To get elected, voters must require candidates to believe in democracy
ROBERT REICH in Robertreich.Substack.Com
It’s easy to forget that most current
Republican members of the House, including Republican Speaker Michael Johnson,
refused to certify the outcome of the 2020 election.
In fact, Johnson helped organize 138
Republican House members to dispute that outcome, despite state
certifications and the nearly unanimous rulings from state and federal courts
that it was an honest election.
If Johnson and his cronies had so few
scruples then, why should we assume they’ll have more scruples in the weeks
following November’s elections?
The specific scenario I worry about is that in the wake of the elections, the House’s election-denying Republicans retain their majority in the next Congress by denying certification of Democratic candidates who have won by close margins.
Then, on January 6, 2025, the new
Republican House majority refuses to certify Electoral College results from
states that went for Biden by close margins — thereby ensuring that no candidate
receives an Electoral College majority.
As a result, the decision about who’s to be
the next president is made on a state-by-state delegation vote — almost surely
delivering it to Trump.
I don’t think this scenario is far-fetched.
Good faith can no longer be assumed. Quite the contrary: The current litmus
test for Republican lawmakers in the Trump GOP is to say publicly that the 2020
election was stolen from Trump. Presumably they and Trump will do anything to
get the White House back.
So what can we do to prevent it?
Long before we reach this constitutional crisis, Speaker Johnson and others in the Republican House leadership must pledge to certify the results of the November elections. They should be asked by the media to make this commitment. If they won’t, Americans need to know — and know why.
It’s worth noting in this regard that Rep.
Elise Stefanik, the fourth-ranking Republican in the House, has refused to commit
to certifying the results of next November’s elections, saying “we will see if
this is a legal and valid election.”
She then claimed that the 2020 presidential
race “was not a fair election” despite multiple legal reviews sought by Trump
and his allies confirming that it was.
Why hasn’t Stefanik’s refusal been more
widely reported?
Why isn’t the mainstream media requiring
House Republicans to commit to certifying the results of the November election?
The GOP has made 2020 election denialism a
litmus test for membership in their party. The nation should make 2024 certification a
litmus test for commitment to our democracy.
© 2021 robertreich.substack.com
ROBERT REICH is
the Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California,
Berkeley, and a senior fellow at the Blum Center for Developing Economies. 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. His book include: "Aftershock" (2011), "The
Work of Nations" (1992), "Beyond Outrage" (2012) and,
"Saving Capitalism" (2016). He is also a founding editor of The
American Prospect magazine, former chairman of Common Cause, a member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the award-winning
documentary, "Inequality For All." Reich's newest book is "The
Common Good" (2019). He's co-creator of the Netflix original documentary
"Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.
