The Constitution, in this instance, is clear. What happens on Wednesday is given in the Twelfth Amendment (usually inserted into Article II, Section 2):
First: The President of the Senate (Vice President Pence) shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates. Then the votes shall be counted.
In legalese, “shall” means you have no choice. It’s the equivalent of “must.” There is no discretion. No second-guessing. In a joint session of Congress, Pence must open all the certificates.
What certificates? The earlier part of the paragraph explains that the electors in each state vote, and then each state certifies their votes. Each state has passed legislation requiring the electors to vote according to the popular vote in the state. That’s done. The elections were certified on December 14.
What complicates the simplicity of the above passage is the Electoral Count Act, which was passed in 1887, while (shall we say) tempers were still high after the Civil War.
The Electoral Count Act, as interpreted over the decades, provides rules for objecting to a state’s electoral votes. Under the Electoral Count Act, if a member of the House and a member of the Senate challenge any state’s announced electoral votes, the joint session of Congress will adjourn and the Houses will meet separately for debate and a vote. If a majority in each House votes to challenge the electoral votes, they get tossed out.
Obviously this isn’t going to happen. It’s unlikely a majority in the Senate will vote to throw any out, and it’s certain that a majority in the Democratic-held House will not.
This raises the question: So what if both Houses were controlled by a different party than the president elect. Could they just toss out all the electoral votes for the candidate they don’t want?
Yes.
Consider this: If they do, they will throw the country into complete turmoil and chaos. Everything will come to a stop. We’d be in a crisis similar to the firing on Fort Sumter.
Also consider this: At any time, a majority of citizens in a democracy can decide to end democracy. If, for example, in November of 2020 a clear majority of Americans wanted Trump to have a second term, and wanted both the House and Senate to be run by Republicans, it would pretty much be over.
The solution is to make sure that we elect representatives who will not do something like that.
A few questions
Q: What’s to prevent Pence to go in Wednesday and say Trump is President and the GOP senators yeah?
Pence has no authority to do that. It would be like me declaring myself the pope.
Q: Why do so many autocratic conspiracy theories involve allegations of child abuse? Seems to be a common denominator.
That certainly is a theme, from Pizzagate to Lin Wood’s latest:
It creates outrage. Also, there’s an implication on the far right that the moment you depart from traditional hierarchies and structures (think traditional 1950s style marriage) the slippery slope lead to the recognition of absurd (and perverted) new groups.
They view homosexuality as a perversion (example: Buchanan praising Putin’s anti-gay legislation). Allowing one perversion naturally (according to this reasoning) leads you down the slippery slope of Anything Goes.
Check out what Sarah Sanders says here:
“The lie is pointing out an important truth,” explanation of the lies explains so much. Lies become a political weapon, but the lies are carefully chosen.
It seems to me they embrace the lies as metaphorically true instead of literally true. The metaphoric lie allows people to either embrace the lie as true (the deluded nuts) or cynically and knowingly weaponize the lie.
The connection of pedophelia with Clinton, I think, came from the idea that there was something “unnatural” about a woman like Hillary (you know, strong. Intelligent. Competent. Smarter than the guys in the room. Also she refused to be a Barbie Doll.)
Q: If the Democrats have one or more victories to celebrate in GA this week, how much “norm-destroying” would you expect from the GOP afterward, in terms of recounts, fraud claims, and the swearing in of the new member(s) in Washington?
Lots, unfortunately.
How about 5 reasons?
- It wouldn’t change anything. If he was impeached, the same thing would happen as last time: Trump will say the call was perfect and the Republicans will defend him. It won’t change minds or hearts.
- We’re in a pandemic, and it would take up everyone’s energy for the next few weeks. Nothing else would get done, which might be a bad idea during both a transition and a pandemic.
- There might be time to impeach, but not for a trial. Impeaching without time for a trial is a little unfair: While the analogy of impeachment to indictment doesn’t completely hold, there are similarities. A person charged should be entitled to a trial.
- The purpose of impeachment is to remove a president, which renders impeachment unnecessary right now. It would be a gesture, and would thus likely have the appearance of political theater.
- It would stir up a lot of anger, and that really isn’t helpful right now, particularly because it wouldn’t change anything.
You asked for reasons. Now that I’ve offered them, I’ll add that I wouldn’t mind if Pelosi decided to do it 😉 but I really doubt she will.
Don’t worry: Trump’s crimes and misdeeds will be featured in history books.
