By Gene Jones, FLVCS President
Donald Trump and his seditious enablers, who seek to overturn our democracy, are undemocratic and unpatriotic. They should be held accountable.
We expected Trump not to accept the results of the election because he told us as much, months ago. We recognized then, and his recent behavior confirms, that he is a threat to our democracy.
Despite the fact that Trump, and the Republican Party, had the opportunity to help set the rules for the election and the opportunity to challenge the result in court, they still refuse to accept the result despite the fact they’ve lost practically every court challenge including the most important one to the Supreme Court.
Where’s the evidence?
Where is Trump’s evidence to support wide spread fraud that could have altered the result of the election? Trump can’t provide facts because they don’t exist except in the minds of Trump and his cult of personality followers.
Trump’s dangerous behavior continues. On December 12, 2020, he tweeted, “The Supreme Court had ZERO interest in the merits of the greatest voter fraud ever perpetrated on the United States of America. All they were interested in is “standing’, which makes it very difficult for the President to present a case on the merits. 75,000,000 votes.” (Twitter marked the tweet as misleading.)
Of course, if evidence of great voter fraud had been presented, the Supreme Court would have been interested and heard the case.
In other tweets, he said, “MOST CORRUPT ELECTION IN U.S. HISTORY.” and “How do states and politicians confirm an election where corruption and irregularities are documented throughout? A Swing State Hustle.”
The documentation he tweets about doesn’t exist. Trump’s allegations are total falsehoods designed to stir up his authoritarian followers. Some of them have already resorted to violence as they protest the election based on nothing more than Trump’s untruths.
Trump’s seditious enablers
Trump is not the only subversive. Many Republicans fall right in line with him and his falsehoods. Regrettably, 126 Republican Representatives filed an amicus brief asking the Supreme Court to set aside the election. The head of the Texas GOP has called for the secession of Red States, which is treason to the United States as decided by the Civil War.
Trump and his enablers will, if they can, demolish the U.S. Constitution and democracy to hold onto power. Their behavior is seditious, which is defined as causing discontent, insurrection, or resistance to a government. They must be held accountable. If Trump continues to challenge the clear results of the election without evidence and refuses to leave office on January 20, 2021, he should be arrested and walked from White House in chains.
Those representatives who have sought to overturn the election by frivolous lawsuits should not be seated in the next Congress as they are not qualified under the Fourteenth Amendment. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. has already asked speaker Pelosi and the Committee on House Administration to consider not seating them in the new Congress. As he says, “…the actions of any of our colleagues to demolish democracy, regardless of party affiliation, must be repudiated in the strongest possible terms. Rising from the embers of the Civil War, the Fourteenth Amendment was written to prevent the destruction of the United States from without and within. The moment we face now may be without parallel since 1860. The fate of our democracy depends on us meeting that moment.”
Protecting our democracy
Florida Veterans for Common Sense supports the Constitution and rule of law. Those who do not should pay a price for weakening our democracy. They are not patriots.
Trump may reward his enablers, but we recognize him for what he is- a power driven would be dictator.
Evidence has to be real, and reality is perceived by your special senses. If you can’t see, hear, smell, taste, or touch it, it’s probably someone’s fantasy.
I counted ten seditious enablers among Florida’s Representatives. That’s more than a third of our delegation. The list should be published again in about 20 months. It might turn Florida blue.
Sedition, a term we don’t use enough in accurately describing the behavior of the far right to use Fifth Column tactics and strategies to end Democracy in America. A battle that has been waged against us not in just the Trump regime, but since the Reagan era.
I applaud Mr. Jones for this post at so many levels. There is nothing in it that our moral and philosophical leader Thomas Paine would not have deemed fully truthful.
Since Bush and the Iraq War, a war generated under false pretext, the billionaire right and their Republican minions have constantly ratcheted up their bold and right under our noses willingness to deprive millions of Americans of their vote, to establish in part or in whole, a society embracing venerating fascism. Their vision aggregates, White Supremacy, far right Evangelical Christian identity, misogyny, kleptocracy and corporatism. All these dark beliefs coalesce as an anathema to decent Americans and they know it. That’s why all the stealth, the lies, the cheating by any and all means.
Critical to understanding if we wish to thwart this stealth effort or what some have referred to as “peaceful coup,” is that no amount of denial or belief in a magical awakening of conscience will lead to any sense of empathy or egalitarianism by fascist loving Republicans. It’s time for all who support this nation to let go of the tired belief or delusion that Democracy auto corrects when the system sways to far one way or the other, or as author and Matt Taibbi once described, in acting like a self righting rubber duck in a bath tub.
It is dangerous to hold onto the misguided belief that the far right, in constantly projecting how persecuted they are, in being denied free speech to foment venomous lies and hate and as Christians who must practically hide in the shadows to celebrate the birth of Christ, will be tolerant of our views.
As philosopher John Popper understood they want us to tolerate their belligerent intolerance, by stating that, ”if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them.”
Think of all the times you have recently witnessed the mean spirited and aggressively hostile words and actions against those who would fare gather in public protest to their racism and at best criminal policies and handling of the pandemic.
Consider that they aligned to overthrow the most sacred of American institutions, the free and open election, to bake in for generations their neo-fascist state.
Gene Jones, understands all too well, what sedition and being a traitor to this nation is and what it means. It’s time for all decent Americans to stand up and be justifiably opposed to this Fifth Column attempt to end this great experiment in Democracy and Freedom.
We have all taken our oath of office and acted in good faith for our country. To see our president and many in congress acting against their oath of office to support and defend the Constitution is not only shameful but possibly illegal.
When I was stationed at Eglin AFB the prisoners took care of the golf course grounds, seems like an exceptionally good place for a future Florida residency. I can envision our X-President and his democracy coup team mowing, clipping, raking, picking up dog poop, and generally relaxing into oblivion.
Great articles. I am sorry to make light of this serious time, yet I must, otherwise I may cry.