Before I explain what I really think is going on in the post-election scene, let me mention one fundamental fact. The United States is the only democracy in the entire world which isn’t structured around a parliamentary system of government. Every other democracy has two, co-equal branches: legislative and judicial. Despite what Tommy Tuberville believes, we have three.
And because we have three co-equal branches, we elect members of the legislative branch separately from the election for the executive branch. The candidates running for legislative seats and for the executive seat may run on the same political party line, but the executive isn’t a creature of any party, his or her election is a separate affair.
Note that in the current noise being made about the results of the 2020 election, nobody is saying that because votes were ‘stolen’ from Trump in Georgia, or Wisconsin, or Arizona, that this ‘theft’ also cost other Republican candidates their seats. If the GOP operatives in Georgia allowed the Democrats to throw hundreds of thousands of ballots into the trash can, how come these ballots only contained one name? How come every individual who ran for office as a GOP-backed candidate isn’t contesting the vote?
I’ll tell you why. Because the whole point of the #StoptheSteal campaign isn’t about getting Trump a renewed lease at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. It’s about finalizing a fundamental shift in the makeup and behavior of the Republican Party, a process which has now been going on for nearly 30 years. If we were like every other democracy, if we elected our representatives along party lines as opposed to a popular vote, this process would have been completed years ago.
Since World War II, both political parties have had two sides, a left and a right. The racial issue created fissures in both parties beginning in 1960, when JFK made it clear that he was going to promote a civil rights law without consulting Democratic party leaders in the South. LBJ got a civil rights law passed in 1965, then Nixon turned the South from blue to red when he let it be known that he wouldn’t enforce the civil rights law.
The racial issue then morphed into an argument about state’s ‘rights,’ and the degree to which individual localities would be required to follow dictates based on federal laws. At the same time, the push for equal rights then moved from race to women and then to gays.
Think there’s any difference between current alt-right resistance to social distancing and the anti-abortion movement which sprang up after Roe v. Wade? Think again.
In fact, it’s not only the same playbook being used, but the same individuals who resist government ‘authority’ keep cropping up again and again. Remember the Tea Party? The activists who took leading roles in Tea Party organizations are now running around screaming about voter ‘fraud.’
But here’s the difference between all those previous attempts to galvanize extreme, right-wing energy against the mainstream, a.k.a., the Deep State. If you want to get your hands on a bunch of disaffected Republicans, you don’t need to steal a voter or email list from the local GOP. Create a website, tie it to a Facebook page and a Twitter account, spend a few bucks promoting events on the internet and the algorithms created by social media will get you connected to every like-minded household at a next-to-nothing price.
Want to know why over 40 lawsuits have been filed about so-called election ‘fraud?’ Take a look at this website (Election Integrity - Alliance (eip-ca.com)) and look at the names of the more than 50 organizations that have come on board. There’s the Tea Party, the Evangelicals, the anti-abortion folks, even a Chinese American gun club has joined the fight.
What’s missing from this assemblage is one, centralized political entity which could eventually take the place of the national GOP. But don’t think it isn’t being imagined precisely because the internet is beginning to replace traditional party connections and, most important, traditional methods for raising political cash.
And that’s my conspiracy theory for today.
Please stay safe.