Is this how democracy dies? Is this how the great American experiment ends?
We should know by the end of the day, as today Congress meets to certify the results of the 2020 election. And we don’t know what will happen.
Have our politics been changed forever? Whenever a populist demagogue wants to maintain power, is this all he has to do? Rally supporters with guns, threaten opponents and dissenters and cow members of his own party into submission with promises of political-career homicide? Have we really given one man the power to demolish our democratic systems?
And we do mean “given.” If members of Congress hadn’t waited — and in some cases, still refuse — to acknowledge President-elect Joe Biden’s victory; if Sens. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley and the other Trump coattail riders in Congress hadn’t sworn to challenge the certified election results; if Vice President Mike Pence could be trusted to preside over Congress’s certification today without taking any unconstitutional actions … then Trump would have no legs to stand on. The only power he has to thwart America’s will is the power gifted to him by the very people meant to represent the people’s will.
If democracy prevails — how devastating is it that we can’t confidently say “when democracy prevails”? — and Joe Biden is certified as the next president, the conundrum of the party dictator will not end with Trump. As long as the GOP bows to Trump as a kingmaker, he will wield unprecedented power. But even if Trump disappears from politics, he has shown that his tumultuous technique works and another populist despot-in-the-making will rise to take his place.
For now, our systems are holding. Investigations into voter fraud turned up no evidence that could overturn the results. Recounts, where necessary, confirmed the election’s outcome. The courts — from state to federal to the Supreme Court itself — upheld the law and the Constitution and gave no credence to the dozens of frivolous and false lawsuits filed on Trump’s behalf. Government officials — state and federal; former and current; cabinet and Congress; Democrat and Republican — stood their ground and said this was a free and fair election with no proof to the contrary. (A nod here, to Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, for announcing she would not support congressional objections to the result certification.)
But those systems that protect our democracy are badly damaged. Four years of continuous lies from the White House. Four years of undermining legitimate information sources, labeling anything disagreed with as “fake news.” Four years of Republicans kowtowing to Trump’s every whim. Four years of both parties standing in unwavering opposition to anything the other proposed. Four years that have eroded the last of the people’s faith in our government to put the country’s wellbeing ahead of political ambition.
How does the nation come back from this? We’re not sure. Perhaps it starts today, with Congress and Vice President Pence upholding their oaths to the Constitution by certifying Biden as the victor of the 2020 election. Then maybe it continues after Jan. 20, with cross-aisle compromise. Biden has been criticized for wanting to work with the same people who wouldn’t recognize him as president-elect, but America cannot exist in a perpetual stalemate. If Biden has to take the first step toward meeting in the middle, then so be it. But others will have to meet him there. It’s the only way America can survive.
