Brian Browne
PART Two of this series reviewed Donald Trump’s currently futile attempts to overturn the recent American presidential election. Trump’s position is simple: the vote tallies against him in urban areas with significant black and brown populations in six pivotal states were the byproduct of massive electoral fraud. Trump’s legal team had filed over 30 cases in this regard. Almost all of the cases have been summarily dismissed by the courts as boisterous forays into conjecture devoid of evidence and cogent legal reasoning.
Notwithstanding his defeat at the polls and thus far in the courts, Trump is adamant in refusing to concede defeat to Mr. Biden. No matter the number of court cases he loses and as his days in office dwindle toward zero, Trump shall never utter a clear concession. Such a move would wreck his strategy to become the human banner of a chronic racism that predominately appeals to white males of all socio-economic strata. He positions himself to be the 21st century version of the confederate flag, an adored emblem of racists and ignoramuses in equal proportion.
Most political commentators assert Trump’s maliciousness has revealed a surprising fragility in American democracy. They are mistaken. Their analysis is superficial perhaps because they are too warped by their animus toward Trump. They hate him so much that they want to credit him with the grand crime of destroying American democracy so that they might have good reason to excoriate him even more and call for his head or at least for him to go to jail and be forever removed from the political landscape. One can understand their mental processes and even sympathize with their desire to see the end of Mr. Trump politically. However, human nature being the unruly thing it is, one can be assured if there is one Trump-like character, there must be thousands like him waiting to do as badly or worse.
Those who claim Trump exposed the unexpected frailty of democratic government lack a true understanding of the democratic experience. Admittedly, Trump has acted the scoundrel. But one must be a tad naive to believe that, in the course of the life of a nation, it would not occasionally suffer leaders that come from among the most inept, mean and venal of specimens that human intercourse might produce. That such a mans like Trump would stress and strain the institutions of democracy was to be expected.
The deeper truth is that democracy is inherently fragile for it is based on two rare aspects never guaranteed to be present when most needed. There must exist an element of trust that political and governmental institutions are run fairly and minus gross injustice. This requires that those who manage these institutions cannot be easily swayed by superior power or inducement to violate the secular yet quasi-sacred oaths taken to guard the system of government from assault. This must stand true even if the dreaded attack comes from the very people elected to run the government. Thus, Trump’s antics have not exposed some unknown weakness in the American democratic system. That weakness was always there to see if one had the objectivity to see it. No, thus far, this episode has shown the resilience of the system. Democracy is like a man with a good mind but two wobbly legs. Expect it to sway whenever a strong wind blows or a rough hand pushes it. However, democracy has worked as it should have. The American people, in a fit of reactionary illogic tinged with racism, elected a dangerous and vain man in 2016. This selection was as well advised as making an unrepentant alcoholic the night guard at a distillery. America is now the recipient of the just desserts of that awful choice. Given Trump’s shoddy antecedents and dark personal character, an attempted theft was always somewhere in the cards if not simply preordained. By filing the battery of unfounded lawsuits, Trump tugged at one of democracy’s wobbly legs. When he tried to cajole state officials to disregard the votes in their jurisdictions and to appoint electors loyal to him, he pulled at the other leg.
However, Trump has been rebuffed so far. No judge has entertained his frivolous accusations. His complaints have been ejected from the courts faster than a pig at a vegan’s convention. Even Republican state officials have rebuffed him, showing themselves more loyal to state law and constitutional duties than to the partisan considerations surrounding Trump’s political fate. While there is much to criticize about the social and political biases of the founders of the American republic, one cannot but be impressed by their understanding of the depravity that lurks in the souls of certain human beings. Thus, they constructed a complex, somewhat cumbersome system of checks and balances that renders it difficult for any one man to declare himself a ruling demigod and thus undo the democratic experiment. The constitution grants judges an independence of power and respected status such that most judges are reluctant to slay these higher virtues at the abattoir of any politician’s vile short-term ambitions. Most judges aspire to a higher station than to be seen as tools of a purely political nature.
The constitution also wisely gives states enough power and providence has given them enough resources not to be totally dependent on federal largesse. Thus, state officials feel they are legally, morally, politically and financially insulated from federal blandishments or coercion that they can refuse that which is blatantly against the law to do. State officials almost to a person owe their primary loyalty to what is local. The president can wine and dine them or huff and puff in anger but only the people of the state can remove these officials from their state offices. In this regard, the president is powerless as an armed madman shooting at the sky that he might stop and redirect the wind.
Because of this prudent diffusion of political power and loyalty throughout the system, Trump has been unable to overturn the vote results in the important states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, Georgia, Wisconsin, Nevada and Arizona. Trump’s sole hope now is that somehow the Electoral College does not meet to confirm Biden on the appointed day for this affirmation to take place. That day is December 14.
The Electoral College is an elitist quirk of the American system. Remember the American constitution is an 18th century document produced by great but still 18th century minds. Not only were these wealthy men too comfortable with slavery just like the democracies of classical Greece and Rome permitted slavery. America’s founders mistrusted democracy and its vagaries for they did not even countenance universal suffrage among white men. The Electoral College was a device to insure that the elite and not the common voters would have final say regarding the winner of a presidential election. At the onset of the republic, it was more than conceivable that members of the electoral college could vote for a candidate other than the one selected by the voters of his state.
Each state has a certain number of electors based on the state population. For example, Pennsylvania has 20 electors, California has 55, Florida has 29 while states like Montana, Wyoming and Alaska have the minimum number which is 3. Under the system as now evolved, electors are bound to vote on December 14 in accordance with the popular vote in that state. For example, since Biden carried Pennsylvania, its 20 electors are to vote for him. Trump carried Montana, so its 3 electors are to cast their votes for him. The system is a winner take all one with the exceptions of Nebraska and Maine which divide their electors proportionately as determined by the popular vote in those states. Electors assemble in the various state capitals to cast their votes. The candidate who wins at least 270 of the 538 total electoral votes will be officially declared president elect. Biden is slated to garner 306 of the electoral vote to Trump’s 232.
Thus, Trump is likely scheming how to halt enough electors from voting to deprive Biden of 270 votes. If he had his druthers, Trump would send the army to bar the doors and to install electors of his own liking. However, that the military would move on such an outlandish order is improbable. The Pentagon would have to acquiesce to such an order; few high ranking officers would be willing to go down in infamy as fatally wrecking America’s democracy just to extend the tenancy of Mr. Trump in the White House. Thus, Trump may have many tricks in mind but a dwindling array of tools by which to realize his stratagems. Yet, the die is not yet cast. He is still looking for a way to cheat his appointment with public defeat. Be mindful of December 14 and the Electoral College.
Meanwhile, the nation reels under the growing load of COVID infections and deaths. Because of Trump’s nonchalant policy regarding public health and social safety measures, America enters the winter season unprepared for what might come. Daily infections and hospitalizations near record levels. Deaths are over 2000 per day or worse. The economy is also sick due to the public restrictions instituted by the state governments and due to lack of economic stimulus from the federal government. Enter Joe Biden.
Predictably, Biden has tried to appear responsible and statesmanlike in substance and tone. Despite Trump’s refusal to acknowledge, Biden has wisely refused to engage Trump in a verbal tug-of-war. The halting Biden would surely lose such a game. He instead has prudently focused on COVID. Given the surge in cases, it is clear Trump’s indifferent approach has failed much like it has in Sweden which recently has implemented restrictive public health measures to replace its original do-nothing policy. Biden will be a political beneficiary of Trump’s malpractice at least in the short-term. Just showing the slightest concern by regularly meeting with medical experts and by emphasizing the need for masks and other preventative measures, Biden appears more presidential and more engaged than the essentially absentee Trump.
Ironically, the vaccines came too late to help Trump electorally. They too will help Biden politically. He will be seen as the president who supervised the return to normalcy. Trump will be depicted as the one who watched as America descended into public health calamity. In comparison to Trump, Biden will initially seem like a breath of fresh air.
Yet, fresh is one thing Biden is not. He is more recycled wind than he is freshness of air. He will also face serious problems that might expose his shortcomings. Apart from the virus itself. the most vexing matter will be that of economic recovery.
The economy needs fiscal stimulus soon. If not, it could nosedive toward recession. Record millions face eviction, hungry and joblessness. Not being Trump simply is not enough to lend health to this economy. If he is not seen as resolving this matter, Biden’s honeymoon will be short with an acrid ending. Unfortunately for Biden and perhaps the nation, most likely the Republicans will win at least one of the two runoff senatorial contests in Georgia. This outcome would continue Republican control of the Senate. Most likely Republican leaders in the Senate will not want to give Biden a major political victory by helping him pass a major stimulus package. On the other hand, these Republican leaders will have some incentive to cooperate with Biden just to show they are not obstructionists in the face of a national crisis and to begin the process of gradually shifting the party away from Trump.
In the final analysis, what he does with the budget will show his presidency’s true intent. Thus, the first real proof of the fairness of Biden’s presidency will come in the actions of Treasury Secretary designate Janet Yellen. When she was with the Federal Reserve, Yellen was a rather consistent advocate of subvention to the financial sector. She had no qualms giving trillions to the large banks, to Money Power. She also realized the one-sided nature of this flow of money, how it enriched the wealthy and worsened inequality. She then favored significant fiscal action to help the ordinary people. Now as Treasury Secretary, she ought not forget her insightful former observations. She must argue and move forcefully on behalf of the average worker and homeowner who constitute the backbone of the real economy. To be politically, morally and intellectually consistent, she must now champion fiscal stimulus for the average person who lives in the real economy.
If she sings a different tune, then the veil is lifted before the masquerade has truly gotten under way. For her to take a different position by acting as if fiscal restraint should be the order of the day means Biden and team have sold Democratic voters a false bill of goods. It would signal a return to the haughty and hollow economic policies that produced the disillusionment leading to the rise of Trump. Biden and team would do well to remember what the founders of the Republic clearly understood. Trump may be removed from office and from the limelight there is another one or a dozen other misfits just like him. They are waiting in the wings to take his place if the Democrats return to their cowardly ways of talking progressive reform but reneging on the promise by claiming reform is too hard because of Republican intransigence. The Republic has seemingly withstood the test of Trump this time. The next time around, the ending may not be as sanguine.
