Today I went through my inbox. Often I get several questions on the same topic, so I just selected one. (Also I get a lot of email and I haven’t figured out a good way to organize these questions. If I haven’t answered yours, it’s not because I don’t like you! I may have thought I answered it and moved it to the “answered” file.
Q: Many people are screaming for Trump to be held accountable for his actions, and already criticizing Joe Biden for being too conciliatory.
How would you advise the Biden administration to approach matters like investigations and prosecutions of Trump, his administration and other politicians? What would you like to see them do?
And further, how should we all sell this approach to to the populace?
As a preliminary matter, I expect there to be numerous investigations into Trump’s corruption and his personal finances. I also intend to follow the investigations and do legal explainers.
Biden has said that he intends to appoint a good Attorney General and let the Attorney General handle it. This, though, wasn’t enough for people on Twitter. (And it may not be enough for your circle on social media.)
The Biden Tweet that Lame Duck Trump is referring to is this one:
Biden’s Tweet calling for unity actually infuriated people, who said he shouldn’t talk about “unity,” he should talk about how we will punish and hold accountable the people responsible for the corruption of the past four years.
Here is the problem: The very definition of corruption is for a president or head of state to influence prosecutions.
My deepest fright over the past 4 years was when I realized the extent to which Trump was influencing what the DOJ did. Now people want Biden to do what Trump did: Put his fingers on the scales by announcing what he wants or influencing prosecutions by making public statements about them.
One of the bedrocks of democracy is prosecutorial independence.
In autocracies, the head of state decides who to prosecute, which means prosecutions are politically motivated, or they appear politically motivated. So what the president is supposed to do is appoint an AG and then let the AG do his job while the president does the job of the president.
As far as Biden being too “conciliatory,” the reality is that if the GOP controls the Senate after the Georgia runoff elections, the only way to get anything done will be for Biden to be conciliatory and reach across the aisle.
We do have a problem right now in that one party is in favor of democracy and rule of law, and the other wants autocracy (Hint: the reason they want autocracy is because they don’t want to have to work with people they don’t like and don’t agree with.)
The only solution is for the people in favor of democracy to win by very large margins. That didn’t happen in the 2020 elections, so we need to look toward 2022.
Q: What is the likelihood of Trump being charged with crimes in NY State? Further, will he be arrested and have to post bail? What about the rest of his family?
I expect he will be prosecuted in New York, but that doesn’t mean he will be arrested and have to post bail. I don’t know the criminal procedures in New York, but most prosecutions end in plea bargains, and a person can be summoned instead of arrested.
Q: Did the results of this election cause you to rethink the part about the GOPs demographics aging and shrinking? 70+ million people voting for them is quite a lot…
One thing that went wrong with this election is that it seems like “socialism” scare tactics worked on members of the Spanish-speaking population.
The Republicans won the popular vote in two presidential elections in the past 32 years: 1988 and 2004.
The Democrats won the popular vote in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020. That doesn’t bode well for the GOP.
So what they do is rely on disinformation and lies, which is why I keep saying that the rise of disinformation is the biggest threat to American democracy.
Q: We hear many, including Robert Reich, call for eliminating the Electoral college. Is it an easier lift to start with making The Electoral College representation proportional with the popular vote in all states? What are the problems with that versus eliminating the EC? I.e. why might that not be as good a result?
I see no downside in getting rid of the electoral college. The resistance is the Republicans. In two elections in which they lost the popular vote, they won the presidency through the electoral college.
The electoral college was not one of Alexander Hamilton’s better ideas.
Because it’s in the Constitution, getting rid of it requires a constitutional amendment, which is simply too difficult at this stage.
There is, however a project called the National Popular Vote Project. If states totally 270 electoral votes join, and if those states pledge their electoral votes, not to the winner in their state but the popular vote winner nationwide, the electoral college can be bypassed without a constitutional amendment.
Q: Can the appeals from Trump’s losses (trying to overturn the election) be expedited in any way so the Supreme Court hears these prior to January 20th?
There is just no way any of these cases are going to overturn the election, even if they reach the Supreme Court, so it’s not something to worry about.
