They Can’t Fight Fair….
By: Stephen P. Watkins
Tags: Trump, Republican Traitors, Accountability, Corrupt Lawsuits, Social Change

They Can’t Fight Fair….

Graphic depicted on KnowYourMeme.com

The kooks and crackpots — starting with the Current Occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — have steadfastly refused to acknowledge defeat in the 2020 general elections.

Taking their cues from QAnon, Alex Jones, and other right-wingers and paranoid schizophrenics, the reactionaries cannot accept their electoral defeats, and, instead, have filed dozens of lawsuits in both federal and state courts, claiming, without the slightest evidence, that the elections were “rigged,” “fraudulent,” and “full of Democrat cheating.” The courts have rejected these 55 lawsuits and, in perhaps the biggest blow to President Donald Trump’s ego, the United States Supreme Court has rejected his desperation claims — twice in one week! — about his election-fraud loss.

(I have previously written about Trump’s malignant narcissistic personality disorder, and won’t go into the details of his psychological disease and character defects, but, suffice it to say, they have caused massive harm to America over the last four years, including about 300,000 largely preventable COVID-19 deaths; violations of the U.S. Constitution on multiple levels; and, most importantly, the widespread distrust in the fundamentals of democracy in our country, namely “the winners win, the losers lose, and we go merrily on our way.” Trump’s psychological problems literally prevent him from accepting defeat, because he has never had to face it or learn from it….)

No Accountability

The overarching principle in all of the foolishness and decadence in this country is the lack of accountability, the lack of punishment for wrongdoing.

Trump, as a psychologically-damaged, mentally-sick rich kid, was never taught the moral lessons of life. He was never taught to face consequences. He was allowed to lie, boldly and continuously; he was taught that life is a zero-sum game, and “win-win” is a “formula for Losers.” His father’s approval, such as it was, was confined to Donald “winning” at all costs,” social consequences be damned.

The popularity of Trump in the press and in TV over the last 30+ years has become part of the brainwashing of America’s low-information voters. They have become used to his brazen conduct and attitudes, and he has, in some bizarre manner, appealed to their desires to be “special.” They have ignored Trump’s three marriages, six bankruptcies, well-publicized cheating of vendors and employees, sexual harassment and other misconduct, and have instead focused on his fame and gloried in his notoriety.

Twitter — not the Media — is Public Enemy №1

Over the last four years, Trump has been afforded numerous opportunities to spread his vile, misshapen beliefs throughout the country (and the world) via Twitter. His followers — including those who previously and strongly opposed him in the 2016 Presidential campaign (Sens. Lindsay Graham, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio) — have retweeted his innumerable lies and distortions, and have adopted his attitudes as their own. Truly, through Twitter, he has created a personality cult of Trumpism that has poisoned our discourse and contaminated our values so that America now suffers from a profound case of Balkanization, a splintering of values and beliefs into increasingly violent strains that threaten civil war.

What has emerged in the six weeks since November 3rd is the loud, cacophonous sound of low-information voters expressing their unwillingness to believe that Trump and his acolytes have lost their elections; that the elections were “rigged,” “fraudulent”; and that the results stemmed from the malign influence of “the Deep State.”

What Can be Done to Stop This Insanity?

The Trump base is so loud that the cowardly wimps (e.g., Republicans) in the House of Representatives and Senate are afraid to confront them. It proves my theory that jobs is the arena of moral equivocation and cowardice. People will give up their principles/values when their jobs are threatened.

The result is that Trump, a perpetual litigator, has fomented the filing of over 50 state and federal lawsuits, challenging the election processes, insisting on multiple recounts and audits, and disputing the use of mail-in ballots in the middle of a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.

Perhaps the most egregious attack on the constitutionality of the electoral process was the lawsuit filed by the corrupt, under-investigation Attorney General of Texas, Ken Paxton, wherein he urged the United States Supreme Court to invalidate the voting processes in four swing states that President-Elect Joe Biden handily won and award their Electoral College votes to Trump. Shockingly, 126 members of the House of Representatives (all Republicans) signed an amicus curiae brief in support of Paxton’s suit. Seventeen other states joined Texas in seeking to subvert the Constitution. The attorneys general of the four swing states, not surprisingly, accused Paxton of “seditious abuse of the judicial process.”

Surprisingly, the U.S. Supreme Court summarily dismissed the Texas lawsuit, even though one-third of its membership was populated by Trump.

What can be done to stop this insanity?

Section 3 of the 14th Amendment prohibits traitors from serving in elective office. The section prohibits any person who had gone to war against the union or given aid and comfort to the nation’s enemies from running for federal or state office, or holding it. A strong argument can be made that all of the Congresspeople who signed the amicus curiae brief, as well as their supporters in the Senate (Mitch McConnell, Lindsay Graham, and Ted Cruz), should be subject to impeachment and removal under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

Like the Aesop’s fable, Who Will Bell the Cat?, the question remains: who will impeach the traitors in Congress? The Democrats, especially the members of The Squad in the House of Representatives, and the Black Caucus in the Senate, are the most likely to do this, but the odds are still slim unless there is a groundswell of support for removal of the traitors from Congress, similar to what happened after the end of the Civil War.

It would be rough, but it would be a necessary step to instill a sense of real accountability for wrongful actions. After all, each Congressperson swore an oath to defend and uphold the U.S. Constitution, and by undertaking traitorous acts these people are expressly violating their oaths.

Special elections and/or appointments would be necessary to replace the traitors, but the results would be worth it.

Another problem has been the misuse of the courts to make spurious election claims. What can be done to stop this?

Punish the lawyers.

In federal courts, Rule 11 exists to deter attorneys from filing frivolous lawsuits. In state courts, there are similar rules to dissuade them from tying up the courts (and opposing parties) in bogus litigation.

When filing a lawsuit, the attorney is averring that there are facts and laws to support its filing. If there are no facts and/or no laws, the courts are empowered to dismiss the lawsuit and to punish the lawyer by imposing heavy fines and/or referring the lawyer to the Bar association for further punishment (suspension or revocation of the lawyer’s license).

I can say from my 38+ years in the legal profession that most lawyers are unwilling to lose the contents of their bank accounts and lose their right to practice law. Strong enforcement of Rule 11 and its state counterparts would do wonders to deter the improvident filing of unjustified lawsuits.

Accountability — what a concept!

Getting rid of the traitors in Congress and deterring the filing of bogus lawsuits by punishing complicit lawyers might reinstate the concept of accountability. The lack of accountability is, perhaps, the single biggest deficit in American life. Trump was responsible for its rapid expansion, and with actual punishments it might be possible to reverse this disturbing trend.