Yesterday, I analyzed the Texas lawsuit, in which Texas is suing Mi, WI, GA, and PA in the Supreme court in an attempt to overturn the elections in those states.
Here are a few follow up questions and comments.
Q: Teri, when can we expect the Supreme Court to decide if they will hear the case, or not?
We could find out tomorrow. Remember, the first decision is whether they will hear the case.
Q: I was watching A piece on the Texas case regarding Trump’s lawsuit. They explained the case as about signatures and the Constitution forbidding states from not having a system of verifying them. Is there anything in U.S. Constitution that mandates how states conduct elections?
No, there isn’t. The Constitution gives the U.S. Congress the power to regulate presidential elections, and state legislatures are responsible for state elections. The Constitution also says that presidential elections must be held on the same day throughout the nation, and gives Congress power to set that date. As a practical matter, that means no do-overs. Get it right by election day.
We learned yesterday that 17 GOP-led states have joined Texas’s lawsuit asking the Supreme Court to set aside the election in Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
We also learned that Trump has a private meeting scheduled at the White House with the 17 state attorney generals who joined the lawsuit.
As I see it, Trumpsters embrace the Leadership Principle.
What I learned from Max Weber is that there are 3 sources of authority for government, so if you reject Rule of law (democracy) there are only two alternatives: Charismatic Leader (fascism) and Traditional (monarchy). They are definitely rejecting rule of law (democracy). If you reject democracy there are not many alternatives.
What’s more distressing is how many Americans support Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.
And Trump actually said “overturn,” which my dictionary defines as cancelling something already decided:
It’s important to remember that none of this is new. A great many Americans didn’t want democracy in the 19th century. They preferred the institution of slavery. A great many Americans didn’t want democracy during Jim Crow when African-Americans were lynched for trying to vote. A great many Americans didn’t want democracy when the Fifteenth Amendment was passed and women were deliberately omitted.
Democracy scares some people. Democracy requires compromising and sharing power with people we don’t like. Some people prefer power to be concentrated in the hands of people (or someone) who thinks the way they do.
Some people who reject democracy do so because they don’t believe equality is possible. They think nature forms a hierarchy, and some people naturally belong on top. Others (the takers) belong at the bottom and don’t (can’t) contribute. For people who think nature forms a hierarchy, the purpose of government is to allocate power. When they’re in power, they try to grab more. They assume everyone sees government this way.
There was a deep cynicism behind the Texas lawsuit I analyzed yesterday. The idea underlying the suit is that there is no rule of law. What matters is which “team” the justices are on, and justices on Trump’s “team” will overturn an election and hand him the presidency.
Fairness people, on the other hand, believe equality is possible, so for us, the purpose of government is to create fairness, to give everyone equal opportunity, and to prevent cheating.
The two types view both government and American history differently. The fairness view of American history goes like this: The founders started with some pretty good ideas, but they left out a lot of people. As we’ve expanded who is included in “we the people,” America comes close to our founding ideals.
Hierarchy people think America has gone downhill–it used to be great [when white men had all the power.] That’s why they want to make America great “again.”
They use the word “corrupt” in the sense of “defiled.” The body politic is corrupted by the unworthy trying to achieve equality, which they perceive as someone trying to dislodge them from their place at the top.
Trump tells them they’re at the top of the hierarchy. That’s why they love him. It’s the same reason poor whites supported the Confederacy, which was (to use Heather Cox Richardson’s phrase) an oligarchy. Poor whites weren’t part of the ruling class.
I haven’t rewritten my “to do” list since the election, but same idea: More civic engagement, particularly at the local level, to strengthen institutions. Trump’s attacks on mail-in balloting will unleash a Repubican push toward restricting voting. Push back happens at the local level.
The way to save democracy is with more democracy.
