Trump and his party are threatening our constitutional order

[Zorro]

Opinion by Michael Gerson

President Trump’s coup attempt has failed in every place but his fevered mind.

The president’s claim of comprehensive electoral fraud has been distinguished by a complete lack of supportive evidence. Legal representation by swaggering, bungling windbags has done little to advance the president’s cause. And Trump’s diversion into deranged conspiracy thinking while national challenges mount is a fitting end to this sad, shabby chapter in the American story. One imagines the other 43 presidents in Walt Disney World’s Hall of Presidents pointing and laughing at their most embarrassing successor.

It is thankfully true that American political institutions have survived a time of testing. But this positive judgment is complicated by three factors.

First, the challenge has been a relatively weak one. Trump combines the ambitions of a despot with the strategic planning and operational competence of a hamster. He is an evil mastermind without the mastermind part. Would our system have held firm in a closer election against a more talented authoritarian plotter? We have no idea. And the openness of the question should terrify us. Democracies tend to end not by revolt from below, but by erosion from above. They are less vulnerable to revolutionaries than they are to demagogues. While we have not lost our republic, we have glimpsed how it might eventually be lost.

Second, our democratic culture has only held selectively. The judiciary, to be sure, survived its stress test. State and federal judges swatted away the meritless lawsuits of Trump and his cronies like so many fat, lumbering horseflies. And many state officials charged with organizing and implementing elections rose to the moment as well. They generally did their jobs with integrity and refused to be silent objects of presidential slander.

But this test has also revealed the soft and rotting parts of our democratic system. This begins with a significant portion of voters — mainly Republican voters — who seem determined to believe Trump’s disproven lies. While no sane politician would call these voters to account for their corrupting influence, I am perfectly willing. The determined self-delusions of Trump loyalists egg the president on. By siding with the president’s libels against our constitutional order, they help delegitimize it. Whatever these citizens’ intentions, they are making America a weaker country.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-and-his-party-are-threatening-our-constitutional-order/2020/12/17/64527014-4097-11eb-8bc0-ae155bee4aff_story.html

[alwaysinasnit]

1. k&r for visibility

[colsohlibgal]

2. Very Nice Analysis

Trump is not so bright, knew he would not score well on his SAT so paid someone smart to take the test for him. He has though become a persuasive con man that attracted racists, homophobes, added to Richie Riches who could put up with the dumb evil sideshow because he would further enrich them.

The scary part is that a smarter more polished despot type might get done what Trump couldn’t do.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. The idiots are still congregating on a busy intersection. Saw them around six pm.

Their flags are fading, but there was the usual 15, walloping whenever a truck or car beeped in support.

It was sad and scary.