... And The Madness Continues

I thought we could be done with all the madness that has emanated from the Trump administration. We still have some rump weeks before the clown show is finally over; but, knowing that the end is finally in sight, how bad could it be?

I have been looking forward to writing about more salubrious subjects, with Trump finally in the rearview mirror. Alas, it suddenly got worse than I thought this beast of a year could be, thanks to our very own congressman, Lee Zeldin, and 125 of his misguided Republican sycophants.

What in heaven’s name was Zeldin thinking, signing on to that amicus brief attempting to overturn the legal votes in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin?

This is the quote attributed to Zeldin in defense of his actions: “Texas’s suit contains many eye-popping, confirmed details of widespread wrongdoing which must be understood and addressed on behalf of the legal voters who live in those states … This is so much bigger than this year’s presidential race … Election laws and state constitutions were blatantly ignored by certain officials to tilt an election in a different direction.”

It’s “eye-popping” all right, but only as to Zeldin’s misstatements of fact and utter denials of reality.

No one on Trump’s “team” has presented one single incontrovertible bit of proof of wrongdoing in any of those four states. There are no “confirmed details.”

Does Zeldin have one iota of proof that any election official in any of those states worked unlawfully to “tilt” any state’s election? If he does, he should bring his proofs forward and allow this paper to print them.

Georgia counted its votes three times, and nothing changed. Courts in all four states have turned down a total of 56 lawsuits to date, citing, over and over again, lack of jurisdiction or a total lack of evidence, or both.

The Supreme Court, including all three of Trump’s appointees, wouldn’t even bother to examine the case, it was so blatantly ridiculous. Even Trump’s own toady of an attorney general, William Barr, found no evidence that would have made any difference in the election’s results.

So, what’s really going on here? Why would Lee Zeldin make such ridiculous, bonehead allegations and make all of us who live in the district he supposedly represents look like idiots? And sore losers?

Well, first and foremost, Zeldin has been in Trump’s enormous back pocket since the 2016 election. It’s really impossible for me, for one, to see the attraction, and what Zeldin expected to get out of it, except more sound bites on CNN or Fox. Trump has done absolutely nothing for this district that Zeldin couldn’t have done on his own (except, I guess, vacuum out the pockets of a number of wealthy donors who live here, at least part-time).

What’s really happening here is that the Republican Party is rapidly becoming a minority party that will remain a minority party permanently. Without drastic change within the next one or two election cycles, the Republican Party will no longer be able to elect a president or a majority of senators. The party has already lost the House, and it’s unlikely to ever get it back.

The Republican base is loud, energetic and relatively wealthy (look at all those red hats!), but it is mostly white, conservative and non-inclusive in a country that is becoming majority Black, Latinx, Asian and other non-white. The only “inclusion” my once-grand old GOP seems to favor centers on white supremacists, fringe groups, conspirators like Q-ANON, evangelicals, vaccine deniers, gun-toters, and old-line militarists who don’t understand that we actually did win the Cold War.

For Republicans like me, it’s been downhill since Eisenhower, with brief bright spots under Presidents Reagan and Bush One.

Those who run the Republican Party today understand that they are already stuck in second place and likely to slide even further; so if you’re in that sort of tight spot, what do you do?

“Cheating” seems to be the answer, and it’s a poor and losing strategy. If you can’t win elections fair and square, you try and overturn them by other means — and that’s what’s going on, I’m afraid. The game has now become one of lying, bullying, arm-twisting, and threatening to “primary” elected officials who don’t do what you want them to do.

The reason that Mitch McConnell and Trump are trying so hard to pack the courts with pliable Republican judges is that they know the only way to “win” many future elections will be to have the courts overturn them on some pretext or technicality.

I can’t tell you how sad it makes me to see my treasured Republican Party sliding down into these gutters.

Also, please consider this: The Oath of Office that Lee Zeldin had to take (along with all his “amicus brief” colleagues): “ I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”

The oath says, “all enemies,” even “domestic” enemies — like those who want to subvert the will of the people by tossing out their votes. It says “defend the Constitution,” which includes defending the rights of all the states, such as allowing them to conduct their own elections without outside interference. It says “without purpose of evasion” such as trying to overturn the results of an election I don’t happen to like. It says, “faithfully discharge the duties of the office,” which Lee Zeldin is most assuredly not doing by engaging in this post-election nonsense.

Maybe it’s time Mr. Zeldin himself got “primary-ed,” perhaps by an old-fashioned true Republican. There are a few of us left.

And you know, of course, that I am “mostly right.” And Happy Holidays.