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Financial regulators stress-test banks to see if they have enough capital to withstand sharp declines.
Now the United States is undergoing a stress test to see if it has the strength to resist Donald Trump’s treacherous campaign to discredit the 2020 presidential election.
Trump will lose because there is no evidence of fraud. But the integrity of thousands of people responsible for maintaining American democracy is being tested like never before.
Tragically, the majority of elected Republicans are failing the test by refusing to confront Trump. His cowardice is one of the worst betrayals of public trust in the history of our republic.
Trump also relies on a Star Wars cantina of lackeys, con men, sycophants, and fruitcakes, including former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Republican cheater Roger. Stone and others, whose reputation was not. great to start with, but now and forever will be tainted by Trump’s moral misery.
That misery extends to Republican members of a canvassing board in Wayne County, Michigan (which includes Detroit) who, after Trump called them on the phone last week, attempted to rescind their approval of the ballot counts that they were overwhelmingly Joe Biden. On Friday, Trump invited Republican lawmakers from Michigan to the White House, hoping to persuade them to ignore the popular vote as well.
American democracy was not designed for this degree of political depravity.
This is the good news. The vast majority of officials are passing the stress test, many with distinction.
Chris Krebs, who headed the Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency, last Tuesday refuted Trump’s claims of voter fraud, saying the claims “are unsubstantiated or technically incoherent.”
Trump fired Krebs that afternoon. By Krebs reply: “Honored to serve. We did it well “.
Brad Raffensperger, the Republican Secretary of State for Georgia who oversaw the elections there and describes himself as “a Republican through and through and never voted for a Democrat,” defends Georgia’s vote for Biden, rejecting allegations of fraud. of Trump. On Friday he certified that Biden won the state’s presidential vote.
Raffensperger rejected Trump’s proposals collaborating with Graham, who asked if Raffensperger could discard all mailed votes from counties with high rates of questionable signatures. And Raffensperger rejected demands by Georgia’s two incumbent Republican senators Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue (both facing a tougher second round than anticipated) that he resign.
“This office operates with integrity,” Raffensperger said, “and that’s what the voters want to know, that this person is going to do their job.”
Raffensperger has received death threats from Republican voters inflamed by Trump’s accusations. It’s not the only one. Election officials in Nevada, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona also report threats.
On Wednesday, Katie Hobbs, the Arizona secretary of state who has until Nov. 30 to certify election results there, called on Republican officials to stop “perpetuating misinformation,” adding that the threats and ” Continual intimidation tactics won’t stop me from doing my homework. ” swore to take an oath. Our democracy is constantly being tested, it continues to prevail and will not waver under my supervision. “
Honors for her too.
While we’re at it, let’s not forget all the other public officials who have been stress-tested during Trump’s disgusting presidency and passed honorably.
I mean the public health officials who are unwilling to lie about Covid-19, the military leaders who are unwilling to back Trump’s attacks on the Black Lives Matter protesters, the inspectors general who are unwilling to cover up Trump’s corruption, US foreign service officials unwilling to lie about Trump’s proposals to Ukraine. , intelligence officials who are unwilling to double their reports to suit Trump, and justice department lawyers who refuse to participate in Trump’s obstructions of justice.
If you think what they did is easy to do, think again. Some of them lost their jobs. Many were demoted. Some have been threatened with violence. They have risked all of this to do the right thing in a Trump-poisoned America, which has no idea what it means to do the right thing.
Above all, this stress test reveals integrity. Democracy depends on it.
The fact that Trump’s coup attempt is unsuccessful does not make it any less damaging. A new Monmouth University poll now finds that 77% of Trump supporters believe that Biden’s victory was due to fraud – a claim, I must emphasize again, backed by zero evidence.
Which means that America’s stress test won’t end when Joe Biden is sworn in as president on January 20. In the years to come, we will continue to rely on the integrity of thousands of unsung heroes to do their duty in the face of threats to their livelihoods and perhaps their lives.
Of his many heinous acts, Trump’s desperate attempt to cling to power by testing American democracy will be his most reprehensible legacy.
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