Swagger is not pride, humility, or professionalism

Secretary of State Pompeo tweeted yesterday:

The real definition is:

walk or behave in a very confident and typically arrogant or aggressive way.

Oxford Languages

This pretty much sums up what is wrong with Pompeo: he lies incessantly, even about the well-established definition of words, and doesn’t know the difference between pride and humility, or for that matter anything about professionalism. Pompeo is well on his way to convincing most knowledgeable observers that he is the worst Secretary of State in history. He has had a lot of competition for the honor, including his egregious predecessor Rex Tillerson. I had my say on that yesterday.

In normal times, Pompeo’s comment would hardly be worth the electrons they are written with. But today eleven members of the Senate–seven sitting and four newly elected–have announced that they will challenge confirmation of the Electoral College votes on Wednesday. That is swagger. It will cause a pointless debate that will end in confirmation of Joe Biden’s election and likely violence by President Trump’s supporters on the streets of Washington. He will of course blame disorder on the non-existent Antifa and may even call out his various Federal police forces to make as much a mess of things as possible.

The four newly elected members are objecting to the validity of elections in which they themselves were elected. Consistency would require that they not claim their seats and ask for a rerun of the elections in their own states. None of them have the dignity to do that. One of their colleagues in the House even filed a law suit asking that the Vice President, who will preside on Wednesday, be authorized to override the Electoral College. A Trump-appointed Federal judge tossed out the law suit within a few hours. Of course these miscreants are only asking for the election results to be overturned in states that Biden and Harris won.

The rebels in Congress know they aren’t going to win. What they want is credit with Trump and “his” base for their hard stand against the Democrats. This is the new Republican party, committed to lying to its constituency, keeping its followers as uninformed as possible, and preventing its opponents from voting and their votes from being counted. And its all wrapped up in white supremacist swagger. The two Republican candidates for Senate in Georgia, where a run-off election Tuesday will decide the new Senate’s majority, are exemplars of this ilk.

Of course there are Republicans who aren’t down with this. Senator Romney has distinguished himself in this respect, but he is pretty much a loner in speaking out forcefully and recognizing Biden as President-elect. It is high time for more Republicans to do so, risking a split in their party. There is no sign that they can win a leadership struggle with Trump, but they could at least lay the basis for their party’s eventual revival as a truly conservative political entity. If they don’t speak up, Trumpism will their fate. It is high time for a bit of humility, professionalism, and pride. Swagger isn’t it.