Tag: 2020 Election
Stevenson’s army, January 7
Say a prayer for American democracy. It has been badly wounded.
NYT has the trail of incitements to treason.
Former APSA Congressional Fellow Paul Musgrave explains why it can be called an attempted coup.
Politico reporters describe the scary events.
The rioters justified themselves.
The Capitol Police underestimated the threat and responded incompetently. Heads will roll.
General Mattis finally speaks out
Ezra Klein has a fine first column at NYT..
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Stevenson’s army, January 6
Election specialists say both Democrats won in Georgia, giving Democrats control of Congress. Stacey Abrams takes a bow.
Looking for a job with Biden? The new Plum Book lists political jobs.
Subcabinet nominees in State include Wendy Sherman and Jon Finer.
IC officials formally blame Russia for recent hack. Amy Zegart cautions against overreacting to it.
Just before adjournment, Congress passed a new foreign aid bill for Eastern Europe.
Dozens of democracy activists arrested in Hong Kong.
Rand study says US military pay is too high.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, January 5
Georgia Senate races will determine control of the Senate, though we might not know for a while if the vote is as close as seems likely. Surprising to me: Democrats plan a big ground game, despite the pandemic, Daily Beast reports.
Slate details the QAnon and other conspiracy believers behind Trump’s fraud charges.
FP hears new HFAC chairman’s plans.
Fred Kaplan quotes me in discussing SecDef letter.
Lawfare writers suggest new limits if Austin is granted SecDef waiver.
Clip & save: Truth be told, I often include a long article in these messages before I have fully read them. Now that I have read the Golby & Feaver article on civil-military relations under Obama, Trump and Biden, I strongly recommend a close reading and saving for future referral. So I’m linking it again today.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Stevenson’s army, January 4
Prof. Edelman and Dean Cohen organized the statement signed by all living former Secretaries of Defense calling for acceptance of the election results and keeping the military out of elections. Here’s the statement.
Pres. Trump pressured Georgia officials to “find” enough votes to give him the election. Here’s the transcript and audio.
DOD reversed course and now says the Nimitz will stay in the Middle East.
China’s new law transfers war powers from the cabinet to the military commission.
Jim Golby & Peter Feaver suggest Biden tackle civil-military relations.
In parliamentary systems cabinets expand to reward partners with special portfolios. I think Speaker Pelosi secured her 4-vote victory by creating some special committees, including Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth and the renewed Select Committee on the Climate Crisis. See at the end of the new House rules.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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Republicans used to know how to lose
The President of the United States is trying to conspire to commit election fraud:
Odds are, the Georgia end of this phone call leaked the recording. Raffensperger is pissed, for good reasons.
Ted Cruz, now leading an effort that will culminate Wednesday to overturn election results validated in over 60 court cases, said about Donald Trump four years ago:
Cruz was right then, and wrong now. Trump is not only an inveterate liar, he behaves like a mob boss who can bully his way to anything he wants, including a favorable election result. And Ted Cruz is now helping him make the effort. The reason is clear: Cruz and his ilk hope to avoid Trump’s ire and eventually inherit the support of the two thirds or so of the Republican Party who think Trump can do no wrong.
There really is no hope of overturning the election results. Even if the effort were to succeed in Georgia, Trump would still be short of winning the Electoral College. But Georgia is only one arena of Trump’s game: he is also preparing to encourage violence at demonstrations in Washington on January 6 while Cruz and his sidekicks challenge the election results in Congress. And he may be making phone calls to other state officials. The purpose is to cement Trump’s control of his party and nurture as much resentment as possible, hoping to de-legitimize Biden’s presidency and rally the Republicans to hard opposition in the new Congress.
The question is what effect this will have on democracy in America. The consequences are not likely to be good. Democrats could play Trump’s game the next time a Republican is elected president, but I doubt they will. The Democratic party has nowhere near the cohesion and ideological discipline to mount a serious effort to deny the results of an election. More likely, Republicans will turn again to state election laws to try to limit who gets to vote. They will be challenging election results and trying to manipulate the census for decades to come, because they know their brand of stupid racism can’t win in an increasingly diverse America.
It is hard to over-emphasize how dramatic a departure this Republican behavior is from the past. Here is a defeated Republican candidate just 60 years ago:
I do not think we could have a more striking and eloquent example of the stability of our constitutional system and of the proud tradition of the American people of developing, respecting and honoring institutions of self-government. In our campaigns, no matter how hard-fought they may be, no matter how close the election may turn out to be, those who lose accept the verdict, and support those who win.
Richard Nixon, addressing the joint session of Congress January 6, 1961
After declaring John F. Kennedy the winner, he received a standing ovation.
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Stevenson’s army, January 3
About a dozen GOP Senators have pledged to challenge the electoral votes from several swing states.
Read their statement. They speak of “allegations” of fraud, not “evidence.” They say a challenge is necessary because so many people, especially Republicans, tell pollsters they believe there was fraud.
And what they propose — which would have to get both houses of Congress to vote such a bill — is what they call an” emergency 10-day audit” of the returns. What they want is a return to the 1877 electoral commission that voted on partisan lines to give the presidency to Rutherford Hayes by a one-vote margin. Wikipedia has a good backgrounder.
How clever! They have a precedent. It sounds so reasonable. And if anyone doubts that this massive task could be completed by January 20, Peter Navarro assures us that “We can go past that date if we need to.”
Last month I sent this CRS report on how the counting is supposed to go, by law.
Today [Sunday] at noon,the 117th Congress begins. In the House, the first item of business is electing a Speaker. But the vote may be quite close.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).
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