In Trump’s Iron Fist – VG

On Monday, voters will meet to approve the election of Biden as the next president of the United States. After Christmas, the election will be approved by Congress. This has always been a purely formal matter. But this is not necessarily the case this time. At the moment, much of the Republican Party supports Trump’s distorted perception of reality that “the election has been stolen.” Either actively supporting Trump or tacitly accepting his behavior.

Internally in the Republican Party, there are demands that the few who ask Trump to admit the loss keep quiet. Only a handful of representatives have recognized Biden as the winner. And this week, the madness went further. A majority of Republicans in the House of Representatives backed a Texas demand that the Supreme Court should overturn the elections in four changing states that Biden won.

Cast dark shadows

According to the law, states can go directly to the Supreme Court with lawsuits between them, without first going to the lower courts. This is what happened. Texas advanced the case and was supported by 17 other states and a majority of Republicans in Congress.

Hardly anyone thought the lawsuit would win. And it was rejected by the Supreme Court on Friday. But what has happened still casts dark shadows on the future. With such strong Republican support for such a demand, what happens next, if the Republicans have a majority in Congress, but the Democratic presidential candidate wins? So Republicans will reject the election when it comes to final congressional approval?

Suddenly, it has become possible to imagine a situation in which Joe Biden would not have been approved as the next president of the United States, despite winning the election, if the Republican Party had had a majority in Congress today. No one would have thought that thought before Donald Trump, and the handling of the electoral defeat by him and the party.

The main Republican politicians have failed, almost all. This year’s election was, in fact, saved by a few brave lower-level Republicans, election officials, and members of local electoral boards.

Problems for a long time

The governor of Georgia approved of Biden’s victory, and both he and other Republican state politicians opposed massive pressure from party colleagues to change the outcome. A local official in Georgia was the first Republican to take an outspoken and powerful position against Trump, saying “Enough is enough!” He and several other local election officials from the Republican Party have been threatened with death, harassed and harassed.

It is the political parties that bring people together to organize and carry out the elections themselves. There are normally two from each party on the local electoral boards that must approve the result. Democrats and Republicans tend to work well together and take pride in the fact that everything should be fine. Now many are wondering if election staff will be as loyal to voters next time. Will the Republican Party have decent people who sit on election committees and other functions to ensure an orderly election in four years?

The Republican Party has been in trouble for a long time. It started before Donald Trump. But the authoritarian traits that Trump has cultivated over these four years may be self-reinforcing. The more supporters fail in democracy and do not respect the verdict of the voters, the less decent people will want to participate. In this way, democracies can slide into more authoritarian regimes. This is what we are looking for in the Republican Party right now.

Trumpism doesn’t go away

No one knows what Trump himself plans to do after he resigns. But he has raised between one and two billion crowns and has given the impression that he will run again for the presidency in 2024. In any case, he has enough control over the party and enough money to decide most things for the Republicans. for years to come. if you wish. Support the ones you like and crush the ones you don’t like. The Republican Party is in the hands of Trump.

And Trumpism itself will not go away, no matter what Trump himself decides to do. Trump’s legacy will remain in the hands of Republicans for a long time. Party leaders have hurt themselves by throwing off their own values ​​and being devastated by a self-absorbed and manipulative president. They have done nothing to defend the credibility of the electoral process. The result is that up to 70 percent of Republican voters are not confident that the elections were fair and conducted correctly.

It will take a long time to repair the damage and restore confidence in democracy itself. If possible. A prerequisite will be for the Republican Party to take on Trump. If that doesn’t happen, the United States may go in a dangerous direction.

So why should we care? Because the United States is important to us, they are our closest ally and most important guarantor of security. Our security is built on a strong America. A strong America must be a democratic America.

Don’t go back to normal

Biden has an exceptionally difficult job ahead of him. And he doesn’t want peace of mind. First of all, you need to clean a lot at home. Now, as many Americans are dying from covid every day as the total number of people the United States lost in the terrorist attack on the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. It is difficult to fully understand the drama of what is happening.

The pandemic will take a lot of power away from Biden. It must put its economy in order and, at the same time, try to unite the United States. It is unlikely that Biden can meet all the expectations of the rest of the world that the United States should play a more active role in the international arena. No matter how much we want it, the election does not mean that Biden will return to normal, to where we were before Donald Trump. Unfortunately.

Things may get a little easier, both for Biden and many others, if Trump is content to play golf for years to come. Hope is allowed. But it is not very realistic. Trump likes attention too much. And power.