Who shall determine our fate?

benfell

See update for January 9, 2021, at end of post.

Nearly two months after the fact, Donald Trump’s surrogates are still trying to overturn the election. Still. The latest is a lawsuit claiming that the Electoral Count Act unconstitutionally ties the vice president’s hands in choosing which electoral college votes to count.[1]

Politico labels this a “long-shot bid” but doesn’t cite experts.[2] There’s a shamelessness about all this that’s really quite remarkable, but as I sit here at five o’clock in the fucking morning, it feels like somehow the morality of polarization[3] is an insufficient explanation.

The righteousness of these efforts cannot logically depend upon a republican system (often called ‘representative democracy’) which is more properly considered a constitutional oligarchy,[4] but on a more naked notion that “we” (Trumpsters) are right, “you” (Trump opponents) are wrong, because “we” determine what is right, and that “you” managed to muster more votes is not merely wrong, but fraudulent,[5] indeed, inconceivable.

As I look at that logic, it reminds me of the double-standard Henry Louis Gates, Jr., described where privileged white men in the American colonies found an enslaved Black woman’s poetry of sufficient merit according to classical European standards that they took her to England and granted her emancipation.[6] It reappears as the wealthy deciding which of their subordinates are worthy for promotion in corporate and social hierarchies and possible acceptance in the upper class.[7] In this, a select group asserts a privilege to determine which others are “worthy” and the standards by which such “worth” shall be determined. Only this time, it isn’t so much wealthy white men making this assertion for the rest of us, but rather authoritarian populists, determining who shall be president.

So something to consider is why we are (relatively) comfortable with malicious wealthy (mostly) white men[8] making this assertion and not ‘uncouth’ Trumpsters. Why constitutional oligarchs should have this privilege[9] and not authoritarian populists.[10]

The logic is also similar to that deployed against Barack Obama when he was president, in which authoritarian populists, then labeled the “Tea Party,” called Obama a Muslim and a socialist, and denied he had been born in the U.S. All of which amounted to a claim that Obama could not possibly be “our” president simply because he is Black.[11]

None of these assertions, whether by wealthy white men or by authoritarian populists, are in any way democratic. They are, rather, raw assertions that “we,” a select group, whether wealthy white men or authoritarian populists, are “right” by “our” own virtue and have the right to decide for the rest of us, to determine our fate.

We should be as uncomfortable with the one assertion as we are the other.

Update, January 9, 2021: Following a riot in which Trumpsters overran the U.S. Capitol seeking to disrupt the final tally of electoral votes,[12] Congress has indeed certified Joe Biden’s victory,[13] the Department of Justice—lest we forget, a part of the executive branch—is investigating the riot and may well press charges, even against the delusional raging narcissist-in-chief who incited it all[14] and who has finally assented to an “orderly transfer of power,”[15] and the Supreme Court rejected Louie Gohmert’s bid to empower Mike Pence to decide which electoral votes to count and which to discard.[16]

Though Donald Trump continues to insist that the election was stolen, he condemned his supporters’ violence in overrunning the Capitol and promised prosecution in “comments that perhaps reflected concern over mounting legal and political hazard rather than a newfound sense of contrition and integrity.” Some Trumpsters feel betrayed.[17] To which I say, what I said before, Dear Trumpsters: Fuck Your Feelings! Others, however, are dipping deeper into the conspiracy sauce, in which Trump allegedly moves in mysterious ways.[18]

In the meantime, due to the violence, Trump has been deprived of his megaphone on social networks. YouTube has taken down some of his videos, Twitter has permanently banned him, and Facebook has suspended his account at least through Biden’s inauguration day.[19]

It might be worth remembering that Trump really couldn’t afford to lose,[20] and now he has.[21] An old cliché is that a cornered, wounded animal is the most dangerous, but in this case, it is not only the wounded animal but a wounded animal who captured the imaginations of right-wing militia groups who may yet pose a threat, which I take up in a blog post entitled, “The danger that remains.”[22] And there is a real question as to what Trump himself does next.

  1. [1]Kyle Cheney, “Gohmert suit may force Pence’s hand in effort to overturn Trump’s defeat,” Politico, December 28, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/28/gohmert-suit-pence-overturn-trumps-defeat-451485↩
  2. [2]Kyle Cheney, “Gohmert suit may force Pence’s hand in effort to overturn Trump’s defeat,” Politico, December 28, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/28/gohmert-suit-pence-overturn-trumps-defeat-451485↩
  3. [3]David Benfell, “The morality of polarization,” Not Housebroken, December 23, 2019, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/09/21/the-morality-of-polarization/↩
  4. [4]David Benfell, “A constitutional oligarchy: Deconstructing Federalist No. 10,” Not Housebroken, December 20, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/22/a-constitutional-oligarchy-deconstructing-federalist-no-10/↩
  5. [5]David Benfell, “When it’s over but it isn’t,” Not Housebroken, December 21, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/11/27/when-its-over-but-it-isnt/↩
  6. [6]Henry Louis Gates, Jr., “‘Race’ as the Trope of the World,” in Social Theory, ed. Charles Lemert, 6th ed. (Philadelphia: Westview, 2017), 399-402.↩
  7. [7]Christopher Hayes, Twilight of the Elites (New York: Crown, 2012); C. Wright Mills, Power Elite (Oxford: Oxford University, 1956, repr. 2000).↩
  8. [8]David Benfell, “Imagine a malicious elite,” Not Housebroken, December 27, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/12/18/imagine-a-malicious-elite/↩
  9. [9]David Benfell, “A constitutional oligarchy: Deconstructing Federalist No. 10,” Not Housebroken, December 20, 2020, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/04/22/a-constitutional-oligarchy-deconstructing-federalist-no-10/↩
  10. [10]David Benfell, “Barack Obama asks, ‘Why is it that the folks that won the last election are so mad all the time?’” Not Housebroken, November 4, 2018, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/11/04/barack-obama-asks-why-is-it-that-the-folks-that-won-the-last-election-are-so-mad-all-the-time/↩
  11. [11]David Benfell, “Barack Obama asks, ‘Why is it that the folks that won the last election are so mad all the time?’” Not Housebroken, November 4, 2018, https://disunitedstates.org/2018/11/04/barack-obama-asks-why-is-it-that-the-folks-that-won-the-last-election-are-so-mad-all-the-time/↩
  12. [12]Ted Barrett, Manu Raju, and Peter Nickeas, “US Capitol secured, woman dead after rioters stormed the halls of Congress to block Biden’s win,” CNN, January 6, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/us-capitol-lockdown/index.html; Talia Lavin, “The Violent Crescendo of the MAGA Conspiracies,” New Republic, January 6, 2021, https://newrepublic.com/article/160814/trump-protesters-attack-us-capital↩
  13. [13]Jeremy Herb et al., “Congress completes electoral count, finalizing Biden’s win after violent delay from pro-Trump mob,” CNN, January 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/2020-election-congress-electoral-college-vote-count/index.html↩
  14. [14]Devlin Barrett, “Trump’s remarks before Capitol riot may be investigated, says acting U.S. attorney in D.C.,” Washington Post, January 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/federal-investigation-capitol-riot-trump/2021/01/07/178d71ac-512c-11eb-83e3-322644d82356_story.html↩
  15. [15]Allie Malloy and Veronica Stracqualursi, “Trump pledges ‘orderly’ transition after riot and Biden win certification,” CNN, January 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/07/politics/trump-biden-us-capitol-electoral-college-insurrection/index.html↩
  16. [16]Kyle Cheney, “Gohmert suit may force Pence’s hand in effort to overturn Trump’s defeat,” Politico, December 28, 2020, https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/28/gohmert-suit-pence-overturn-trumps-defeat-451485; John Kruzel, “Supreme Court rejects Gohmert’s last-ditch election suit against Pence,” Hill, January 7, 2021, https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/533161-supreme-court-rejects-gohmerts-last-ditch-election-suit-against↩
  17. [17]Peter Beaumont, “Donald Trump fans cry betrayal as he rebukes Capitol violence,” Guardian, January 8, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/08/trump-incites-anger-among-acolytes-let-down-by-lack-of-support↩
  18. [18]Peter Beaumont, “Donald Trump fans cry betrayal as he rebukes Capitol violence,” Guardian, January 8, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/08/trump-incites-anger-among-acolytes-let-down-by-lack-of-support↩
  19. [19]Margi Murphy, “Facebook, Instagram and Twitter lock Donald Trump’s accounts after praise for Capitol Hill rioters,” Telegraph, January 7, 2021, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2021/01/06/calls-twitter-facebook-mute-donald-trump-violence-breaks-capitol/; Tony Romm and Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Trump banned from Facebook indefinitely, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says,” Washington Post, January 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-resignations-25th-amendment/2021/01/07/e131ce10-50a3-11eb-bda4-615aaefd0555_story.html; Nitasha Tiku, Tony Romm, and Craig Timberg, “Twitter bans Trump’s account, citing risk of further violence,” Washington Post, January 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/01/08/twitter-trump-dorsey/↩
  20. [20]Dan Alexander, “Trump Will Have $900 Million Of Loans Coming Due In His Second Term If He’s Reelected,” Forbes, October 19, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2020/10/19/trump-will-have-900-million-of-loans-coming-due-in-his-second-term-if-hes-reelected/; Jane Mayer, “Why Trump Can’t Afford to Lose,” New Yorker, November 1, 2020, https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/11/09/why-trump-cant-afford-to-lose↩
  21. [21]Peter Beaumont, “Donald Trump fans cry betrayal as he rebukes Capitol violence,” Guardian, January 8, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/08/trump-incites-anger-among-acolytes-let-down-by-lack-of-support; Jeremy Herb et al., “Congress completes electoral count, finalizing Biden’s win after violent delay from pro-Trump mob,” CNN, January 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/06/politics/2020-election-congress-electoral-college-vote-count/index.html↩
  22. [22]David Benfell, “The danger that remains,” Not Housebroken, January 8, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/01/07/the-danger-that-remains/↩

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