on. Now the GOP is arrayed against federalism and in favor of using all power that is available to them.
Republicans, including Reps. Chip Roy and Thomas Massie and Sen. Mike Lee, who object to the Trump-Hawley-Cruz play, will be, no doubt, excoriated as fake conservatives, swamp-dwellers, and RINOs. This is a perverse litmus test.
A Republican Party based on the idea that power should be wielded whenever possible and that Congress ought to override the states whenever Congress disagrees, is not in any way a conservative party.
The Republican Party became a cult of personality by the time Trump won the presidency. Now we’re seeing crystal clear the costs of that transition.
