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If you watched any of the vote counting last night, you probably noticed how rigid and formulaic the whole thing was. Outside of the objections, everybody spoke robotically, reciting the same script over and over again.
They behave this way because it's a ceremony. People kept talking about certifying votes yesterday, but the votes were already certified. This was counting the certified votes.
And the reason we have a ceremony for this is... well, at a certain point, you've got to count the votes.
And yes, we all knew exactly how many electoral votes each candidate had long before this, because we know the states in play and how they went.
And yes, we all knew exactly how many electoral votes each candidate had long before this, because we know the states in play and how they went.
But there has to be a point where they're counted officially, and it has to be done publicly, by multiple people in prescribed roles, so that nobody can say afterwards that someone manipulated the results or lied.
The Republican conspiracy theories tried to make this civic ceremony into a dynamic process by which the results of the election are decided, but the reality is it's the exact opposite: static, and contrived to make it absolutely clear that nothing is being decided.
I hesitate to use the word "unthinkable" but it is nearly unthinkable that Mike Pence could have walked into that space, thrown out the script, and started making demands.
If he had tried, do you know what they would have done? The same thing Republicans in Pennsylvania did in their statehouse, when Lt. Gov. Fetterman had the temerity to try to seat a Democrat whose election fell prey to their conspiracy theories.
That is, they would have collectively unrecognized Mike Pence as the president of the senate, and had the president pro tempore pick up the script and keep going.
Even if Pence wasn't escorted from the room due to an unwillingness to pit security forces against each other, he would have stood there like a ghost, whatever he wanted to add to the proceedings so much shouting into the void.
Mike Pence is a monstrous human being. If he's an institutionalist to any degree, it's because he recognizes institutions and useful ways to gain power and protection. He was no less selfish and self-serving yesterday than he's ever been.
He broke with Trump not because God Bless America or The People Have Spoken, but because he recognized the futility of what Trump wanted him to do, and he wasn't about to demonstrate such impotent contempt for people and process on national TV.
Like Raffensperger in Georgia, his problem with Trump lies not with Trump's aim in subverting the election and remaining in power, but with his methods being unworkable and exposing the people who enact them to the brunt of the political and legal fallout.
If more of the GOP thought that it was possible, plausible, and palatable to overturn the election... things might have gone differently. But Pence knew the temperature of the chamber he was stepping into.
I think at the peak, something around a dozen GOP senators were prepared to object to at least one state's electoral votes. And a far larger number of representatives, but they don't have the majority in the house so it didn't matter how many.
So there was not really another choice for Pence than to step up and play the role that he was handed by the ritual, which he did, methodically and professionally.
The GOP at large, Pence included, have no problem showing naked contempt for the people of this country and its institutions, when they benefit from doing so, even if the only benefit is establishing that they can without consequences.
That's power. https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1347229578654146560
That's power. https://twitter.com/AlexandraErin/status/1347229578654146560
But demonstrating powerlessness in the face of an institution would serve the opposite end from that.
I have been saying for weeks that Pence would not subvert the process on January 6th, and not because I trust him. Or rather, I do trust him to be Mike Pence.
I have been saying for weeks that Pence would not subvert the process on January 6th, and not because I trust him. Or rather, I do trust him to be Mike Pence.
And Mike Pence is craven, self-serving, and opportunistic. There was no opportunity for him to do anything in that chamber that would prolong his tenure as vice president.
I don't really see it as McConnell caving? I don't think he was ever seriously on the side of Trump in this. He dragged his feet on recognizing the election until after the electoral college to give himself breathing room, but that's as far as he'd go. https://twitter.com/Juimper/status/1347233589004554243
The thing is that in a world where the president becomes a true autocrat who is able to do whatever he wants just because he wants to, Congress becomes less relevant and powerful.
If Trump successfully pushed the US into a completely post-election phase where the GOP can just ignore elections, then McConnell would maintain his position at the sufferance of Trump rather than Kentucky voters and would be unable to do anything without Trump's say so.
This is why I have always been skeptical of the idea that national GOP, Congressional GOP, would back him in the ultimate power play: because enough of them are savvy and self-interested enough to know that in that world they live and die completely with Trump's favor.
Now, I haven't been completely sanguine about what they would do in a position where they saw the *only* path to remaining relevant was to elevate a dictator over the whole country including themselves.
Because in that case then the same instinct which says "I should protect billionaires and elites because I am a clever and worthy person who must surely be one of them" tells them that they can maintain a position as a favored pawn of the emperor.
Or to put it another way: they would rather serve in heaven (which for them is a position of power and importance) than reign in hell (i.e., a position of irrelevance and impotence).
In many regards McConnell has wielded more power over life in these benighted states for the past four years than Trump has. I'm sure that in his mind he has been the head of the Republican Party, the person occupying the most powerful and important position in politics.
For the GOP politicians who were not swept into power as part of the "MAGA movement", the game plan has always been to outlast Trump and still be standing and in power when he burns himself out and fades into irrelevancy.
Yes. It's not that they have some squishy warm-hearted ideological objection to a dictator. They just need someone who is more of a team player and who will flatter their (largely illusory) better angels. https://twitter.com/CrookedKnight/status/1347238575130112001
For McConnell, Trump has been a storm to be weathered in the course of his long and ascendant career. I'm sure that if he were not losing his gavel he'd be looking on Trump's defeat mostly with relief.
The idea that McConnell would need to be convinced not to stick his neck out to preserve Trump's rule... especially the day after Trumpism helped cost him his gavel... is foreign to me.
In my opinion, Trump needed McConnell to cave to him.
In my opinion, Trump needed McConnell to cave to him.
The fact that Trump's loss means Democrats control both houses and the White House might complicate how he feels about Trump's departure, but I don't think it gives him enough motivation to want to keep Trump around.
