Tag Archives: Laura J. Nelson

Democracy, Off the Rails, Republicans

Lies, gaffes, inconsistencies, silence, and hiding from the media: the GOP and the election

From this morning’s Los Angeles Times:

To U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, the general election was a resounding success for his party.

“Not one Republican incumbent lost,” McCarthy said during a news conference last week.

Except, of course, President Trump.

Now, more than two weeks after the election and several failed attempts to overturn it, the Bakersfield Republican still refuses to accept Trump’s defeat. — Maya Lau and Laura J. Nelson, “California Republican leaders go all in on Trump’s election subterfuge, but some are more vocal than others”

Not a single California Republican headed to Congress in January has broken ranks from this duplicitous playacting. None have pushed back against the narrative that denies the results of a free and fair election, obstructs the peaceful transition of power, and wounds the incoming president. None have acknowledged Biden as the winner.

Republicans from the Golden State are not outliers. The same pattern is true nationally, where just four United States Senators in the Republican caucus have acknowledged Joe Biden as president-elect: Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, Ben Sasse, and Susan Collins. 

Until yesterday when Tennessee’s Marsha Blackburn did so.  “I have not spoken with the president-elect. We did have… the vice president-elect come to the floor this week to cast a vote.” 

Oops! The Nashville Tennessean reports that following the live interview, the Senator took it back:

Later Friday night, a spokesperson for Blackburn said the comment was a mistake and that Blackburn had “been very clear” on her position about the election outcome. 

“She simply misspoke — it’s nothing more,” said Abigail Sigler, a campaign spokesperson for Blackburn. Blackburn’s Senate staff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Sigler emailed to clarify after this story published. — Natalie Allison, “Staff of U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn says she misspoke by calling Biden ‘president-elect'”

Of course Senator Blackburn knows perfectly well that Joe Biden was elected president, as do (at least most of) the four dozen Republican Senators (and dozens more Republicans in the House) who are playing along with the reckless man whom they fear. 

They are creating doubts among the GOP base that the Democratic candidate won the election; they are justifying Donald Trump’s attempts to sabotage the incoming president; and they are creating a narrative for the next four years that Joe Biden found his way into the White House illegitimately. 

Senator Blackburn had, in speaking truthfully, committed the classic Michael Kinsley gaffe: she spoke a truth that she wanted to hide. 

When lying (or playacting as though you believe something that you know perfectly well is false), you have to keep your guard up. 

“One of the problems of successful lying is that it’s hard work,” says psychologist Michael Lewis. “You have to be very consistent in doing it.”

In this instance, the lie is far-fetched. There is no evidence to support it (as revealed in courtrooms across the country). The results of the election are clear. Whenever the insecure, vindictive man in the White House isn’t in the forefront of your mind, you might slip — relying on what you take for granted — and speak truthfully. Then you have to send your press secretary out to clean up your mess.

This would be humorous if it weren’t so dangerous. The cynical calculation that runs throughout for every Republican official is this:

“What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time? No one seriously thinks the results will change.”

As noted above, there are significant downsides to democratic government, to public trust, to the national interest. The question the Republican official is actually asking is: What’s the downside for me and for the Republican Party?

And when we focus on party, not country, the question answers itself. That’s why Kevin McCarthy, Marsha Blackburn, and very nearly all their colleagues in both houses of Congress, are humoring Donald Trump.

(Image: Marsha Blackburn via Wikidmedia Commons.)