The United States came close to seeing the end of Its World Renowned Democracy

What we had here was an attempted coup to take control of the United States government and end democracy. Just don’t count the ballots and say they are not legitimate. It was Vice President Mike Pence who refused to take part in that effort and resulted in the swearing in of Joe Biden as the 46^th president.

Fox News program hosts were among those who implored former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows to help stop the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to the committee investigating the attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election. In public, those same hosts deflected blame from Trump.

Even Donald Trump Jr. tried to reach his father but was blocked by Meadows.

The fight for the presidency is not over. It has been reported that 60% of registered Republicans do not recognize Joe Biden as the legitimate president.

If Republicans will not accept a loss then there is no democracy. As it stands now the United States is on the path to becoming a democracy in name only. That is the system in Russia, Turkey, and other autocracies. Is that what Americans want?

Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

Have you ever served on a jury in a criminal case? I have been selected in two cases to serve. The person is presumed innocent unless the prosecution can prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

From Cornell University Law School: “Beyond a reasonable doubt is the legal burden of proof required to affirm a conviction in a criminal case. In a criminal case, the prosecution bears the burden of proving that the defendant is guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. This means that the prosecution must convince the jury that there is no other reasonable explanation that can come from the evidence presented at trial. In other words, the jury must be virtually certain of the defendant’s guilt in order to render a guilty verdict. This standard of proof is much higher than the civil standard, called “preponderance of the evidence,” which only requires a certainty greater than 50 percent.”

And that is the reason Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty by a jury of 12. The decision was unanimous.

Restoring Confidence In Our Democracy

Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election have become a driving force inside the GOP, and a deep distrust in the voting process has spread across the country.

If most people do not trust the electoral system to select our leaders what are the alternatives? The United States really does not have a direct election voting system. We select “electors” who actually do the voting. The country has abandoned the original selection process as established but not required in the constitution. The states now require the “electors” to select the presidential candidate who received the most votes in each state. That could be changed by the legislatures of each state. It would be a choice that would most likely have selected Donald Trump for a second term.

Trump’s complaint is that there was fraud in the election. Miscounts, dead people voting, voting machine tampering, destroyed ballots, etc. None of those claims were proven and that is why Joe Biden was certified the winner.

Where does this leave us? We need a new leader for this nation who will retore our confidence in our government and the electoral system. Neither Joe Biden nor Donald Trump is that person. If no one steps forward we could be seeing the disintegration of the great experiment.

That would be a sad ending.

It’s all about Leadership

Thanks to a divided Democratic Party the original $3.5 trillion social safety net and combat climate change bill has been whittled down to $1.75 trillion over a decade.

The 1.5 trillion dollar infrastructure bill contains basic needs of the country such as roads, lead-free pipes, bridges, and funds for public transportation. These are clear necessities of the nation that fit the very definition of infrastructure.

So what’s the problem?

The progressive wing of the Democratic Party insists that both of these laws be passed together or they will vote for no bills. Essentially they are saying if we can’t get what we want we would rather have nothing. On the moderate side of the Party two senators want the $3.5 trillion bill cut to $1.5 trillion.

President Biden says it’s all about compromise. The GOP is thrilled. The Democratic Party is giving the Republicans a campaign gift in 2022.

The Republicans will be telling everyone that the Democratic Party cannot govern.

The dictatorships of the world are clapping their hands with joy. They are saying to their people “see, democracy doesn’t work.”

My question is not just why should these two bills be linked but instead why not introduce a series of laws to address different issues? For example, why not create legislation to make Medicaid more accessible? Why not pass legislation that will enable Medicare to negotiate lower prices? Why should these things be linked to anything else?

Public perception is everything. As it stands today the Democratic Party is likely to lose both houses of Congress next November. That will put President Joe Biden in the same category as other one term presidents. Those who were unable to unify the nation and successfully address real issues.

It appears likely Americans will be voting for a Republican president in November 2024.

What Was The Wall Street Journal Thinking?

On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal opinion’s section posted a lengthy letter from Donald Trump in which the former president repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election in Pennsylvania.

“Well actually, the election was rigged, which you, unfortunately, still haven’t figured out,” Trump wrote at the top of his op-ed, insisting — contra facts — that he actually won the state of Pennsylvania.

Before we go any further, let’s revisit what happened in Pennsylvania in 2020.

Joe Biden won 3,461,221 to Trump’s 3,379,055, according to the Almanac of American Politics. That’s a margin of 82,166 votes.

Which is close!

And the closeness of that result led Trump to make several attempts in the wake of the election to have courts step in. A federal judge dismissed Trump’s lawsuit in November 2020, writing: “One might expect that when seeking such a startling outcome, a plaintiff would come formidably armed with compelling legal arguments and factual proof of rampant corruption. That has not happened.” Around that same time, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court rejected an attempt by Trump’s campaign to stop the counting of some absentee ballots in certain areas that included Philadelphia.

On November 24, Pennsylvania certified the results in the state after all 67 counties had certified their results individually.

There is simply no there there. None. Zero. Zilch.

Which, of course, the Wall Street Journal and its editors know. (Sidebar: Trump’s letter was published in the “Opinions” section, which is separate from the news and reporting end of the publication.) And that knowledge makes what they did all the worse.

The op-ed section at the Journal will likely hide behind 1st Amendment free speech arguments to defend themselves. But that misses the mark, since our speech is bound in all sorts of ways already. You can’t yell “bomb” on a plane without repercussions. Or “fire” in a movie theater. (Remember when we used to go to the movies? Yeah, that was fun.)

Under that same logic, you can’t simply allow lies about the 2020 election to be printed in a major national newspaper under the guise of free speech. There is absolutely no evidence that any of what Trump wrote in the letter is true. (He appears to have cobbled much of it together from a group known as Audit the Vote PA, which touts a number of debunked theories about the Pennsylvania vote count.) And by giving Trump such prominent space, you are conferring some credibility to what we know are wild and fact-free conspiracy theories.

So, why did the Journal do it?

Well, their opinion section has long been quite conservative. And a letter from the former president of the United States is not the easiest thing in the world to say “no” to. Plus, the letter was sure to be a massive traffic driver for the Journal’s website; it is currently the third most popular Opinions piece on the site and spent much of the first hours after publication in the number one slot.

None of these reasons, however, are good enough to justify the publication of a lie-filled letter from Trump, a letter which will continue to foment the misguided belief among his loyal supporters that the 2020 election was stolen from him. Especially since we saw on January 6 what all of those lies can create.

Analysis by Chris Cillizza, CNN Editor-at-large

Police Testimony at January 6 Hearing

Capitol officer at Jan. 6 hearing: ‘I could have lost my life that day … many times,’ Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell.

Trump Sues Again but it is a Fundraiser

If nothing else Donald Trump provides us with entertainment.

Donald Trump has sued Facebook, Twitter and Google, seeking to restore his social-media accounts after he was suspended following the Jan. 6 riot.

Trump accused the companies of violating First Amendment free speech rights through “censorship” against him and others, “blacklisting” and “canceling” people for political reasons. “If they can do it to me, they can do it to anyone,” he said.

The First Amendment, which says, “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech,” applies to government entities, not private domains.

Less prominent people have sued Facebook and Twitter, but the lawsuits went nowhere. As the former president announced his lawsuit, pro-Trump organizations sent out fundraising solicitations to support it.

Trump “just wants a PR and fundraising moment, not a real lawsuit,” said Bradley Moss, a Washington-based attorney. Also, “he’ll almost certainly lose,” Moss said.

President Joe Biden offers defense of democracy

This is a sad day when the president of the United States must defend democracy. That is precisely what he did in a speech today at Arlington National Cemetery, saying “democracy is more than a form of government — it is a way of being.”

“Democracy itself is in peril,” the president said.

“Democracy must be defended at all costs,” Biden said. “Democracy, that’s the soul of America. And I believe it’s a soul worth fighting for. And so do you. A soul worth dying for.”

It was obvious that he was standing up against those who would deny voting rights and the acceptance of free and fair elections.

Why did Biden make this speech? Because of people like Michael Flynn. Flynn is former President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser, who said that a Myanmar-like military coup “should” happen in the United States at a QAnon event in in a Dallas hotel. Sadly thousands, and perhaps millions, of Americans really believe Trump’s claim that the election was stolen.

Dictators like Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping are delighted with politics in the United States. They are telling their populations that democracy doesn’t work. They point to our political system in fighting as proof.