Much has been written on “the way forward.” There is no need to chew the same material here. This piece is not about the Constitution. We know the power of state legislatures under a literal reading of the Constitution. Whoever is inaugurated as president this January, I will not lose my federal job for stating that the Constitution renders irrelevant the alleged popular vote in any given state. That is just a fact. No one can credibly accuse me of violating my oath to the Constitution and of seeking to overthrow the government.
This is also not about evidence. The Democrat national infotainment complex pretends not to know what evidence is. Ninety to 100 percent of the evidence in most civil disputes and white-collar criminal cases is testimonial and circumstantial. Do you want to maintain access to your children in a custody battle? Put some friends or associates before the judge, someone who will speak to your character. No one expects a bloody knife with matching DNA.
Of course, we have evidence.
Those who stayed up all night after the election, saw what happened with the Wisconsin and Michigan vote counts at four to five o’clock in the morning. As for Pennsylvania, the Democrats gave us all the evidence we need when Philadelphia banned Trump campaign persons from accessing its early voting stations, and a Democrat-run state court allowed “mailed” ballots to be accepted up to nine days after the election (later whittled down to three days) with no postmark, i.e. no proof of mailing at all. It was a set-up.
But this is not about that. It is not even about what state legislatures should do, per se. This is about seeing clearly through the hesitation and fear.
We are seeing the biggest power play in United States history since 1876 or even 1861. The Democrats—the insiders, not the mass of zombies—know what they have done. The Republicans know. And the latter—through control of key legislatures, as well as their legacy on the U.S. Supreme Court—hold the best cards. Aside from some temporary mobs, the Democrats have only their infotainment complex, which has painted a cloud of inevitability around the scarecrow known as Joe Biden, who is pictured as ordering new blinds and furniture for the Oval Office. It is a bluff. They have created an imaginary steamroller and they expect everyone to get out of the way.
Will Republicans blink? Let’s cover the logistics before hitting the big picture. It helps that the first line of decision is with state legislators who have no homes or presence in Washington, D.C.. The Democrats cannot execute their confront-and-intimidate modus operandi. on short notice against officials in, for example, Lansing, Michigan. And there are simply too many state capitals to harass. Moreover, the legislators have met by teleconference for the past eight months. They can vote from anywhere. The U.S. Congress and Supreme Court are also largely virtual. Sending angry feminists to confront senators in their elevators—as happened during the Kavanaugh confirmation—will not work this time.
So, although we cannot discount the rare lunatic extremist, on the whole, there is little physical danger to the decision-makers. And yet, there is hesitation in going against the perceived zeitgeist and making a disputed call without grounding. No one wants to be seen as unreasonable, as acting with no basis of documentation.
Two answers here. First, the legislators will have their documentation. They will receive (or have received) a phone call from Trump campaign lawyers. They will be given enough quality material to develop a 10- or 20-page report. The Wisconsin legislature can then publish its own report, Michigan its own, and so on. They will be able to justify their action or inaction in writing. This is no problem.
Next, this is where we get to the big picture. Yes, there may be a perceived zeitgeist against Trump, but it is only perceived. The mass of people do not care too much about this game. More than 100 million adults did not even bother to vote this year, same as always. Of those who voted, the ratios were close enough to half for each candidate. And if you don’t believe that Biden scored 13 million more votes than Hillary Clinton, and nine million more than Obama in 2008, then President Trump may even have won the “real” popular vote.
Most people intuitively understand that this is a clash of political elites, at a time when the economy is recovering, and millions of doses of COVID-19 vaccine are to be made available as early as next month. Half of the electorate backs Trump; this is no revolutionary situation, no mob is storming the Bastille. There are no revolts under these circumstances. Whatever happens politically, history tells us that the mass of people will get over it (or ignore it.) The storm will pass, just as it did with Bush v. Gore. And there is always something new on Netflix.
Furthermore, the Democrats have so alienated the police and military (excepting some generals) that they cannot hope to do anything—they do not have the guns. Their mobs can riot in their own cities again, but that is not the GOP’s problem. They could besiege the White House again, as they did in May-June, but the government has gone virtual. Who cares?
In crises and power plays such as this, historically, power has gone to (or remained with) whoever is more daring and less inhibited, whoever does not hesitate or second-guess themselves. When a $100 bill blows free on a busy sidewalk, he who runs fastest to reach it, and pushes others out of the way, will be $100 richer. It is the same with power.
So far, the Democrats, who initiated this crisis, have proven to be far more organized and vicious. But again, it is the GOP that holds the real cards. Will Republicans call the bluff?