National Review Online
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
The United States Constitution provides a number of
mechanisms by which anomalies or emergencies within the electoral system might
be resolved. It provides no mechanisms whatsoever by which the losers can
contrive a do-over.
This appears to be unclear to at least two Republican
congressmen. Representative Louis Gohmert of Texas has signaled his intention
to sue Mike Pence in district court if Pence refuses to use the absolute power
Gohmert claims the vice president possesses under the Twelfth Amendment and to
hand the election to Trump. Representative Mo Brooks of Alabama, meanwhile, has
announced that “dozens” of Republican members of Congress will object to the
Electoral College results when Congress meets to certify them on January 6. By
registering their objections, Brooks says, he and his fellow legislators will
be making a “tough decision.”
The opposite is true. It is never easy to lose an
election — especially when it is close. But the “tough decision” here is to
resist the president’s increasingly unmoored accusations, to ignore those who
are irresponsibly echoing them, and to respect the outcome. If either of these
two schemes were to succeed, the result would be the weakening of the federal
system and the establishment of a disastrous precedent for future elections —
not to mention the rank subversion of democracy.
Gohmert’s plan is particularly preposterous, in that it
would entrench into American law the idea that the incumbent vice president is
permitted — perhaps even obliged — to veto the results of any
presidential election whose outcome he dislikes. Instead, as president of the
Senate, the vice president has a purely ministerial role presiding over the
counting of electoral votes by Congress. If Richard Nixon could serve this
function after his own heartbreaking loss in 1960, surely Mike Pence can sign
off on this year’s results.
That almost no Republican senators have shown any
interest in actively pursuing these ploys is a testament to their good sense,
which makes it all the more disappointing that Josh Hawley has volunteered to
join Brooks in objecting. President Trump has taken aim at the majority leader,
Mitch McConnell, for acknowledging that Joe Biden is the president-elect, and
at the assistant majority leader, John Thune, for observing that the Mo Brooks
plan is destined to “go down like a shot dog.” In Trump’s estimation,
McConnell’s statement shows that he does not know how “to fight,” while Thune’s
shows that he is “weak.” There is, indeed, a great deal to admire about
politicians who give their cause their all. But there is nothing strong or
admirable about seeking to overturn the result of a presidential election.
Trump and his team have had ample time to produce
evidence of the widespread fraud they allege changed the outcome in key states
and have failed to do so. Congress should now do its job and ratify the results
in good faith, no matter how much it enrages the president.
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