Anniversaries are something we celebrate in this country. For instance, in 1976, the nation celebrated its Bi-centennial in spectacular fashion. New York City, in particular, put on a show to remember.
Another anniversary of sorts will take place in December, though in this case, it's not something we celebrate or wish to remember. It was twenty years ago next month that the infamous Bush v. Gore decision was handed down; a decision that resulted in George W. Bush becoming the 43rd president. We are still paying for that ruling.
It's been just over a week since the election and four days since the networks called it for Joe Biden, and not only isn't Trump accepting the results, he is exerting every bit of his authority to undo the votes of 76 million people and remain in power. His lawyers are filing lawsuit after lawsuit in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Arizona and Nevada. To date, every one has been dismissed outright.
But while his legal efforts may be for naught, there is a method to his madness, and if Democrats don't wake up to what's going on, they might find themselves on the short end of the mother of all constitutional crises.
Most people, when they think of Trump, see a petulant man-child with no moral compass who traffics in baseless conspiracy theories and racist tropes. And while all that is true, that is not the most dangerous thing about the man. Strange and sad as it might be to admit, we've had immature, morally corrupt, racist presidents who've disgraced the office. Until Trump came along, Richard Nixon was the embodiment of every possible vice you could imagine the leader of the free world having.
Right now, I could care less about Trump's immaturity or racism. What I care most about, and what should keep Democrats up nights, is his autocratic tendencies. In short, the man is attempting a coupe in broad daylight.
For those who are worried that one of Trump's lame-assed lawsuits could actually succeed, worry not. Not even one of his judges could be that dumb. The fact is that Trump and his law firm of Dewey, Cheatem and Howe aren't trying to win the legal argument, because they have no legal argument to make. What they're trying to do is run out the clock and force one or more of the states that Trump lost to miss the Safe Harbor date of December 8 - the date that all states' electors must be submitted to the Electoral College so that the next president can be voted on by Congress on January 6 of next year. And if that happens, Democrats will be screwed.
Of all the mistakes Al Gore's campaign made in 2000, none was more costly than the underestimation of George Bush's legal team. Headed by James Baker, they outmaneuvered the Gore team at every turn, including reframing the narrative from wanting to make sure that the will of the voters was honored to the election was being stolen from Bush. There were basically two rulings that the Supreme Court handed down in Bush: the first - staying the recount that had been underway in Florida - ostensibly ended the 2000 election, because even if the Court had ruled in favor of Gore, there would not have been enough time for the recount to resume and meet the Safe Harbor date. In other words, Baker, with the help of five justices, ran out the clock on Gore.
Mark my words, Trump's team is going to employ the same strategy with these baseless lawsuits. They will flood the lower federal courts with a dozen or more legal proceedings, forcing those courts to consider the merits before dismissing them outright, until they finally get what they want: a crack at the Supreme Court.
Laugh if you will, but this is no laughing matter. No one just winds up before the Supreme Court before first appearing before a district or circuit court, sometimes more than once. If we get to Thanksgiving and we're still talking about this, that's when you should be really concerned. The longer this goes on, the more likely it is that we get to December 8 without a resolution.
And if there's no resolution by then, guess what happens? The legislatures of these states - all Republican - step in and submit their own slate of electors to the Electoral College, which then forwards them onto Congress. Bye, bye, President Biden and hello President Trump for another four years, or whenever he decides to give up his reign of terror.
It is imperative that the Biden team not let this happen. To ensure it doesn't, they need to find their own James Baker: someone who will be as ruthless, if not more so, than the lawyers Trump has working for him. Someone who knows you don't bring a knife to a gun fight. If Gore had had Baker on his side, I have no doubt that he and not Bush would've been the 43rd president of the United States.
Having a central point man would do wonders for Biden's team. It would allow them to craft a unified message that would be unmistakable and unambiguous. No disrespect to Biden, but while I admire his thoughtfulness and patience as Lord Fauntleroy pouts about his predicament, on social media and conservative news outlets, Trump is quickly getting the upper hand. While he still doesn't have a legal leg to stand on, his surrogates are doing everything imaginable to reframe the political argument in their favor. Just the other day, the two Republican senators who are both involved in runoff elections in Georgia next January called for the Georgia Secretary of State to resign because apparently it was his job to make sure Biden didn't get more votes than Trump.
All throughout the GOP, the ranks are closing. Impossible though it may be, a majority of Republicans are enabling this president while he throws his temper tantrum. Bill Barr, who had been practically invisible the last few weeks, issued a memo authorizing the Department of Justice to "investigate" charges of voter fraud "BEFORE" a state certifies its results. Never in the history of the Department has something like this been tried.
The naked brazenness is off the charts, and with no one to reign him in, Trump is capable of doing almost anything. On Monday, he fired his defense secretary, Mark Esper because Esper made the fatal mistake of not worshiping at the alter of Trump. He was replaced by a loyalist stooge who I have no doubt will do whatever Trump tells him to do. Do not be shocked if Trump declares Martial Law and orders him to deploy the military to "secure" the cities.
I don't know how many times I've used the phrase "we're in unchartered waters" but this time those waters are pretty damn deep and dark. Biden's team has two problems on its hands. The first is to win the legal battles in court, which should be easy enough. The second is not to let Trump game the system to such an extent that Biden ends up winning the battle while losing the war.
We have just under four weeks to go until the slates of electors are due to be turned over to the Electoral College. We know what Trump is going to attempt to do; what we don't yet know is how successful Biden will be at stopping him.
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