Electoral College Shenanigans
Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are Risking the Senate for Trump’s Vanity
On Wednesday, January 6, 2021, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Josh Hawley (R-MO) along with at least 9 other Senators plan to contest the Electoral College vote when it comes to the official counting and certification by Congress.
They will be joined by at least 140 Republican members of the House. This is a quixotic attempt to curry favor, presumably, from the not insignificant number of voters who believe that the Democrats stole the 2020 election through various and ever more complicated means of fraud.
It is also bad for the GOP, bad for the integrity of our elections, and a waste of time, money, and political capital. Donald Trump lost the 2020 election just as Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election — fair and square.
The Trump campaign and other plaintiffs have attempted to sue different states to force them to recount or reject a certain number of ballots. None of the cases have presented evidence that could get anything other than dismissal. Every press conference and increasingly deranged tweet is full of claims of fraud, but when it comes to where it counts — the courts — they have nothing, and they know it.
(Now) Former Attorney General, William Barr, said there was no widespread voter fraud and has distanced himself from Trump’s claims. There is simply not enough evidence to justify anything like what many sycophants are calling for. Donald Trump lost the election. He put up surprising numbers in the end — numbers that most people would not expect considering how badly he handled COVID-19 and how much Nancy Pelosi screwed him and the American people with Congress’ response to the economic and public health crisis.
Although there is always some fraud and some suppression in every election, it is exceedingly rare for an election to be overturned by the courts due to fraud. The most famous and largest instance of fraud was in the 1886 Presidential Election, where the results were reversed after Congress and the Supreme Court rejected a slate of electors. Usually, it is only in smaller local elections where enough fraud is found to merit a new election being held.
As wasteful and pointless as this exercise of power is, this is not seditious, treasonous, or a coup. People who use those words to describe a legitimate function of Congress are either stupid or malignantly trying to stir up divisions. Senator Cruz is right: everyone needs to calm down — including himself.
My problem with this, much like my problems with Mitch McConnell’s decision to block a vote on the CASH Act, is that it is bad politics. There are two run-off elections today, and they will determine who has the majority in the Senate. Senators playing politics and sucking up to a cry baby and sore loser by using an often used and never effective means of delaying the inevitable are only going to make it harder for Purdue and Loeffler to win their elections. Loeffler isn’t helping herself by saying she will vote against the certification.
Every single one of these Republicans should face a serious primary challenge. Not because this was a coup — which is not even the right word for using legal and constitutional means to overturn an election — but because it was politically stupid and needlessly risked the Senate Majority.
For a bunch of people who regularly talk about wasteful government spending, they are pretty adamant about wasting a ton of taxpayer money and time on this quixotic quest. This is a vanity project for a sore loser who has surrounded himself with sycophants too afraid to tell him he lost.
