There are many theories of modern democracy, but in practice the indicator on which almost all people and organizations agree is free and fair elections. That's why Donald Trump has hand-picked election-deniers-- people who deny that Biden won in 2020-- to run in Republican primaries for positions including Sec of State, AG and Governor-- positions that are crucial to the proper administration and overseeing of elections. Last week, two of these hand-picked loyalists were selected at a Republican convention in Michigan to run on the Republican ticket there in November. Michigan, of course, is one of the battleground states Trump lost in 2020. At a recent rally, Trump said of his picks-- Matthew DePerno for attorney general and Kristina Karamo for secretary of state:
“This is not just about 2022. This is about making sure Michigan is not rigged and stolen again in 2024.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/30/well-that-was-crazy-michigan-gop-divided-over-election-falsehoods/
Secretaries of State oversee the administration of elections and the
certification of results in most states. They can also play a major role in the
interpretation and implementation of election laws in ways that either make it easier or harder
to vote. In Georgia, Trump endorsed Jody Hice to unseat his nemesis,
Republican Brad Rafensberger, who famously stuck to non-partisan
principles refusing to cave in to Trump's demand that he "find 12,000
votes" to overturn the Biden win there. Trump intends to replace any
such principled officials (many of whom have left their former jobs in
fear or exhaustion anyway) with loyalists who would do his bidding
wherever possible. Hice entered the race in March, and already has
raised $1.6 million to the incumbent Rafensberger's $600,000. https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/democracy-is-on-the-ballot-in-these-11-secretary-of-state-and-attorney-general-elections/
In Arizona, Trump has endorsed the once-obscure, now well-known (at
least in "America First" circles) troublemaker, Mark Finchem. Finchem
is a member of the Right Wing extremist militant group, Oathkeepers, has
ties to Q-anon, and was scheduled to speak at the 1/6 Stop The Steal,
rally. It is chilling to think that such a man could be charged with
overseeing the next Presidential election. These are not isolated cases,
but part of Trump's plan to eliminate any and all officials that might
stand between him and a victory should he run in 2024. Even if he
doesn't run, he wants to leave in place a pathway to the White House for
other Trumpists that do so with (or even without) his support.
When,
in 2020-2021, Trumpists waged war against the faceless and usually
taken-for-granted officials who work to insure that our votes are
counted properly, many were relieved that non-partisan principles and
protocols prevailed over Trump's attempts to intimidate these officials
whether they were Republicans or Democrats. Some in the media have said
that "American Democracy was tested, and it passed," because courts
dismissed absurd cases and Secretaries of State, AGs and others held to
principles. For example, in a now famous phone call, Trump intimidates
Georgia's Republican Sec. of State, Brad Rafensberger, going as far as
to threaten him with a criminal investigation if he does not "find the votes" needed to deliver a Trump win. Rafensberger stood up to Trump.
But
it is the existence of these once obscure officials that Trump has
since done as much as possible to weaken or take down, replacing them
with sycophants. Remarkably, though we hear about "Democracy vs.
Authoritarianism" everyday in the news now, nobody is paying much
attention to the frontline between them right here at home.
We
often remember Trump's attempt to overturn election results in terms of
the violent insurrection of 1/6. But even that insurrection was
ancillary to the real goal that day: to intimidate VP Mike Pence to
invoke powers he does not have to change the outcome of the election, as
per the legal memo of John Eastman https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/21066248-eastman-memo.
The path to overthrowing the legitimate government of the US (the
elected Biden administration) was always two-tracked. It was a)
legalistic and b) populist, with each track feeding into and
reinforcing the other. The goal was to use elected or appointed
officials to subvert the election. But in order to get 2/3 of the
Republican House members to vote (hours after 1/6) to overturn the
election results, they must first fear the wrath of their "base." Not
only must they fear losing future elections, but also fear for their
safety. The disturbing drone of death threats during 2020 made by
anonymous Trump supporters to government officials, and the sight of
gallows erected for Mike Pence on that day were never denounced by
Trump. When asked to repudiate The Proud Boys in a television debate,
Trump instead addressed them the way a military commander might, "Stand
back and stand by." Thuggish intimidation was something of a specialty
for Trump. But so are his attempts to use legal and political positions
designed to serve democracy to subvert it instead.
This fact is preserved for all to see in the above-referenced call to Rafensberger. It is preserved in the amicus brief signed by 17 Republican-leaning states in a lawsuit brought forward by Texas that was designed to nullify election results in four other states where Trump lost. 17 states. That's more than a third of all states in the union endorsing an effort to disenfranchise voters in those states by ostensibly legal means. It was disgracefully preserved, of course, in the record of votes recorded several hours after the Insurrection of 1/6. There 139 of 221 Republicans in the House voted to overturn the election, while 8 of 51 Republican Senators did the same. That's two-thirds of the Republican House! https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-TRUMP/LAWMAKERS/xegpbedzdvq/ They know that most Republican voters (over 70% in most recent surveys) believe that Trump was the "real" winner in 2020.
It's hard to imagine a situation like this going unaddressed by the Administration that actually won--i.e. The Biden Administration, and the Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress. We speak of "red lines" in wars, but is there no red line drawn to prevent all this from ever happening again? Far from it. Biden has yet to mention Trump by name, and despite a vocal minority of the country complaining about these things on social media, all the momentum going forward belongs to the would-be usurpers of our electoral system-- the pivot of US democracy.
A few voices have emerged urging Americans to take this more seriously, but the scale of the response is small and comes late in the game. Still, no effort to thwart Trump's plan to eviscerate democracy from within the system is wasted effort. Amy McGrath, who lost a challenge to Mitch McConnell in 2020, started a PAC called SOS devoted to solving this problem last month. Here's the video that launched the PAC followed by a link for those inclined to contribute.
https://twitter.com/AmyMcGrathKY/status/1519798208800645120
See also this related long-read by Richard L Hasen on Election Subversion. It appeared in The Harvard Law Review in April: https://harvardlawreview.org/2022/04/identifying-and-minimizing-the-risk-of-election-subversion-and-stolen-elections-in-the-contemporary-united-states/
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