This is all
fine, but (1) these honorable Rs didn’t exactly run to the relevant authorities at the most-relevant time, and (2) in any case, if you want to back into kudos here, then finish the job and say you’re lining up with the Ds unless and until the R party puts forward a pro-democracy candidate.
Opinion | Republicans saved democracy in 2020
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... democracy/
In fact, the GOP controlled legislatures in the closest states in 2020, yet none of their leaders wavered as Trump’s team pushed the “independent state legislature” theory, which holds that the Constitution bestows on state legislatures plenary power to determine the contours of state-operated elections and to appoint presidential electors. That theory has been since rejected by the Supreme Court.
Republican-appointed judges displayed the same courage under fire. Not one Trump-appointed district judge allowed his baseless lawsuits to proceed. The Supreme Court also rejected Texas’s bid to overturn the results in four close states, holding that Texas did not have standing to sue. Trump responded angrily on Twitter, but that sound and fury signified nothing.
This refusal to throw the country into a constitutional crisis extended even to high-ranking members of Trump’s administration. Attorney General William P. Barr and virtually every other top Justice Department appointee did not bend when Trump told them to declare the election was corrupt. White House counsel Pat Cipollone was a model of probity, consistently supporting the rule of law over Trump’s whims. Their bravery contributed to the final outcome.
If you think this commendation is misplaced, imagine what would have happened if some or all of these people had been partisan rather than patriotic. State legislatures would have openly challenged the election outcome, presenting Congress with a genuine controversy. Judges or justices would have ruled in Trump’s favor despite the lack of evidence, throwing the country into chaos. The Justice Department would have put its considerable weight behind the push for a putsch, making Joe Biden’s eventual triumph much more difficult. Each person in this chain could have acted differently. Would you have been so brave under the pressure of the president of the United States?
It’s certainly true that many Republicans did seek to overturn the election results, including the many state attorneys general and members of Congress who signed on to the Texas case. But would they have done so if they thought they had a serious chance of prevailing? Those who joined the suit — and perhaps even those who brought it — likely knew they were demagogically playing to the base rather than engaging in a realistic effort to undermine the election.
The same verdict applies to Republican House members and senators who voted not to certify Arizona’s and Pennsylvania’s electoral votes. They knew the vote would fail, and thus they could throw red meat to the base without risk that they would succeed. If they are to be castigated, then we must also castigate the 32 Democratic members of Congress who voted in 2005 not to certify Ohio’s 2004 electoral college votes, a move that would have prevented President George W. Bush’s reelection had it succeeded.
