Read This!

Read This!

So here I was tonight watching MS-DNC with hosts going on about Tweetie-pie's latest efforts to overturn the election, this time by pressuring GOPper election officials to refuse to certify the results, thus leaving it to their legislstures to choose (of course pro-Trump) electors for the Electoral College.

The reactions varied between the shock of "He can't do that, can he?" to the shock of  "That's outrageous!" The common denominator was the shock.

Why are they shocked? Not only can this be happening, it was predicted!

The following is from The Erickson Report for September 30 to October 13:

There has been open talk within the right about two ways to simply ignore the election and literally hand the election to Tweetie-pie.

One is based on the fact that the constitution leaves it to each state to determine how to choose their electors to the electoral college. The idea is that states with GOPper-controlled legislatures would scream about fraud spreading through the vote like wildfire to the point where the legislature claims that it is impossible to determine the will of the people so they are simply going to appoint electors to - guess what - go vote for His High Orangeness.

The other is to use the 12th Amendment. First, right-wing goons set about creating chaos on election day and the days leading up to it. Enough right-wing legislatures use that as an excuse to say there's so much disorder, the elections can be held of there or the ballots can't be accurately counted and so the election can't be certified, with the end result that no one gets 270 electoral votes. At that point, under the 12th Amendment, the issue goes to the House. Good? No - because in that case, each state gets one vote. Wyoming counts the same as California, Alaska the same as New York.

This does not mean that either of these two scenarios is likely but the very fact they are being seriously discussed, the very fact that the right wing feels comfortable considering them, feels safe openly discussing how to literally ignore the results of elections, shows how far gone things are, how wildly power-hungry the right wing has become as it senses true lasting dominance possibly within its grasp, show how great is the risk.

This wasn't my insight, it was from the work of a number of others, including two cited in the same post: investigative reporter Greg Palast, who has been on the voter suppression beat for a long time, and progressive populist Jim Hightower. The idea of one way or another blocking the certification of the election in order to install King Tweetie-pie I on the throne was no secret, it was being openly discussed - and yet our mainstream media, including that supposedly progressive part of it, remained blissfully unaware.

The inability of that mainstream media to consider the perspective or the insights of those outside their centrist bubble has left them constantly running behind, constantly taken aback by, what the reactionaries who now define the right wing are prepared to do. And I fear that they will continue to do so.

Put it this way: If (When?) push comes to shove and we need to fill the streets and the jails, do not expect them to be out there with us.