Even Mitch Says It's Over. Is It?

Photo credit: Eric Thayer, Reuters

With the certification of states’ election counts, the unanimous rejection by a heavily Trump-appointed Supreme Court of Texas's spurious attempt to invalidate other states’ election results, and the official vote of the Electoral College, even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had to begrudgingly admit, Joe Biden is the President-Elect. That shred of institutional integrity immediately earned him the monicker “Cocaine Mitch” in right-wing social media, who turned on him faster than a Trump development project runs out of cash — accusing him of betrayal and treason.

The line was apparently met this week for another long-time Trump henchman, Attorney General William Barr, who either quit or was fired — unusual timing given he only needed to hold the office a few more weeks to pass the baton to Biden’s appointee. With Trump publicly demanding Barr uncover some modicum of proof of the election fraud he claims was so widespread, I’m sure Barr’s admission that there is no such evidence earned him a swift “You’re fired.” Barr was also instantly vilified by the right as a “liar or a fool or both."

This is the dilemma every Republican finds themselves in: either bend your ethics, if not outright break the law, at the demand of your morally corrupt leader, or face the potentially career-ending wrath of a rabid, pitchfork-wielding mob that is fed disinformation by right-wing media and foreign influence campaigns. This is why over a hundred Members of Congress are poised to reject the result of the Electoral College when it is formally presented to Congress on January 6. The stunt, which has little chance of success, will nonetheless expose the very real rift within the party. The battle between institutionalists and autocrats. The continued systematic destruction of ideals, morals and values of the Republican Party in exchange for a cult of personality.

This entire ordeal has raised the question of what happens when one of only two major political parties decides it’s not playing by the rules any more. Decides a democracy isn’t fun or “fair,” from its partisan perspective. Decides the only outcomes that are acceptable are outcomes where they win. That anything else must be fraud, fake, or evidence of a biased “deep state.” That anyone who dares to speak the truth or act in a legal and ethical manner is viciously attacked, even threatened with imprisonment and violence.

I have every belief that Trump will never concede. That he will continue his campaign of grievances to his deathbed. I have equal conviction that his posse of loyalists in Congress will continue to ignore political decorum, erode democratic institutions and damage the Constitution in their attempts to overturn our most sacred political value: democratic elections and the peaceful transition of power. Arguably, they have no choice. They are elected officials, after all. If your district voted for Trump by 80%, aren’t you just doing what your constituents elected you to do?

This disfigured logic is how democracies tip into authoritarianism. What the Trump presidency has demonstrated with such terrifying clarity is how close to that edge we are. How far down the path a dictatorial leader can march his followers with so little objection. We like to think a totalitarian government could never happen here. That our institutions will somehow protect us. But even autocrats derive their strength from the people. What starts as complacency or opportunism or tribalism grows into a lack of conviction and loss of a moral compass. It then morphs into enablement, transforms into cowardice, and descends into mob rule.

Conservative leaders have manipulated their supporters through ever-more-right wing media outlets for so long, they are discovering it’s hard to stop the machinery of their own creation — even when it sucks them into its gears. Like McConnell and Barr, each Republican will have to decide what line they will be unwilling to cross. Hopefully, they find the courage to hold that line. Trump has no line. We know that. As he has done his entire career in every endeavor, Trump will lie, sue, defraud, cheat, steal, incite violence — whatever it takes to get what he wants. There is no line, and there is no strategy. The only governing logic is the preservation and extension of his own personal wealth and power. Five years after his initial candidacy, we keep appraising his behavior as a politician rather than a narcissistic sociopath.

Although Trump lost the election, he will not stop. He has already raised over $200 million since the election, arguably committing wire fraud while doing so since most of the money is diverted into a new PAC to pay Trump’s debts rather than its ostensible purpose of contesting the election in the courts. The only way to stop him is to unplug the machine. To stop shoveling coal into the furnace of lies that props up his popularity. This can’t be done by Democrats, or the media, or even in the courts. It needs to be done by Republicans themselves. It needs to come from every individual who considers themselves a Proud Conservative finding the courage to hold the line.