Malarkey or Anarchy?

3 December 2020

Called Squattergate, Denialgate, griftgate and more, Donald J Trump Jr’s post 3 November stance has been simply ‘gravity defying’. He has suspended all truck with truth for much of his Presidency, however, we would see him come around the corner to place the truth in a ‘so what’ context. Now the closest he has come to accepting the election results is to talk about them as a ‘steal’ a ‘massive fraud’ and his list of colluders and enablers has now expanded to Department of Justice, FBI and now Governors as Republican as you can get, including one who has ‘Hail my Chief’ as his ringtone for Trump as his new Public Enemy No 1!

What America needs right now is some authority that can ‘taze’ the dolts who are occupying offices of US Senate who belong to the Republican majority, to members of the RNC and to other Congressional Representatives, public officials who think they are required to stand by with Trump in his hour of need, who think he needs to be humoured a little and just a bit longer, and who think Trump has no alternative because the very idea that in a Pandemic, a Republican Leader of the party can summon the faithful in the manner he has and delivered 10 million additional votes to what they had in the kitty four years back, is simply extraterrestrial!

Many political observers, commentators, talk show hosts treat this charade as one that will inevitably run its course and on 20 January we would see a transition. The way the Office of GSA has extended support to the Biden Transition Team indicates that in probability this will happen, but tell me how normal is this for a President to not concede? For a President to not invite the successor to the White House for a ‘look see’? Forget niceties, for a President to go about ranting for minutes about electoral fraud when DOJ and his Cyber Security Czar both certified that the elections held were the most secure in US history, since they brought electronic machines and have now worked around for a paper trail. (95% of the electoral exercise had a clear paper trail and by 2022, it will be 100%. When electronic machines are used a paper trail is one which is best receipt of the vote that is incontrovertible evidence of it. In India paper trail is called by the acronym VVPAT.) Forget politics, how is Trump calling legislators from States in the middle of the night to the White House to coerce them to select electors who will vote for him in the electoral college? Forget abuse of office, how is Trump through Guliani, his advocate at large, able to call in and speak to Republican legislators in the states and berate their officials openly?

As one Georgian official put it so succinctly, ‘ How is the President not condemning the call for violence against an employee or volunteer who is simply following the rule book, just because it is not favouring the President?’ That dressing down was described as ‘cold fury’ by MSNBC, but did it bring about any comment from Senate Majority Leader? From any Standing/Ranking Republican Leader? That between 3 November to now, a sitting President has allowed the vilification of poll workers who are majority volunteers, of election officials and state officials who happen to be Republicans but who are carrying out their duties as per their charter? How come channels that are RW, NewsMax included, not celebrating the stupendous feat of USPS which despite all the degradation to its capacity before the polls deliberately undertaken by Trump Presidency, still managed to deliver, with no loss/delay in transit of electoral postal ballots! That if Red States had amended their electoral laws to count up the postal ballots as and when received, it would have offered results for certification much earlier! Why in the midst of this unrelenting Pandemic, the American media houses, the influencers and opinion makers are unable to force a unity of emotion that they managed to pull off this election in the circumstances that were more than trying!

Democracy’s festival is the elections. In their fairness and their fidelity of process is founded the sacred trust of Democracy- the vote. So how come there are two registered players in this game in the USA, and one does not want to play by its rules? And how are they being allowed to continue to play? It is because, unlike India, USA has too few rules in its Representation of Peoples Statutes. While all good behaviour is precedence, there is simply no rule for it. So one depends on ‘human qualities’ and ‘grace’ to bring forth such compliance. Since it is not in rule, it cannot be enforced in law. There is no way we can see Trump being debarred from electoral politics for his refusal to play by the rules. There is no way, USA can hold Senators like Lindsey Graham who tried to coerce state officials in Republican swing states including Georgia guilty of infringing the electoral process. I think, there is a need for USA to rethink as a polity on these glaring gaps in legislation, to ensure that they remain a democracy, assuming they narrowly manage the transition on 20 January 2021!

The biggest strength in the US system is what we have seen- the integrity of the frontline workers, as volunteers and officials in their electoral system, who can be shamed or reminded of their statutory obligations or who hardly need a reminder to rein their partisanship in such manners. This is their steel framework. But in 2020, it showed signs of swinging, swaying and creaking as it were, just that Trump appears to have not come with a coherent plan, he is just frothing and fuming, that his threats that we should await the vote of the Electoral College is an empty one? Can we have Republicans as one refuse to entertain action of tangible nature against a recalcitrant and truant occupant of the White House? The energy with which the Senate confirmed Justice Amy Coney Barrett, could have seen a similar resolution to bind President Trump to transition in an orderly manner. It could have even cautioned an impeachment if he failed to respond appropriately. After all failure to uphold the Constitution is an offence impeachable!

We know that Trump is running some thing called a Bribery for Pardon scheme. We know his inauguration itself had financial malfeasance, for which his daughter Ivanka deposed the other day to a District official/prosecutor in Washington DC. We know Trump has risked the interests of the USA for pacifying or playing quid pro quo with Putin( Afghanistan bounties for US troops), Netanyahu ( First Soleimani and now Fakhrizadeh assassinations) and there are whole lot of acts of commission that fit High Crimes and Misdemeanours. Like how analysts say his multiple lawsuits and recounts are making him lose 3 November severally, in an ideal US State of Polity, Trump would end up being impeached severally for counts of Treason, Bribery, High Crimes and Misdemeanours as mentioned in the Constitution.

Just step back as participant to the spectre of Trump’s diabolic endangerment of US polity and step in as a partisan and the whole issue gets blurred. Democrats and Republicans approve of Trump only Republican support is overt, Democrat is tacit. Republicans are like Trump cannot do any thing wrong, because by voter suppression or denying lawful ballots in the only way the Republicans can win now in a General Elections for President United States they reason. Democrats feel that Trump cannot do any better! His behaviour is to be expected! Now as an analyst, after reading Obama’s A Promised Land, after watching FoxNews extensively the last four years, and seeing how the HEROES ACT has been stymied by ‘Moscow Mitch’, I am clear, that if not Trump, any White Male Republican President, or may be even a female ( like Hockey Mom Sarah Palin) would have enjoyed the same immunity and acted with the same impunity as President Trump has. So necessarily I deduce that a Republican Senator, Representative or President is necessarily of less integrity, fealty and less likely to honour the Constitutional Democracy that is the United States!

So when reportedly another 250000 Americans are set to die by next Spring or more, when this Pandemic is going to severely weaken the demographics and put strain on the US as a health system, as a society, as an economy, (the only thing is Deep State managed somehow to awaken the State Department and at Australian goading, a catastrophic overthrow of the USA from the World pecking order by China has been thwarted), you can say that a mere four years of a Presidency and a Senate Majority has debilitated the US in this fashion, or the successive Senate stranglehold for last 8 years has led to this. Which ever way we see this, dispassionately, this much is clear that Republican majorities are ticking time bombs that need defusing. Mind you, I am no partisan and far removed from USA as possible, and I find it would be more profitable for the US to ban the Republican Party all together and split the Democrats into two, one can be Conservative Democrats, the other can be Social Democrats. This will serve the US polity well.

I am aware that Charles Koch the survivor of the Koch Brothers of Dark Money fame, has written a new book “ Believe in People: Bottom up solutions for a Top Down World.” in which he is quoted as saying that injecting partisanship in US polity was a mistake! He has written the actual words- ‘Boy, did we screw up! What a mess!’ in the context of the role of the Koch Brothers funnelling money and building the neoconservative movement that has systematically furthered a regulatory environment that taxes Rich Americans far less than it does ordinary families and relaxes all manner of regulations for them! The caucus or cabal should be the term, of rich Americans who gathered under the Koch brothers and set up the Republican party’s take over by the Tea Party movement and now the White Supremacists, is not going to turn new leaf and offer solutions! It is right in the middle as part of the problem. So conditional to outlawing of the Republican Party is also placing campaign finance regulation and role of Dark Money in politics including the funding of special interests institutions and influencers. In that light, I think Mayor Pete’s categorical assessment that USA allows under Second Amendment Rights a too loose certification of cable news and other news media, including print media, is on point. If you recall, full page advertisements of the ‘Birther allegation’ was placed by Donald Trump against President Obama. Unfortunately ‘libel’ or a ‘Truth Law’ is entirely missing in the scheme of things!

In every country’s epoch, there comes a moment when it is clear that it can all get undone, like in the Mahabharata, Krishna was clear that arrogance and entitlement had gotten into the heads of the Vrishnis and their end would come about. What modern governance system founded on democracy, constitutionality and rule of law allows is far greater dynamism to recognise these dangers and address them in a timely fashion. Now after reading 1900 words, which way do you as a reader weigh in? Is this malarkey or anarchy? Should USA just get past it or sit down to address it?