The legislature doesn't have a role in deciding the election. The voters do. Any legislator who attempts to overturn the election result should be arrested.
It seems like the lesson since Jan 6, over and over again, is that there are either no mechanisms to enforce constitutional law or that no one is willing to do the enforcement. It would be good to know what enforcement would look like, and who would do it.
the answer ultimately comes down to whoever has the political will to do it, i think. that is one of the lessons of reconstruction, imo. without a political coalition willing to enforce the constitution whatever it takes, the laws and rules of the game are just words on paper
I did a tweet (after Dobbs I think) of a Haitian proverb — “konstitutyon papye, bayonet fe” (constitutions are paper, bayonets are steel) — that made that exact point. MAGA people still drag that up sometimes to allege I was calling for the overthrow of the government lol.
One thing (among many!) that I took away from Foner’s Reconstruction was even more respect for Ben Butler who, while other Republicans freaked out at the Paris Commune and saw it as a warning not to go too far, basically said “hell yeah, redistribute land and arm the Freedmen.” He got it!
This is why the democrats keep saying we have to beat trump at the ballot box even though he really should be convicted for Jan 6 and disqualified. democracy relies on power sharing, if 40% of voters vote to overthrow the country you cant just expel 40% of congress without deeper political breakdown
I may have this wrong, but this seems to me like an appropriate Juneteenth takeaway. The law gets enforced when the people in power are willing to sail gunboats into Galveston.
100%, and that this fact is not blindingly obvious is one of the poisoned fruits of American exceptionalism. I mean, in every other country everyone understands that this is the case, but in the US that recognition has to fight against the weird belief in the magical powers of the Constitution…
I remember saying that back in 2016, when the John McCains were saying everything would be fine bc the Constitution, and “we are not Romania”. My rejoinder was, the Constitution is not even “words on paper”, it’s “words on parchment”. Poor thing doesn’t stand a chance against determined foes…
I wonder if Rep. Pascrell is worth talking to -- he was very early on 14th Amendment remedies, even before J6, and might have staff looking at the full spectrum of options. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has done some interesting litigation, too.
On a recent Pod Save America (I think?) they were talking about the corrupted judiciary and one of the hosts said they’re less concerned about the judiciary allowing any power grab and more than if they do try to impose limits his answer will be yeah you and what army
Another problem with a two party democracy like we have is if one party decides power at all cost is the route to go you have a big problem. Also, ultimately the only enforcement will be at the end of a gun unless they do an about face and decide to play nice
like, by current standards, there would have been no Union response to the Civil War, just pleas to somehow vote 10,000 times harder against secession in the next CSA elections
We can be certain that if the circumstances had been reversed, there would have been summary executions on the spot. And in the dark Project 25 future, that would be the norm.
The play will be to generate accusations of fraud to the point that Newsmax-pilled legislators will say, “we can’t determine who won and so are being forced to pick, and we choose the people making the false accusations of fraud”
I think people shouldn't discount the extent to which a massive number of legislators who are going to attempt this *genuinely* believe that the last presidential election was stolen, and that they are in the right both legally and morally, and that history will vindicate them if they do this.
I have no idea how to counter that level of delusion/brainwashing, but I also have no idea how it can go on like this much longer without devolving into an actual shooting war.
