It says so much about the character of Donald Trump that the only thing he has worked hard at as President is trying to steal the election. Yes, the leader who watches hours of TV a day and who has played golf over three hundred times in the past four years, finally found something to grab his attention. Being branded a loser. It upset him so much that he released a video of him giving a forty six minute (absurdly inaccurate) speech about it, which he began by claiming that it “may be the most important speech I’ve ever made.” It shows how self obsessed he is that his public statements and tweets about how the election was "stolen" far outnumber his statements about the ongoing pandemic.
A few days ago, it finally seemed that the madness was over: the lawsuits had all failed to overturn the election, the recounts had shown no cases of widespread voter fraud, and, on December fifteenth, even Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (a man who would shove aside his own mother if he thought it would get him another Supreme Court Judge) congratulated President Elect Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The electoral count had been certified.
But with Donald Trump, the madness never seems to end. Yesterday, in what will go down as the one of the strangest moments in perhaps the strangest political time ever in American history, Republicans, led by House member Louie Gohmert of Texas, filed a lawsuit against Vice President Mike Pence. Why? Because on January sixth the Senate will formally count and certify (again!) the electoral college votes. And it is the twisted belief of Gohmert and his confederates is that the Vice President, as leader of the Senate, has the right to reject the electors from states that Trump lost. So they believe that they can sue him into overturning the election!
This is, of course, an even bigger crank lawsuit than the one that Texas recently filed attempting to overturn the election results in other states that was summarily rejected by the Supreme Court. But it not only shows the depths that some Trump supporters will go to show their loyalty to him, it puts Pence himself in a bind. Will he do the right thing, and ignore this lawsuit and the more radical members of his party, or will he attempt to reject the duly appointed electors from some states? The good news is, either way, congress will certify those electors even if it has to be put to a vote. The House is majority Democrats, and McConnell has already told members of his party in the Senate not to support this absurd farce. Still, what Pence does will say a lot about what his future, and the future of his party, will be.
Pence has always seemed like such an odd choice for Trump's running mate: why would a conservative Christian who won't eat in a restaurant alone with any woman that isn't his wife be the running mate to a thrice married man who has a long history of bragging about his sexual exploits? It's like Ward Cleaver hanging out with Archie Bunker. Not surprisingly, Pence's turn to Trump was made really out of desperation. In twenty fifteen, when he was Governor of Indiana, Pence signed into law a bill entitled the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, that allowed open discrimination against the the LGBT community. Seemingly, he had forgotten the days of politicians openly demonizing gay people ended decades ago. The bill wound up costing the state millions of dollars of investment and job growth as companies like Apple and Angie's List boycotted the state. Things got so bad that the Indianapolis Star newspaper ran a simple, bold headline: FIX THIS NOW. Less than a month later he did, signing a revision to the bill that essentially nullified the more radical parts of it. This, naturally, enraged the Christian Conservatives who had cheered its initial signing. With his reelection approaching and his popularity plummeting, Pence latched onto Trump as both a lifeline out of the mess he had created for himself in Indiana and a chance to make a name for himself nationally with perhaps the opportunity for a presidential run in the future. The fact that Trump won was just icing on the cake.
And as we all know, Pence has been a complete sycophant for Trump for the past four years, heaping the constant amount of fawning praise on him that Trump requires. Which makes his decision on January sixth all the more interesting. If he does what Trump wants and tries to reject the electors, it will show that even in defeat Trump will continue to have an influence on the party. If, however, he does the right thing and counts the votes properly, by denying Trump's coup attempt, he could be signalling that it's time for the party to move beyond him, while positioning Pence himself as a new party leader and perhaps its future in twenty twenty four. Either way, once again Trump's crazy behavior has turned yet another simple part of the American democratic process into another dramatic showdown. January sixth will be a turning point in more ways than one.
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