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"We can take heart from President-elect Joe Biden's calm and patient approach to the election, and to governing," writes McMahon.
To the victors: It's incumbent on us to avoid the spoils
Nov 24 2020
McMahon is an adjunct associate professor of applied economics and political science at the University of Vermont and an international democracy and governance consultant.
<p>Many of my fellow Democrats have spent the past three weeks aghast at the reality that more than 73 million of our co-citizens saw fit to vote for the re-election of Donald Trump. "How could they do that?" we ask. After four years of his presidency, there is no longer any question of how manifestly unfit he is to lead this country. How could our fellow Americans have voted for a feral autocrat, a misogynistic racist, a narcissist, a liar and a cheat? The list could continue. What could possibly have motivated them to make such a choice?</p><p>Of course we know the answer on one level. His pugnacious personality and anti-establishment schtick strike a chord outside the Beltway, the big cities and the two coasts. And he offers policy pronouncements that sound appealing. </p><p>But the full answer lies deeper. It has to do with how threatened people are by change. </p><p>Let's take a clue from history. Consider Hitler's accession to power in Germany in the 1930s, the war criminal Slobodan Milosevic's rise toward the presidency of Serbia in the 1980s and the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s. What made so many people in those countries support leaders who sought to eliminate certain sectors of society? What could possibly have motivated them to have undertaken the unspeakable act of exterminating other human beings?</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Was it because these people were subhuman, totally amoral individuals? Of course not. They were human beings whose sense of identity was manipulated by demagogues such that they believed that they were facing an existential threat from another group; in the countries above it was the Jews, the Muslims and the Tutsi. </p><p>What connection might all this have to our own election? Other autocratic populists use fears of a false or overblown and distorted existential threat to garner popular support, which is what Trump did. These autocrats don't care who the alleged threatening group is; he — and it always has been a he — just has to make his potential constituency feel like there is one. </p><p>And, as with other populist autocrats before him, Trump discovered and manipulated a special sauce of resentment based on class and identity. By using that, he succeeded in creating in his target constituency feelings of dependency and subservience, which bypassed fact-based analysis. </p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>These feelings find their basis in the very human phenomenon of existential fears — fueled, for example, by calls from some Democrats to defund the police. Note what the anti-Semites chanted in Charlottesville in 2017: "Jews will not replace us." Apparently those Unite the Right marchers saw this as a question of survival, if not literally on an individual basis then at least in a collective sense. </p><p>It is, of course, important for us to recognize that not all Trump supporters go so far as the Proud Boys and their ilk. Many of these supporters would insist they do not harbor such prejudices. And the election results, in which Trump significantly increased his support, including among African Americans, show it's too simplistic to ascribe Trump's appeal as being simply overt racism. It includes a more viral, partly class-based populism, in which Trump plays upon and inflates the grievances of those who believe they are not getting a fair shake out of the system. This includes not only many less- educated and lower-income Americans, but also others who focus on single issues such as abortion or religion. It also includes those who see themselves as the victims of reverse prejudice. </p><p>How ironic that Trump has pitched his appeal toward identity-based politics, while the same time heavily critiquing the Democrats' perceived use of it. </p><p>So if this dynamic is correct, what can be done? Thankfully the self-correcting mechanism in American democracy is functioning, and Trump will have to leave power. Trumpism won't go away, however. </p><p>We can take heart from President-elect Joe Biden's calm and patient approach to the election, and to governing. Calm and patience need to be a hallmark of his administration, as the entire country seeks to salve its wounds and look to the future.</p><p><span></span>But we must go farther, putting ourselves in the shoes of the Trump supporters and seeing the world through (what are to us) their oddly tinted glasses. We should understand they feel disenfranchised by globalization and its effects, and threatened by the bogeyman of "socialism." We have to recognize they question whether there is a future for them in a non-Trumpian world.<br></p><p>Take the question of America's energy dependence. Four years ago Hillary Clinton foundered when she was seen as calling for an end to dependence on coal, no matter its effects on employment in coal-producing areas. Biden, by contrast, was nuanced on the future of fracking, emphasizing he was not calling for its immediate end and urging a transition to renewable energy. </p><p>Trump's supporters thus need to be encouraged to feel comfortable with and accepting of, as did for example the vast majority of white South Africans, the reality that respecting and embracing diversity and economic and social justice is actually in their own self-interest, and that the alternative — opposition to change — will be very disadvantageous to them in the long run. </p><p>We should applaud and call for the continued statesperson-like approach taken by such leading progressives as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. After all, during the campaign they lowered the ardent tenor of their understandable demands for a more just and equitable society. It is vitally important this approach continue, because blunt calls for reparations or quotas or radical redistribution of wealth will simply feed the perception of Trump supporters' that they are under an existential threat. </p><p>We need to drain a significant amount of the venom out of our body politic. This is a responsibility which is as incumbent upon us, my fellow Democrats, as it is to others. </p>
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President Trump played golf this weekend after meeting with Republican leaders of the Michigan Legislature.
Belated democratic normalcy: Transition officially begins as Michigan finalizes count
Nov 23 2020
President Trump's scramble to postpone the inevitable by desecrating democracy failed for good Monday afternoon.
The General Services Administration formally ascertained that President-elect Joe Biden is the "apparent winner" of the Nov. 3 election, allowing the government's essential role in the peaceful transfer of power to begin after a delay of nearly three weeks. The agency's head, Trump appointee Emily Murphy, told Biden of the decision right after Trump's effort to subvert the vote failed in Michigan.
The state's normally obscure Board of State Canvassers voted 3-0, with one of the two Republicans abstaining, to formalize election results showing Biden carried the state by 154,000 votes. The action was a devastating setback for Trump's already almost-impossible effort to reverse his re-election loss. It left unblemished, as a tangibly comprehensive failure, the the president's campaign to poison the nation's confidence in the election.
<p>More than 30 lawsuits, in six of the states he lost, have not produced a single piece of evidence of election fraud that a judge has been willing to accept — most recently Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani's baseless effort to get the results in Pennsylvania tossed out, which a federal judge dismissed in scathing terms Saturday night. </p><p>"This cannot justify the disenfranchisement of a single voter, let alone all the voters of its sixth most populated state," Judge Matthew Brann, a Republican, wrote. "Our people, laws, and institutions demand more."</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>If anything, the litigation ironically ends up supporting the exact opposite argument Trump is making: The election was not marred by any serious irregularities.</p><p>To be sure, the president's steady stream of Twitter disinformation has persuaded a significant share of the electorate — almost all of them his Republican base — that widespread fraud has made the results not credible. And the GOP leadership in Congress and most state governments has enabled though its collective silence this unprecedented presidential campaign to sully the foundation of the American republic</p><p>The margin of Biden's victory is 2.8 percentage points in Michigan. But The Republican National Committee and the state GOP wanted the canvassing board to postpone a lockdown of the result for two weeks to allow for an inquiry into alleged problems in Detroit. (The state Democratic Party concedes there are irregularities in a few precincts, but they involve no more than 450 votes.)</p><p>The consensus view of the state's election law was that, since Wayne County (which includes Detroit) and all the other 82 counties have certified their results, the state board had no discretion but to sign off on the totals. If the board had declined to do that right away, the Michigan Supreme Court would presumably have ordered it to do so as soon as it was asked to intervene.</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>Any suspense was ended when one GOP member, Aaron Van Langevelde, opened the meeting by saying "we've got a duty to do this" and certify the count — but only after hundreds of public comments were heard first.</p><p>Any other decision would have marked one of the president's few victories in the three weeks since Election Day — and fomented new talk about a constitutional crisis. But it's still highly likely such an impasse would have been short-lived. A standoff, had it lasted long enough, would theoretically have put the fate of the state's 16 electoral votes in the hands of the GOP-controlled Legislature. Its two top leaders were summoned to the White House on Friday, and later spent the night at the Trump International Hotel, but after meeting the president they said they know of now reason why the outcome in their stature should not be Biden winning.</p><p>Even under the extraordinarily unlikely scenario in which Michigan's electoral votes were put in limbo or even handed to Trump, Biden would still have 290, or 20 more than he needs.</p><p>And any Trump effort to throw into chaos more states that Biden won narrowly would have few options. Democratic Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar is set to certify the results as soon as Monday afternoon in Pennsylvania: Biden secured its 20 electoral votes by a margin of 81,000 popular votes. Nevada plans to do so Tuesday: Biden won its 6 electoral votes by more than 33,000. Arizona and Wisconsin are on course to certify their results next week. </p><p>By law, presidential results certified by Dec. 8 are immune from additional challenges — and many senior Republicans have signaled they are willing to wait until then before declaring the election is over and Biden won.</p><p>GOP Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania did so Saturday night, after Trump's lawsuit was dismissed. "To ensure that he is remembered for these outstanding accomplishments, and to help unify our country, President Trump should accept the outcome of the election and facilitate the presidential transition process," he said.</p>
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Michigan Speaker Lee Chatfield (above, campaigning for President Trump Nov. 2) and Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey are scheduled to meet with Trump on Friday.
Trump set to woo top Michigan Republicans to help subvert the election
Nov 20 2020
Michigan's top two Republican legislators are due at the White House on Friday afternoon. It's the most tangible intensification yet of President Trump's crusade to subvert democracy by soiling, but almost certainly not reversing, the election he lost.
The topic of the meeting is clear. The president wants to learn how far the lawmakers are willing to go to delay and discredit if not upend the clear result in the state: Voters preferred President-elect Joe Biden by more than 154,000 votes and he secured its 16 electoral votes by 3 percentage points.
Thirteen days after sufficient votes were tallied to make Biden's national victory clear, the top Republican leadership in Congress remains unified in indulging the president's effort, although a growing number of respected members of the rank-and-file are signaling it's time for Trump to permit the transition to begin.
<p>The Michigan legislators, Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey and House Speaker Lee Chatfield, are being whipsawed by both sides. Protesters bearing "Respect the Vote" and "Protect Democracy" placards greeted them as they boarded their flights and were on hand at airports in Washington. But their offices were also being deluged by emails and phone calls from Trump supporters urging they intervene on the president's behalf.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>The state this week became the clear focus of the president's unprecedented effort, which essentially boils down to getting Republican-run governments in swing states he lost to disregard the popular vote and appoint Trump-friendly electors. Efforts are underway to plant the seeds for such unheard-of moves in Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia.</p><p>The plot looks destined to be futile but could still keep on his side the many millions of Republican voters who believe his totally evidence-free assertion that he's being robbed of a second term by pervasive election fraud.</p><p>Trump's own election security agency last week labeled the 2020 election the most secure in history; the head of the agency was fired days later. Biden has received more votes than any other presidential candidate in history, 79.7 million and counting, and nothing so far has discredited his claim to 306 electoral votes.</p><p>Biden told reporters Thursday that Americans are "witnessing incredible irresponsibility, incredibly damaging messages are being sent to the rest of the world about how democracy functions."</p><p>Republicans slipping further outside from the high wall of Trump appeasement in the past two days were led by Sen. Mitt Romeny of Utah, the GOP nominee eight years ago, who derided the president's efforts to put "overt pressure on state and local officials to subvert the will of the people and overturn the election."</p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>He added: "It is difficult to imagine a worse, more undemocratic action by a sitting American President."</p><p>Recently re-elected Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa described as "outrageous" the conspiracy theories Trump's legal team has been spinning as part of its efforts. Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, a former member of the leadership, said it was time to give Biden's team access to policies and information, particularly on coronavirus vaccine distribution — "to ensure a smooth" transfer of power."</p><p>Two former chairmen of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, Greg Walden of Oregon and Fred Upton of Michigan, said they viewed Biden's election as beyond doubt.</p><p>An ad hoc bipartisan group of former senior government officials, dubbed the National Council on Election Integrity, announced a $2 million buy Friday for a 30-second ad urging Trump to begin cooperating with the Biden transition. </p><p>"Our adversaries aren't waiting. The coronavirus isn't waiting. The economy isn't waiting. America shouldn't have to wait either," it says. "The result is clear. It's time to move forward and get to work."</p><div id="0e5dc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="091666c0fa4fc07bdcce8273987f0b3c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1329789031706742785" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The American people have spoken and the result is clear. It’s time to move forward and get to work. https://t.co/RRKox5UBdo</div> — Count Every Vote (@Count Every Vote)<a href="https://twitter.com/CountEveryVote1/statuses/1329789031706742785">1605881386.0</a></blockquote></div><p>If the Michigan Legislature names GOP electors, "there would be rioting in the streets in Michigan and throughout the country. It would be an actual attempted coup, to subvert American democracy," Rick Hasen, an election law expert at the University of California, Irvine, wrote Thursday. "And of course flipping Michigan would not be enough to change the electoral college outcome. Trump would have to flip three states. By then there would be full scale civil unrest in the United States."<br></p><p>"We should worry because this is profoundly antidemocratic and is delegitimizing the victory of Joe Biden in a free and fair election," he said. "But it is extremely unlikely to lead to any different result for president."</p><p>Many Trump voters say they view the election as fishy because of something the nation was warned about for weeks ahead of Election Day — a so-called red mirage: The president's solid leads that night, fueled by his reliance on getting out the in-person vote Nov. 3, evaporated when election officials turned their attention to counting mailed ballots, which went overwhelmingly for Biden.</p><p>Michigan's canvassing board, two Democrats and two Republicans, is set to meet Monday to finalize the election result. If it deadlocks and fails to certify Biden's victory, state judges would likely order the panel to do so. If that does not happen, and the count remains unfinalized, the Legislature would be called on to select electors.</p><p>In Pennsylvania, a legal team led by Rudy Giuliani suggested in a federal court filing Wednesday that the Republican-led General Assembly be assigned to pick the state's slate of 20 electors. In Arizona, with 11 electoral votes now in Biden's column and a GOP-run statehouse, party officials are pursuing several avenues to delay the process. In Georgia, where Biden's victory entitling him to 16 electoral votes was set to be certified Friday afternoon by GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, the Trump team has not yet homed in on a strategy.</p><p><br><br></p>
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Abraham Lincoln turned around a terrible presidential transition by going on a seven-state, 1,600-mile whistle-stop tour en route to his inauguration.
If Trump never concedes, a very long Biden train trip might help
Nov 20 2020
Solomon is the senior digital strategist at Next Level Studios, a legal marketing firm, and an adjunct management professor at McGill University in Montreal.
<p>It's been less than two weeks since the election outcome became clear, and there are still almost nine weeks to the inauguration. But already it seems almost certain that the transition between Donald Trump's administration and Joe Biden's administration will come to be viewed by both historians and the public as among the worst transitions in American presidential history.</p><p>But it does not stand alone. There have been several other presidential transitions throughout history that have been rocky for different reasons. </p><p>The transition from Jimmy Carter to Ronald Reagan 40 years ago was a difficult one because of the global political situation at the time. While it is true the two were as different personally and ideologically as presidents can probably ever be, the most significant obstacle to their smooth transfer of power was the situation on the ground in Iran.</p><p>In the weeks after his resounding defeat by Reagan, Carter was reported to have worked many 20-hour days in hopes of freeing the American hostages being held in Tehran. The welcome result of his work was not evident until the day Reagan took office in January 1981, leaving both a happy and sad historical footnote for the nation — and solidifying an inaccurately uncharitable legacy of the Carter presidency.</p><p><p style="text-align: center;" id="sufn"><a style="font-weight: bold;margin:40px auto;font-size:2rem" href="https://thefulcrum.us/st/newsletters">Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter </a></p></p><p>Some presidential transitions have been extremely difficult because of the personal relationship between the outgoing and incoming presidents. That was certainly the case when Dwight Eisenhower was elected after almost eight full years of Harry Truman.</p><p>Their rift grew from perceived betrayals of the foundation of a strong cooperative working relationship that was never much of a friendship. At one point, Truman was considering promoting Eisenhower to be his successor as the Democratic nominee in 1952.</p><p>Obviously that didn't work out, as Eisenhower chose to run as a Republican. The subsequent transition was marred by a complete lack of civility between the two, which included Eisenhower refusing to attend a holiday lunch at the White House and refusing to meet Truman before the inauguration ceremony, another break with tradition. </p><p>It is impossible to have a discussion about the worst presidential transitions without mentioning the historical one-day switch from Richard Nixon to Gerald Ford. The overnight timing was reminiscent of some of the darkest moments in American history, the four times a president has been assassinated. But rather than the nation dealing with the actual death of one president while his successor takes command, the people watched in August 1974 as the Nixon presidency was euthanized in real time. </p><p><div class="x12"><div class="htlad-Desktop_Content_Banner"></div></div></p><p>While history looks through a glass darkly at the brief Ford presidency, it is important to remember he had been vice president for only eight months before he was given only a few hours (after Nixon revealed his resignation decision) to prepare to assume the Oval Office. Even the most capable and savvy of politicians, which Ford was not, would have found this transition difficult to bear. Charged with the ominous responsibility of leading a nation in a perilous place after Watergate, this difficult transition did nothing to help Ford get off on the right foot.</p><p>But to find what many historians believe to be the worst transition in presidential history, we have to go back to the ascension of Abraham Lincoln.</p><p>While we talk a lot today about how the United States has become a nation divided, in 1861 that was literally true: Seven of the 33 states — South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas — succeeded from the union between the day Lincoln was elected and the day he took office. </p><p>What made the transition even more tenuous was the result itself. Lincoln had garnered just 40 percent of the popular vote, still the second-smallest winning share in presidential history. (John Quincy Adams won in 1824 with 31 percent.)</p><p>As history reminds us, what propelled Lincoln from arguably one of the worst changeovers into one of the best starts to a presidential term was the way the transition ended — with his legendary 13-day, seven-state, 1,600-mile train trip from his home in Springfield, Ill. The whistle-stop tour allowed him to change American public opinion by bringing out massive crowds in nine of the nation's biggest cities. By the time he arrived in Washington, the legend and myth that we recognize as Abraham Lincoln today had begun to form. </p><p>The days after a presidential election are way too early a time to predict the legacy of the next president. Yet history has shown that while many difficult transitions have led to similarly strained tones throughout an entire term, it is also possible to transform a difficult transition into a successful presidency. </p>
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