Quite an evening last night. First, the two Republican members of the Michigan election board refused to certify the election in Wayne County, which is Detroit and its significant community of black voters sit. And then, only three hours, they reversed themselves and voted unanimously to certify the election.
Just three hours, and the Republicans suddenly changed their mind, based on no new evidence, as far as I can tell. What, o what, could possibly have happened? Other than national outrage, headline news, their names being made public and perhaps having their lives turned upside down. Things, for instance, like this video from Ned Staebler, Vice President for Economic Development at Wayne State University. It's almost Shakespearean in its eloquent outrage. And you'll note that even in the tweet here, before you even get to what Mr. Staebler says about them -- and trust me, he has a lot to say -- we have the reference to the two Republican Election Board members.
I had two thoughts when this all occurred. Okay, I had more than two thoughts, but two thoughts were prominent above all others.
The first was that the Republicans really shot themselves in the foot here, and at close range because it was all so insanely stupid, which doesn't even touch on how offensive and fascist it was. Among the reasons it was so insanely stupid: This was major headline news all over, and will be in Georgia, where Democratic voters will likely be outraged by the depth of Republican efforts to steal the election. And Black voters there who were perhaps not motivated to vote in a Special Election, now have had evidence of Republicans blatantly trying to suppress their vote. Furthermore, any thoughts that Republicans may have had to try this tactic of not certifying votes in other states just disappeared when the explosive outrage almost immediately got the two GOP election board members to reverse their votes. No doubt the Republican Party was hoping to delay certification longer, and get a court ruling or a state decision, which (if it didn't go their way), they could protest and scream and pound the table and cry and claim fraud and whatever other mumbo-jumbo they could think of. But when the two election board members simply reversed their votes -- within just three hours -- with absolutely no new evidence, it undercut all that. It stripped away all pretense from this "no certification" ploy and showed it in the cleansing light of open air to be what it was, noting more than a gutter attempt to sabotage democracy. So, if Republicans try this maneuver in any other state, the curtain has been pulled back, and the little man pulling the levers has been revealed. And the second thought that immediately came to mind was how clear the evidence of this was to solidify what I've been saying for the past year or more. That this is not about Trump, we know who he is. This is about the elected members of the Republican Party, who enable him, push his agenda, expand on his delusions, megalomania and criminality, and are complicit. This is all about the Republican Party. Not Trump. Trump can whine about the election al he wants, but he lost. And if the GOP en masse said what we all know to be reality, that Joe Biden won the election, this all would be over. It would just be a malignant narcissist in the White House ranting and typing tweets in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. But it's the Republican Party that is continuing to push this -- not accepting publicly that Joe Biden won the election, Lindsey Graham calling another state's Secretary of State to try to manipulate the election, Georgia's own Republican senators trying to strongarm the Georgia Secretary of State, endless Republican lawsuits across the states -- of which they've now lost 25 of 26 (and the other lawsuit they "won" was that Pennsylvania had to put aside mail-in ballots that arrived after the election, which the state had already long-since said they'd be doing), filing lawsuits against at least one state Elector in Nevada, trying to claim fraud and conspiracy about the election to undercut the public's faith in the election -- and perhaps future elections for years to come, which is such an oh-so fascist thing to do -- and more. This is not about Trump, we know who he is. This is about the elected members and officials of the Republican Party who enable him and are complicit. And on January 20, Joe Biden will be sworn in as President of the United States. And Kamala Harris will be the Vice-President. And to anyone who didn't get the reference in the title of this piece, with much appreciation how Michigan threw Republican plans to undermine the election under the bus and took a manipulative 2-2 tie apart and instead won, here is the University of Michigan Fight Song.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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