The countdown continues to a clear and present danger in 2024. The third session of the House Select Committee introduced a new element into the proceedings. So far the bulk of the effort has been directed to establishing a criminal case for the Department of Justice to pursue against the insurrectionists. Part of that effort includes informing the American people of the truth of what happened. This way the pending investigation and indictments will not simply be a “witch hunt” per Foxhub but a legitimate search for justice.
While all that is well and good, it also is looking backward — an attempt to reconstruct the past. It is critical to keep our eye on the future. 2024 will not simply be a repeat of 2020. It will be an enhanced version of that failed insurrection. The Trumpicans have learned from the failure and now are preparing to plug those holes to ensure success. In this blog, I do not wish to recapitulate the ongoing efforts in voter suppression, creation of the army of Trump Goons in selected voting districts, or the election of secretaries of state and/or governors who will prevent Joe Biden from winning their states in 2024 regardless of the actual votes. Instead, I wish to focus on the consequences of that effort no matter how it actually plays out in the vote results.
PROPHET MICHAEL LUTTIG
Sometimes a judge can be a prophet. No, I am not referring to the judges from the Book of Judges but to Michael Luttig, a retired federal appeals court judge and highly respected conservative in legal circles who testified on the third day of hearings. However, he is not well-known to the general public yet alone to the Trumpicans who support the BIG LIE. As a result, the impact of his testimony on them probably is minimal. The impact of his testimony on the DOJ is likely to be more substantial. He augments the words of United States District Judge David Carter on John Eastman’s efforts as “a coup in search of a legal theory”
In his testimony, Luttig asserted that the actions of January 6, 2021, brought the country to the precipice of a constitutional crisis that could have ended the existence of the constitutional republic just before the 250th anniversary of the country’s declaration. In his words, the actions were “tantamount to a revolution.” The rule of law was under direct attack. If the Vice President had succumbed to the pressure from the President and successfully thwarted the peaceful transfer of power, it would have been “the first constitutional crisis since the founding of the Republic.” When I first blogged about political thrillers in movies and books from the 1960s on January 3, 2021 (Seven Days in January: This Time It Is Not a Movie), it never occurred to me that we would be living one in real world to the extent that we are.
Nor that there would be a sequel. Prophet Luttig warned us that the threat to the constitutional Republic remains alive and well, continuing to foment trouble. For the most part we have moved on past the silly scenarios of Biden stepping down and being replaced now or in the immediate future by the “rightful President.” Of course, no sooner had these words been written than I learned that the Republican Party of Texas at its state convention resolved that:
We reject the certified results of the 2020 Presidential election, and we hold that acting President Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was not legitimately elected by the people of the United States. We strongly urge all Republicans to work to ensure election integrity and to show up to vote in November of 2022, bring your friends and family, volunteer for your local Republicans, and overwhelm any possible fraud.
So at least the gaze is shifting politically to the upcoming elections.
PREPARING FOR THE DIVORCE
Prophet Luttig’s words are a call to action in the present. The danger exists now and it is building towards an explosion in 2024. The wheels are already set in motion for the chaos he alluded to. It is not a question of if it will happen, but what will be done to prepare for it when it does. What does “it” mean?
The “it” was clearly enunciated by White House counsel Eric Herschmann in an oft-played tape of his testimony about a telephone call will coup-designer Eastman about his plan to have the Vice President rig the electoral count in plain sight to obtain the results Trump wanted:
You’re going to cause riots in the streets.
To which Eastman blithely replied:
There’s been violence in the history of our country to protect the democracy or protect the Republic.
This exchange about what would have happened on January 6, 2021, if Pence had weakened foretells what will happen on January 6, 2025. Eastman has legitimated the right of Biden supporters to take to the street to protect democracy and the republic from a Trump victory. It is unlikely that Eastman intended to do this. Naturally, he meant only the right people have the right riot in the street to challenge an injustice (January 6, 2021) and not that the wrong people (BLM, ANTIFA, Team Normal Americans) have the right to do so if Trump is declared the winner. That subtlety may be lost on people who are opposed to letting the Hitman return to the White House under any circumstances.
In the meantime, we have been reminded vividly of the violence that is in store for America following the 2024 presidential election.
Illinois Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger said he received a letter that threatened to execute him, his wife and their newborn. “There is violence in the future, I’m going to tell you,” he said on ABC “This Week.”
The next day, Eric Greitens, one of the “man’s man” beloved by Bone-spur Boy, running for the Republican Senate nomination in Missouri, released a new video saying:
I’m Eric Greitens, Navy SEAL, and today we’re going RINO hunting. Join the MAGA crew. Get a RINO hunting permit. There’s no bagging limit, no tagging limit and it doesn’t expire until we save our country.
This is the political professional wrestling arena trash talk Trumpicans love. As in any cult, it bespeaks the effort to cleanse the cult itself even before attacking others. It also legitimates the effort to go Trumpican hunting in the event Democrats stop bringing a plastic spoon to a gun fight and expect to win.
THE TWO PRESIDENTS BICENTENNIAL
In 1824, there were two claimants to the Presidency – John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. Of the five sectional candidates that year, these two emerged in the leading positions. The first party system of Federalists and Republicans had dissolved and the second party system of Whigs and Democrats was being born. While Jackson claimed he had been cheated out of victory that was rightfully his (a questionable claim) due to a backroom deal between Adams and Henry Clay, he accepted the results and lived to fight another day in the 1828 election which he won.
For the bicentennial year in 2024 of that presidential election, we already know that there will be no agreement on the results. No matter what, there will be no peaceful transfer of power from Joe Biden to the Hitman; no matter what there will be no acceptance by the Hitman of another four years in office for the worst candidate ever.
Choices will have to be made.
Will California or South Carolina be the first to secede?
Will the military support the president in the White House or the one in Mar-a-lago?
Who will the world recognize as the American president?
Who will have the nuclear football?
What happens after both are sworn in on January 20, 2025?
The odds on this division being resolved peacefully are slim. More likely are armed clashes in the nation’s capital and in scattered locations throughout the country. The situation will be scary…. Unless we recognize now that the divorce is our future and start to plan for it to minimize the violence.
