Three short videos and a Tweet from Steve Schmidt, long-time Republican insider sum up what’s happening in America.
#1: Trump invents whatever suits his fancy:
#2: People around Trump tell him he is right: He is entitled to the presidency and was robbed of what he deserves (see the second video “Trump Speaks Out on 2020 Legal Issues.”)
#3: I’ve been talking about authoritarian personality (quoting political psychologists) and leadership cults (quoting experts on fascism), but nothing beats actually listening to the crazy to fully understand the problem. The “MyPillow” guy invented a product and is an Evangelical Christian.
#4: Here is Steve Schmidt explaining that the GOP is willing to back Trump’s attempts to and overturn the election:
[Most of] the GOP is willing to back Trump because they get what they want: A government that keeps them in power and maintains the hierarchy instead of creating equality and fairness, which they call ‘socialism.’
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Q: Teri, can Trump and the state attorneys and reps that support his overthrow scheme be tried for treason?
This is an easy one. No. The Constitution defines treason as giving aid and comfort to our enemies. This is fairly broad. You might think some of the allegations against Trump & pals fit under this definition. Like how about this argument: Conspiring to overturn an American election helps Putin.
But treason has been defined narrowly by the Supreme Court. The court has repeatedly held that the “enemy” must be a country in which we are at open war–meaning a war declared by Congress.
Even when Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were convicted of handing nuclear secrets to the Soviets at the height of the cold war, they were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage, not treason.
There not only has to be a declared war, but the cases in which the Supreme Court upheld convictions of treason tend to be extreme, as when an American went to Japan during WWII, declared allegiance to Japan & abused American prisoners of war being held in Japan.
This is good. We really don’t want to use the criminal justice system in such a context. It’s too easy for bad actors to accuse their political opponents of treason.
Q: Why are so many on the left unwilling to use the F word, fascism? I see many articles, news show commentators, and tweets still referring to Trump and his loyalist as conservatives. They are definitely not conservatives. There is so much information out there to explain that Trumpism is fascism? How can this be overcome so that we calling the behavior of right wing Trump mob what it is, fascism.
The fact that they are still referred to as “conservatives” is a source of endless annoyance to me. The far right wing has obviously co-opted the label “conservative” because it sounds so tame, and to hide what they are. Obviously, there is nothing “conservative” about them.
As far as the word “fascist” I think people avoid it because the term is so loaded. (An endless irony is that the Proud Boys don’t seem to understand that “Antifa” literally means “anti-fascist,” so when they call the “anti-fascists” their enemies, what are they saying?)
“Regressive” is a term that has been often suggested. The word I was taught in school is “reactionary.” But they call themselves conservative, and newscaster and journalist follow the public discourse.
It seems to me that the true conservatives need to reclaim the label somehow.
A few of you had follow-up questions to my post yesterday on what to expect on January 6.
(The post is here.)
Can the Republicans drag out the process by objecting to electors one by one rather than by objecting to slates of electors?
Unless the GOP leadership grows a spine and shuts the whole thing down, yes, I we can expect headline-grabbing antics intended to spread lies and disinformation and keep Trump relevant until 2022.
Biden’s electors were handpicked by the Democrats. To give two well-known examples, Hillary Clinton says she’s an elector from New York, and Stacey Abrams says she is an elector from Georgia.
In other words, Biden picked people who won’t flip. Also, there are legal consequences to not voting as pledged. Moreover, just think how many electors would have to flip for Trump to win. Lots.
It isn’t going to happen.
