This piece is in today’s NORTHERN VIRGINIA DAILY (the northern part of the rural and conservative Shenandoah Valley) and in tomorrow’s NEW & ADVANCE (the newspaper of Lynchburg, VA)— both parts of the 2:1 Republican district in which I ran for Congress in 2012.
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America is at a crossroads right now, with two possible scenarios.
- We can continue on the path where our politics are consumed by conflict, the nation drifting even further into brokenness and division, our government incapacitated, unable to enact good policies to move America forward. Or,
- We can find ways of working together, of using our government to achieve our common purposes.
Our “common purposes” are especially urgent now, at this time of multiple crises. “This time,” when we need to
- Defeat the virus;
- Revive parts of the economy damaged by the pandemic;
- Restore public trust;
- Deal responsibly with climate change;
- Repair our political institutions and norms.
So which path will we take?
That will hinge, in large measure, on what happens with the current effort of Republicans to sell the notion – the manifestly false notion -- that “Biden is stealing the Presidency from Trump.”
That Republicans’ effort must be looked at in two ways.
1) As a proposition argued in the courts, it proved an embarrassingly complete flop. That’s because the courts are places where the facts and the law matter, and the Republican accusations have had neither facts nor law on their side.
(That’s why they’ve lost essentially all of their dozens of suits. Not just lost, not just laughed out of court -- but rejected with harsh words even by Trump-appointed judges.)
2) But the Republicans’ legal effort is really just pretend. What’s really going on is political theater, and the real audience is not judges but the Republican base.
(Because the Republicans have learned over recent years that their base won’t require valid facts, or even respect for the Constitution.)
So even as their phony claims -- of “fraud” and “stolen election” -- fail completely in the courts, the Republicans’ effort is not fruitless. Notif their base buys the lie.
So what “fruit” do the Republicans seek to harvest even while suffering their extraordinary losing streak in the courts? Why do they sell the lie of the “stolen election,” despite knowing full well that Biden has won a clear victory in what has expertly been called the most “secure” election in our history?
Here’s the crux of the strategy:
1) The Republicans’ main goal is to make Biden fail. (That was, as we know, their top priority with the previous Democratic President, and they were pretty successful: the Republicans in Congress – with their across-the-board obstructionism – blocked almost everything Obama tried to enact legislatively.)
The Republicans calculate that it would threaten their power if Biden – with his good will and decency and competence – were to be able to succeed as President in playing a positive transformative role, as FDR did in an earlier time of crisis.
2) But that goal – making the President fail, no matter the harm to the nation – presents the Republicans with a political problem: Using their power that way is completely indefensible— even contemptible -- especially at a time of crisis.
- “Indefensible” because -- when the nation urgently needs effective action -- paralyzing the government is a betrayal of the nation.
- And indefensible because it shows contempt for American democracy and for “the will of the people” which -- through the constitutional process – has chosen to assign Joe Biden the vital leadership role of the presidency.
Hence the Republicans’ challenge: How can they maintain the support of the people they depend on for their power while engaging in an indefensible policy that hurts the nation and undermines American democracy?
3) Ah, the Lie about the “stolen election” might do the trick.
If the Republican base can be persuaded that Biden has stolen the Presidency they’ll feel no obligation to respect “the will of the people.” If the base can be enraged by Biden’s alleged theft, they won’t be looking for “cooperation for the common good.” They’ll instead take delight in every way their Republican leaders can take revenge on Biden by thwarting him at every turn.
By falsely characterizing Biden’s Presidency as “ill-gotten gains,” the Lie makes the Republicans seem justified in trying to strip Biden of his rightful powers of presidential leadership.
Which brings us back to the two scenarios—the good and the bad.
We are fortunate that -- in this crisis -- we can pretty well count on
- Biden to be dedicated to trying to make things better; and
- Biden’s team – competent and motivated by public service – to make proposals that are at least good.
That combination – decent President with competent team -- makes this a moment of especially great opportunity for the nation.
But the Republicans may be succeeding in squandering America’s important opportunity. That’s implied by this troubling fact: Despite the mountain of evidence that shows the accusations false, more than three-fourths of Republican voters believe the lie that Biden stole the Presidency.
(They believe the Lie because America’s conservatives have been trained for the past quarter century to believe Republicans making baseless claims, and to ignore clear evidence. (Like how even the most conservative Supreme Court in generations has treated with contempt the cases the bogus arguments the Republicans have brought.)
If that Lie continues to capture the Republican base, the Republican power will likely pay no political price for their indefensible conduct-- paralyzing the nation when action is needed, and squandering the opportunity for the nation to make strides toward the better America we have a chance to become.