Opinion: Sedition and the Cult of Trump
In the communist Soviet Union and Putin’s Russia “the truth is what serves the party”. In the Putin/communist world criticism of the leadership is sedition. In America today, to the Republican party, truth is what Trump says.
Donald Trump says the presidential election was fraudulent in the battleground states that voted for Joe Biden; therefore, it must be true. No matter what Sidney Powell, Jenna Ellis, Rudy Guliani, or any personalities from Newsmax, OAN, Breitbart, or social media: “there was no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised,” according to the top election cybersecurity official appointed by President Donald Trump. Georgia counted their votes three times to the same result.
Let’s be perfectly clear: Donald Trump does not believe in democracy. His continuous decisions to evade responsibility during his tenure is proof enough. His insecurities and narcissism is one thing; but, when Republicans like Daines, Gianforte, and recently our AG Fox, endorse the overthrow of the rightful election by the people, it is demonstrably clear that in spite of 60 some court cases that were scoffed at by republican judges, they do not believe in the power of the people to decide their leaders.
Their actions since the election indicate that they--not the libtards, not democratic traitors, not the Black Lives Matter folks, not the LGBT folks, not the women’s rights folks, not the Dominion voting machines or socialist Hugo Chavez (who died in 2013), the Republicans are the ones that signed on to this frivolous lawsuit and the assault to our democracy and Constitution.
Imagine the state of Washington suing Montana in the Supreme Court over our laws regarding hunting or fishing because they don’t like them. Or, imagine Florida suing Montana in the Supreme Court over our expansion of Medicaid because they oppose it. Montanans would be outraged! This lawsuit brought to the US Supreme Court asserts that Texas does not like how the people of Pennsylvania or Michigan voted so they filed suit in the Supreme Court. It is ridiculous and unconstitutional. This is why the conservative Supreme Court dismissed the case without even hearing their arguments.
But, our Attorney General Tim Fox, the man we elected to enforce Montana’s laws, (someone who is supposed to know the law) and Greg Gianforte, who pledged to honor the US Constitution as a Representative and now believes he knows enough of Montana law to be our Governor, and our newly elected US Senator Steve Daines who voiced his support for the lawsuit (who also pledged to support the US Constitution) believe by their very support of the Texas lawsuit, DO NOT believe in the very essence of our democratic system: the power of the people to decide. Now imagine this was done by Joe Biden. Republicans would be outraged and rightly so.
To date, Trump has filed 60 court cases to overthrow election results in various battleground states, which legally he has the right to do. He lost in every case but one, which did not change any result. The persistent attempts by Trump and the Republican party to undo the free and fair election indicates one obvious conclusion: they are motivated not by a sense of fairness per se, but about power. It's not about conservative values or states' rights.
They are motivated not by principle but blatant nihilism. If they did believe in states' rights there wouldn’t have been the Texas lawsuit. Or 60 lawsuits. Or outrageous claims of voter fraud.
It is obvious the Trump party doesn’t believe what is best for all Americans--just their Americans. Not about what democracy means and the power of the vote. Now that the vote has been certified; any further attempt to overturn this vote is sedition. 126 Republican representatives and 17 Attorneys Generals, like Montana’s Tim Fox, Greg Gianforte, and Steve Daines that want to overturn the will of the American people will be judged harshly.
When do calls to overturn a popular election in American democracy become a crime of sedition? Or, when Trump declares martial law as he has suggested, will true conservatives, American patriots, finally take their party back?
D.R.James, MA, Ph.D. History, 40 years teaching