Texas, Last Bastion of the Conspiracy
By: Russ Linton
Tags: History, Politics, Trump, Texas, Election 2020

Y’all might want to rethink this commitment to famous last stands...

Photo by Kourtney Smith on Unsplash

With electoral votes locked in this past Monday, Texas continued the following day to fight on a loser’s behalf. Thirty-four of their thirty-eight electors called on the swing states of Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, and Wisconsin to appoint their own electors and nullify Biden’s win.

Nobody took them up on the request.

In the past, holing up in a fort against unsurmountable odds worked out for the rebellious Mexican province. For ten short years, they became a Republic built on a tale of heroic defiance.

Less heroically, the illegal immigrants from the nearby expansionist U.S. championed slavery, a practice their Mexican neighbor had abolished. Eventually, cotton prices on those plantations crashed, and to avoid reconquest by their former occupiers, the Republic of Texas sought protection of a federal sort.

So, it should come as no surprise that after Trump’s hail of lawsuits claiming coups and vast conspiracies against him, Texas decided to hop on the bandwagon even as those lawsuits continued to be swatted down by courts both liberal and conservative.

That a vast conspiracy of everyday citizens, voting machine companies, minority voters, county election officials, and probably George Soros walking hand in hand with Hillary Clinton, had somehow robbed him of the election was a non-starter in the eyes of more rational legal professionals. Trump’s own appointees refused to entertain his fictions.

When Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General, leaped to Trump’s defense and offered to throw the big, often self-aggrandized weight of the Lone Star state behind Trump’s “coup” defense, many seemed taken aback.

National lawyers groups called for sanctions against Paxton for what they termed “abusive” and “frivolous” actions. The non-partisan group, Lawyers Defending American Democracy described what they saw as an ethical breach, and asked state licensing authorities to investigate.

These allegations mirror the outcry in professional circles regarding Rudy Giuliani’s broader role in the attempt to overturn the election results. For that, Congressman Bill Pascrell of New Jersey has filed to have the president’s attorney disbarred.

But far from mere acts of sycophantic loyalty, Paxton’s behavior likely has a more selfish motive.

One month prior to the Texas Attorney General’s willingness to drag the entire state into a hopeless legal battle which the Supreme Court crushed (again, stuffed with Trump appointees), he became the subject of an FBI investigation.

This wasn’t Paxton’s first rodeo.

Five years ago he was indicted on felony securities charges for peddling a stock he owned and not revealing he’d become a beneficiary of any gains. Since 2014 a series of legal maneuverings, recusals, changes of venue, and other delays have prevented a final determination in the case. All of this happening in state courts, naturally, where it might be argued Paxton has some sway.

But last month it was Federal agents who came knocking.

Accused of a bribery scandal by seven of the top lawyers in his office this October, Paxton has dismissed the filing as a case of disgruntled employees. Seven career attorneys with the state, presumably smart enough and educated enough to understand the implications of such a public whistleblowing act, merely “disgruntled employees”. Unlikely.

Naturally, this second presumed conspiracy was not rejected by the federal agents who promptly launched an investigation. With an investigative body and courts outside his purview, Paxton may have finally bitten off more corruption than he can safely chew.

Which is likely why he turned to yet another real estate developer as he scrambled to do damage control. One who could offer the ultimate quid pro quo — a presidential pardon.

Presidential pardon powers are broad. They have to be used on Federal crimes but don’t have to be for convicted crimes. President Ford, upon taking office from his disgraced predecessor, famously pardoned Richard Nixon for any federal crimes he may have committed during his tenure.

Similar treatment for both Paxton and Trump’s right hand in the attempt to overturn the election, Giuliani, himself under federal investigation for his misadventures in Ukraine, seems likely.

Since the outset, Trump and his associates have painted a picture of conspiratorial targeting of his campaign, a narrative only aided by the murky involvement of Russia in a disinformation campaign bipartisan investigators and committees have both affirmed happened. His associates and those close to him have been the subject of numerous investigations which Trump often publicly decries as a witch hunt.

In these highly partisan times, people can be forgiven for believing the claim. The toxic tit-for-tat has reached unprecedented proportions. But as more and more independent courts reject Trump’s accusations and as states unanimously verify their votes and electoral results, people need to question the true motives of those involved in an increasingly bizarre and desperate situation.

Could this be a wide-ranging plot by the “Deep State” to prevent Trump from continuing his reign? Or are we just looking at the typical parade of grifters and opportunists who are normally attracted to political circles of all stripes?

Which explanation makes more sense?

As the list of possible conspirators lengthens, the list of non-conspirators narrows. The FBI. Voters. Judges, both federal and state — many seated by the Trump administration with just this sort of judicial support for his agenda in mind. The Supreme Court. Voting machine companies. Foreign governments. Social Media. Every major public news outlet.

The list goes on and on, only stopping at Trump’s inner circle.

By their nature, conspiracies are solitary, clandestine affairs. As they grow in scope, the less likely they are to truly be conspiracies. And coups require a sudden, violent, illegal assumption of power. Yet with no violence, numerous recounts, and fully supported by a wide range of courts, one candidate earned the office of president.

If it’s a conspiracy everyone is involved in except yourself, isn’t it more likely you are the conspirator? Or, at the very least, that this is a case of sleazy politicians being sleazy politicians, trading their souls (and yours) for political favor and graft?

The coup language is perhaps the most extraordinary. With plots to kidnap sitting governors in both Michigan and Virginia and a legal blitz that passed no judicial muster at any level, coups are indeed afoot, but not where some believe them to be.

Many, however, will remember only the defiant cries of a losing battle and romanticize their own end to this chapter in history. In truth, battles, political and otherwise are waged for complex reasons, but more often involve the greed of humanity rather than vast conspiracies.