How Trump’s Attempted Coup Could
Still Succeed
By Robert Reich
Last Sunday, at a Republican event in Franklin, North Carolina,
Congressman Madison Cawthorn, repeating Trump’s big lie, called the rioters who
stormed the Capitol on January 6 “political hostages.“
Cawthorn also advised the crowd to begin stockpiling ammunition
for what he said is likely to be American-versus-American “bloodshed” over unfavorable election
results.
“Much as I am willing to defend our liberty at all costs,” he
said, “there’s nothing I would dread doing more than having to pick up arms
against a fellow American.”
On Tuesday, Texas Republicans passed a strict voter law based on Trump’s big lie –
imposing new ID requirements on people seeking to vote by mail and criminal
penalties on election officials who send unsolicited mail-in ballot
applications, empowering partisan poll watchers, and banning drive-through and
24-hour voting.
Rep. Justin Price (R-Richmond, Hopkinton, etc.) supports armed militias
and was part of the mob at the January 6 insurrection.
He claims he didn't go inside the Capitol. Hope he gets indicted.
This year, at least 18 other states have enacted 30 laws that
will make it harder for Americans to vote, based on Trump’s lie.
On Thursday, at Trump’s instigation, Pennsylvania
Republicans launched an investigation soliciting sworn
testimony on election "irregularities,” scheduling the first hearing for
next week.
Arizona’s Republican “audit” will report its results any day,
but there’s little question what they’ll show. The CEO of the Cyber Ninjas, the
firm hired to conduct it, has publicly questioned the election results, and the
audit team consists of Trump supporters and is funded by a group led by Trump’s
first national security adviser, Michael Flynn.
The Republican chair of the Wisconsin state assembly’s campaigns
and elections committee has begun “a full, cyber-forensic audit” akin to
Arizona’s. Trump’s first White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus, says Wisconsin Republicans are prepared to spend
$680,000 on it.
These so-called audits won’t alter the outcome of the 2020
election. Their point is to cast further doubt on its legitimacy and justify
additional state measures to suppress votes and alter future elections.
Rep. Blake "Flip" Filippi has served as lawyer to the armed militia
The Oathkeepers, many of whom have been indicted for the January 6
insurrection. He represents Charlestown and is the Republican Leader
in the RI House. He has ambitions for higher office.
It’s a vicious cycle. As Trump continues to stoke his base with
his big lie that the election was stolen, Republican lawmakers – out to advance
their careers and entrench the GOP – are adding fuel to the fire, pushing more
Americans into Trump’s paranoid nightmare.
The three top candidates to succeed Richard Burr in North Carolina all denounced the senator’s vote to convict Trump in his last impeachment trial. The four leading candidates to succeed Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania all embraced Trump’s call for an “audit” of election results.
A leading contender for Senate seat being vacated by Richard
Shelby in Alabama is Representative Mo Brooks, best known for urging the crowd
at Trump’s rally preceding the Capitol riot to “start taking down names and
kicking ass.” Brooks has been endorsed by Trump.
Yet even as Trump’s attempted coup gains traction, most of the
rest of America continues to sleep. We’ve become so outrage-fatigued by his
antics, and so preoccupied with the more immediate threats of the Delta variant
and climate-fueled wildfires and hurricanes, that we prefer not to know.
A month ago it was reported that during his last weeks in office
Trump tried to strong-arm the Justice Department to falsely declare that the
2020 presidential election was fraudulent, even threatening to fire the acting
attorney general if he didn’t: “Just say that the election was corrupt and
leave the rest to me and the [Republican] Congressmen.”
The news barely registered on America’s collective mind. The
Olympics and negotiations over the infrastructure bill got more coverage.
A top Trump adviser now says Trump is “definitely running” for president in 2024, even though
the 14th Amendment to the constitution bars anyone from holding office who has
“engaged in insurrection or rebellion against” the nation.
Federal legislation that would pre-empt state voter suppression
laws is bogged down in the Senate. Biden hasn’t made it a top priority. A House
select committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot and Trump’s possible
role is barely off the ground. The U.S Justice Department has made no move to indict
the former president for anything.
But unless Trump and his co-conspirators are held accountable
for the damage they have inflicted and continue to inflict on American
democracy, and unless Senate Democrats and Biden soon enact national voting
rights legislation, Trump’s attempted coup could eventually succeed.
It is imperative that America wake up.
Robert Reich's latest book is "THE SYSTEM:
Who Rigged It, How To Fix It." He is Chancellor's Professor of Public
Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the
Blum Center. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the 10 most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written 17 other books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock," "The Work of Nations," "Beyond
Outrage," and "The Common Good." He is a founding editor of the
American Prospect magazine, founder of Inequality Media, a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning
documentaries "Inequality For All," streaming on YouTube, and
"Saving Capitalism," now streaming on Netflix.