Conspiracies Abound
on April 29th, 2019 I wrote an essay for Our America (then Trump World) called “Put On My Foil Hat”. It was about the possibility, confirmed in part by the Mueller Report, that Russia had actually interfered in the 2016 election. That issue was never “concluded”, other than to say that no one proved that Russia ever “changed votes” in 2016. But it was confirmed that they hacked into the voting systems in multiple states. And even if they had altered the votes, by 2019, I wasn’t confident we would be told. The whole concept was on the edge of “conspiracy”; and for just a minute, I put on my “foil hat”.
If Russia did change votes in 2016, they weren’t changing them into Hillary votes. But what surely did happen after the 2016 election, is that Americans on all sides of the political spectrum felt a little less sure about our elections. That might have been the whole reason for the Russian electronic incursions. They weren’t trying to rig the election, they were trying to shake our faith in the election results. And, if that was the goal, they succeeded.
The ”Steal”
They also succeeded because one candidate for President in 2016, Donald Trump, began to call the results into question months before the vote. Trump, over and over again, told us how if he lost, the election was “rigged”. He even said that in a national debate with Hillary Clinton (in answer to a Chris Wallace question). So even though Trump won, and Hillary conceded, there was the lingering question: what did the Russians do.
Going into the 2020 campaign, Trump redoubled his efforts to undermine American faith in the election results. The “Big Lie” campaign, that the election would somehow be “stolen” from Trump, could have been the next phase in the Russian subversion plot. It really doesn’t matter whether Trump was a “witting” or “unwitting” participant, he was the critical component in getting nearly 40% of Americans to believe the “Stop the Steal” lie. Think about that. Nearly 40% of our nation today, on January 26th, 2022, believes that the election was illegitimate, that Donald Trump won, and think that Joe Biden usurped the Presidency.
No wonder “bipartisanship” is impossible.
I think we can all, all 100% of us, agree on a few things. First, that both sides have lost some faith in the validity of our election system. Second, that Russian Intelligence goals are to make America not only less powerful in the world, but less of a “role model” for the world. The present election chaos does it. So after all of that, it really doesn’t matter whether this was a Russian “Op” or not. If it was an “Op”, it worked. But either way it’s just where we are.
New Foil Hat
So let’s put our foil hats back on. Let’s put together the information we now know about what happened after election day, 2020.
We now know that the “ground was softened” by the “Stop the Steal” campaign that questioned the election results. We also know that the results would not have been questioned by the Trump Campaign, and probably not the Biden Campaign either, if Trump won. But he didn’t, and immediately, the day after the election, the Trump Campaign went from re-electing the President, to trying to alter the election results.
We know that President Trump, Senator Graham, and others openly tried to persuade election officials in the pivotal seven states to change their vote count, after those counts were done. Charitably, we could say Trump was exercising his “right” to question the results as the losing candidate. But, after listening to the Georgia call, it sure seemed like the President of the United States was threatening the Secretary of State of Georgia if he didn’t change the vote count. Whether that was a crime, will be a question for the Georgia legal system to resolve.
Green Bay Sweep
There were a series of “legal” plans created to try to alter the certified electoral votes in the Congress January 6th. Those plans included developing “alternate” delegates to those confirmed, and to offer those “alternate” documents for the Vice President’s consideration as the “President” of the Electoral certification proceedings. They thought that Pence would accept them and toss the Biden electors. Or at least use their presence to disqualify all Electors from the seven states. If he did that, and the Senate (still under Republican control) agreed, then the House would choose the President. In the Presidential tiebreaking procedure, Republicans controlled the House.
The authors and executors of these plans are already on the record. Eastman, Navarro, and Epshteyn not only are saying what they did, including creating the “alternate” electors, but seem proud of their “Operation Green Bay Sweep”. They claim it was all legal, and even necessary because the election was “stolen”. They believe that Vice President Pence betrayed their cause, and their President.
Chaos Works
But even if Pence wouldn’t go along, if there was enough chaos, enough disruption of the electoral counting process, there was another alternative plan. Trump could, by Executive Order (already written then and now out in public), use the military to seize control of the election machinery in those seven states, declare that the election was “under question” and delay the outcome.
After the November election, the Trump Administration purged the Defense Department senior civilian leadership, putting extremely loyal Trump-men in the key positions. If the President ordered it, and the civilian leaders of the Department backed it, how could the Generals disagree? Wouldn’t they, by refusing civilian commands, commit insubordination and even further weaken the government? And if they complied, and the 82nd Airborne showed up in Atlanta, the Fourth Marines in Phoenix, the 10th Mountain Division in Lansing, and the rest; wouldn’t their mere presence bring the election into question?
Insurrection
All that was required was a pretext, an insurrection if you will, to draw out the Executive Powers of the Presidency. In fact, it’s actually called the Insurrection Act of 1807, and it predates even the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 that prohibits use of Federal troops to enforce US law. The Executive Order was already written. It was just waiting for enough “insurrection”. Would a three day disruption of Congress be enough? Or the kidnaping of Pence or Pelosi, or Schumer?
Could it happen? History says, of course. The US Army enforced the Supreme Court Brown v Board of Education decision in Arkansas and Alabama. We all remember the grainy black and white video of little black children being escorted into the school house, through crowds of jeering white folk, surrounded by soldiers with rifles. And the military was sent into some of the riot torn cities in the 1960’s. So the precedent was there: enough unrest, enough destruction, and the military would be called in.
So come to Washington on January 6th, and have a “wild time”. That’s what then-President Trump tweeted to his followers, and that’s exactly what happened on the steps and in the halls of the Capitol. They were searching for Mike Pence – there were gallows erected on the lawn, the noose waiting for the Vice President. They were chanting for Pelosi and for Schumer and for the ultimate “RINO”, Mitt Romney. Was it all just “symbolic”? There was no reason to think so on that day. And there’s no reason to think so today.
Acts of Courage
But for a few courageous people, and the process would have stopped. If the Secret Service had whisked Mike Pence to an “undisclosed location” and kept him under wraps (their standard operating procedure) Congress would not have met again that night. Pelosi and Schumer, McConnell, and even for one bright shining moment, Kevin McCarthy, determined that Congress would walk through the broken glass and feces and blood to meet and conclude their business. If they had not done so, that would have given the pretext for the Insurrection Act to be enforced, and the Executive Order implemented.
How close did the United States’ government come to a full-blown Constitutional crisis on January 6th? Pence’s decision not to leave the building. Pelosi and Schumer’s decision to continue the certification process. Even McConnell and McCarthy’s courage to stand up to Trump.
None of this is “foil hat” business. The evidence is all there, in the public eye, now. It is the reason that so much of this was done “in the open”. That makes it seem like maybe it wasn’t a crime. Surely “conspirators” would hide their actions better than that. But the most blatant acts are the ones done in broad daylight, with heads held high. And that’s what the Trump people were doing.
What does it take to overthrow the government: Storm the Bastille, burn the Reichstag?
How about the occupation of the United States Capitol? What about US troops seizing the voting machines? What about a President who refuses to leave office?
In the end, the Constitution is just a piece of parchment. It is the people that enforce it, or tear it apart. No “foil hat” needed for that.
