OK, not everyone has lost the right stuff

One of my favorite readers of peacefare has objected to my post earlier this week on America losing the right stuff. I have to admit he had a point: it’s not all gone. There are lots of people–health care workers, grocery store employees, troops and commanders, diplomats, teachers, election workers, and many others–who are continuing to do their duty with humble commitment during the Covid-19 epidemic. My hat is off to them.

But unfortunately that spirit has declined markedly in public life. The latest evidence is the Texas-initiated lawsuit aiming to overturn the presidential election results in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. The election procedures in those states have already been thoroughly litigated in both state and Federal courts. Virtually none have been found problematic. But Texas, joined by 17 other Trump-supporting state attorneys general and the Federal government, is claiming to know better. Mind: they are not challenging results in those same four states that delivered Republicans to office, or Trump victories in other states that used the same procedures as the four. Only the Biden victory.

This is disgraceful. It won’t go anywhere in court, but that is not its purpose. What Trump and his minions are doing is exerting a tight grip on the Republican party and raising money for his slush PAC. They are ignoring their duty to accept the election results and humbly return to the hard work of governing. Better they figure to dip into state coffers to challenge election results in other states where they have no standing, never mind the objections of at least some Republican officials in the states in question.

I can hope that this behavior will be punished at the polls, but I doubt it. There is a slice of white America that has decided its political dominance is threatened. Given the demographic changes in progress, their only hope for remaining in power is to prevent black and brown people from voting or to ensure that their votes are not counted. That has been the consistent theme of the Trump challenge to the November 3 election: fraud in Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and other cities with large minority populations is the claim. The Republicans have produced no evidence at all to support the allegation, but something like three-quarters of Republicans believe it.

If the Republican party persists in this direction, it will abandon entirely its conservative vocation and remain the extremist white nationalist organization that Trump has conjured. There are few signs of resistance: Romney in the Senate has dissented, but virtually no other major serving Republican official at the national level has joined him. Certainly the incoherent mumbling from Senators Collins and Murkowski is not going to stem the extremist tide.

What happens in Georgia January 5 will shape much of the Republicans’ and America’s future. If, against the odds, the newly purple state sends two Democratic senators to Washington, the Republicans will be forced to reckon with the kind of strong presidency they enjoyed in 2017. They will also face the prospect of being permanently out of power, at least in the Senate. The Democrats will, I hope, admit both the District of Columbia (known then as the Douglas Commonwealth) and Puerto Rico as states, each with two senators (as well as one member of Congress for DC and five for Puerto Rico). DC gets three Electoral College votes already. Puerto Rico would get 7.

While the differences are not dramatic, they would likely be enough for at least some Republicans to realize that white nationalist extremism is not a winning ticket. They could drop the racist lawsuits and return to real conservatism, which on life style and even fiscal issues has real appeal among minorities. If the Republicans don’t move in that direction, they will increasingly represent less educated racists trying to hold on to their white privileges. That’s a losing proposition, but an appropriate one for people who have abandoned duty and humility.