This is extraordinary: a group of Republicans are asking the court to disenfranchise millions of Americans, just so their guy can stay put
How does a two-party democracy continue to function when one side simply won’t play by the rules – and doesn’t seem to believe in the democratic project?
That’s what we’re seeing play out, as 106 Republicans in Congress signed a lawsuit, backed by more than a dozen Republican state attorneys general, asking the US supreme court to overturn the results of a free and fair American election, because a Democrat won. It’s an egregious and unconscionable move, and suggests that the corrosive effects of President Donald Trump will remain even after he leaves the White House.
Trump lost fair and square. But the state of Texas has asked the supreme court to intervene in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan; those four states, in turn, have asked the supreme court not to intervene, and to respect the results of the election and the will of their citizens. This is an extraordinary situation: a group of Republicans, still loyal to a president with waning power, are asking the supreme court to disenfranchise millions of Americans, just so their guy can stay put.
The fact that so many Republicans are going along with this authoritarian and undemocratic charade is clarifying, if depressing. Through four years of Trump, there were two main theories of Republican acquiescence: either Republicans really were supportive of the president, in all of his cruelty and incompetence and authoritarianism, or Republicans were simply scared of him and his hold over the Republican base, but secretly loathed the man and were anxious for a return to normal.
Now, we’re seeing which theory was correct.
It turns out that Trump wasn’t an aberration. He was the result of long-building extremism and reality-denialism on the right. And when he came to power, far too many in the Republican party didn’t see a cruel, incurious, dictatorial madman, but a kindred spirit – and the kind of leader who would happily override inconvenient democratic norms, basic standards of human decency, and even the rule of law. That became increasingly clear the longer Trump was in office; yet, out of naivety or perhaps just misplaced trust in other human beings, too many Democrats, pundits, and average citizens chose to believe that Republicans were simply caught between a rock and a hard place, and that Trumpism would end with Trump.
It’s one thing to disagree on policy; it’s another to disagree on the foundations of a democratic system
If that were true, we would expect to see Republicans encouraging the president to accept his defeat gracefully – or, if he is constitutionally incapable of graciousness, then to accept it rudely and let us all move on. They would be eager to reassert whatever conservative principles haven’t been laid bare as entirely farcical by this administration. Instead, they’re not just supporting the outgoing president, they’re trying to override American democracy itself – and trying to use the supreme court to do it.
This puts Democrats, and all of us, in a difficult position. It’s one thing to disagree on policy; it’s another to disagree on the foundations of a democratic system. The right of the people to elect their leaders is foundational to the American system. There is no American democracy without it. An attack on that system – a request that a high court disenfranchise millions who voted according to the rules and overturn the will of the people – isn’t an issue on which reasonable people might disagree. How do we move forward knowing that so many of our elected officials are ready and willing to use their own democratically elected offices to undermine democracy, and strike at the very heart of what makes America what it is?
There’s no question that Republicans and Democrats see the world differently and have radically different policy goals. And at least in my lifetime, there has never been a golden age of political bipartisanship where both sides wanted what was best for the American people and simply disagreed on how to get there. The Republican party has long been the party of racial animus, of misogyny and attacks on women’s rights, of hostility to the LGBT community, of closed doors and high walls and hostility toward immigrants, of money for guns but not schoolbooks, and of tax cuts for the rich and lectures for the poor. There was no pre-Trump world of compromise and goodwill to which we will eventually return.
And yet Trump has still made things immeasurably worse. And before Trump, the Republican party could at least somewhat plausibly claim to have a stake in American democracy. Yes, they created rules for Democrats and then played by a whole different set (just ask Merrick Garland). Yes, they shamelessly tilted the table to their advantage (just look at who Republican-penned voter suppression laws target). But this – asking the supreme court to overturn a presidential election because they don’t like the result – is a new low. It’s not just taking advantage of a credulous opponent. It’s tantamount to an attack on America itself – not just dangerous, but flat-out seditious.
Jill Filipovic is the author of OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind
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