PUTSCH! It will fail, but it is a bad omen
Pro-Trump extremists stormed the Capitol today and halted the constitutional process of confirming the Electoral College votes. The President encouraged this violent attack on the transition of power. Capitol Police seem to have been lamentably unprepared, despite weeks of advance notice. They did little to stop the assault. You can imagine what would have happened had they been chanting “Black Lives Matter.”
The proper response is for the Congress to meet in an alternate location this evening and quickly accept the electoral result. The House should re-impeach President Trump tomorrow and the Senate vote to remove him from office. Vice President Pence should be sworn in to finish out Trump’s term while he is arrested for inciting violence.
None of my daydream will happen, because the Republicans won’t be on board and the Democrats will hesitate. A dozen Republican Senators had already loudly pledged to object to the certification of the electoral votes. They too are morally responsible for the deplorable behavior of the rioters, who are virtually all white and male.
So I’ll offer a more realistic scenario. The Congress should meet tomorrow to complete the certification of the electoral votes. As soon as the two new Democratic Georgia Senators are able to take their seats, the Congress should pass a corona virus bill providing $2000 relief payments to less well off Americans and financing for the states to accelerate Covid19 testing and vaccinations as well as reopening of schools and support for small businesses. Biden should sign it on January 20.
Congress should also vote to admit Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia (to be known as the Douglas Commonwealth) as states. This would enfranchise their more or less 3.8 million citizens and ensure a majority in both Houses that supports the constitution for the foreseeable future, or at least until the Republican party figures out it will need to appeal more broadly in order to regain power.
Whether that all happens or not, the putsch will fail. But it should never have happened and bodes ill for the future. Trump has managed to convince a significant part of the population that they have good reason to object to the electoral outcome, despite the failure to produce any evidence of electoral fraud, his loss of 62 court cases, and the illogic of asserting that the Democrats somehow stole the presidency but neglected to steal more House and Senate seats.
None of that matters because the real cause of the resentment lies elsewhere. Trump’s diehard supporters resent losing power to people they think are not their equals, because they are black, immigrants, women, gays, socialists, communists, and other unworthies. White supremacy is not just about people saying they are superior because they are white. It’s about supposing that you are the victim of persecution by people who are not like you.
“A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Lincoln said channeling Mark 3:25 and Matthew 12:25. America is certainly a house divided. It is a bad omen.
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I share your daydream. But consider the following. A senior Republican senator, namely Romney, gets Schumer, McConnell, Pelosi and Pence to agree to offer Trump a deal to resign immediately with a guarantee that he will not be prosecuted for treason provided he agrees to never run for political office and never engages in political activity by donating money or endorsing candidates. If he violates those terms he voids his protection from prosecution for treason/inciting mob violence.
Putting Trump into political exile could be a win for rational Republicans and let the Democrats focus on plague and economic recovery.