If Kamala Harris is really a threat to democracy, then why aren't Republicans concerned about her using the Trump blueprint to stage her own coup if she loses? The answer is very simple.
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While most polls indicate an incredibly tight presidential election, and the outcome is anybody’s guess at this point, a week from Election Day supporters of Donald Trump and Kamala Harris appear to have opposite takes on how things will turn out. Republicans, who falsely predicted a “red wave” in 2022, seem certain that their candidate will win, while Democrats have developed a lot of angst about the vice president’s chances.
The fact that each camp feels this way is very telling… not just about the psyches of each party but also about the candidates and their commitment to democracy and the rule of law.
Here’s the thing: If Harris (and President Joe Biden) interpreted the Constitution (and a certain recent Supreme Court decision) in the same way Trump does, then Democrats would have absolutely nothing to worry about.
Let’s say it looks like a very close race a week from today. However, Trump is holding slim leads in six out of seven swing states while Harris is only ahead in Pennsylvania.
Obviously, that would not be a desirable outcome for Democrats.
Fortunately for them, the Supreme Court seems to believe that interfering in elections is an official act, and that Biden would therefore be immune from criminal prosecution (and, as a lame duck, he certainly doesn’t have to fear impeachment) for anything he does to swing the race Harris’s way.
Therefore, bolstered by the Trump v. United States decision, let’s imagine the president decides to take action.
As a first step, he proclaims Harris the winner of the election, pointing to the yet-to-be-counted mail-in ballots and how these usually tilt toward Democrats.
Then, he picks up the phone and reaches out to the secretaries of state of Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, Wisconsin, and North Carolina.
In a stroke of good fortune, all of them happen to be Democrats, so they know what’s at stake here.
On these calls, Biden urges them to “find” enough votes to tilt their respective states toward Harris. At first he asks nicely, but then he puts some pressure on them.
After all, rambunctious Harris voters will not look kindly on Democrats standing in the way of her proclaimed victory.
Also, if those states value their federal aid — for example, after future natural disasters — then they should do “the right thing.”
Maybe there were some improprieties in heavily Republican districts that cast doubt on the preliminary results. Maybe there is some grainy video that can be interpreted as the GOP trying to interfere in the election in some way.
Obviously, in that case, Democrats would have to put a stop to that steal by any means necessary.
That would naturally involve a lot of lawsuits but also some other creative “solutions.”
Maybe their governors in North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Arizona could find some way to appoint an alternative slate of electors.
If all of that fails, Harris could sic her supporters on the Capitol to delay the certification of the Electoral College votes.
However, she won’t even have to resort to that.
After all, the Constitution affords her the opportunity to just declare herself president… if she has the courage.
Obviously, all of this is complete nonsense.
It would be insane to think that Biden, Harris, governors, or secretaries of state can (or, by any stretch of imagination, should) do any of these things.
Donald Trump, however, employed these strategies (and others) to cling to power after having been handily defeated in 2020 (to their credit, “his” secretaries of state, like Brad Raffensperger in Georgia, did not go along with his attempted coup).
In addition, he, and many congressional Republicans, have argued that some (or all) of these things are legal.
This begs an interesting question: If this were true, why aren’t they more worried that Harris will just seize power?
They knew this race would be close and that, as the vice president, Harris will be responsible for certifying the results of the election.
Therefore, if Republicans were actually worried that Harris and the Democrats were a threat to democracy, why didn’t they try to pass legislation clarifying that the vice president cannot unilaterally choose who becomes president?
In fact, if it were as easy as Trump wanted Americans to believe, she shouldn’t have even bothered to campaign and just waited for Biden to proclaim her the winner of the election on January 6, 2025.
But no Republicans have ever raised this as an issue.
Instead, they spent all of their time making unfounded accusations and trying to pass useless legislation that gets their xenophobic base riled up.
The same is true for Elon Musk and other right-wing spreaders of misinformation.
While they are quick to spread conspiracy theories, like the one suggesting that noncitizens are voting in large numbers, none are pointing to Harris’s role in the certification of the votes as a potential problem.
Why?
There is only one conclusion: Republicans know that Harris isn’t a threat to democracy at all.
However, because it is so clearly apparent that Trump is, the GOP has tried to hurl accusations at her and the Democrats in the hope that some of them would stick.
And that tells you all you need to know who the actual threat to democracy is.
Hint: It’s the guy who already tried to overturn one election and will do his utmost to do so again should he lose.
This time, thanks to the Supreme Court’s Trump v. United States decision, Trump knows that he can just lie to his supporters. And he knows whom he can count on to help him try to steal another election.
In other words, it seems very likely that, if Harris were to win, Trump’s second attempt would be more sophisticated and that his supporters would more fervently fight for him.
Fortunately, one thing is very different this year: The people in power in Washington, DC, actually believe in democracy, and there is no reason to believe that they won’t do the right thing if that becomes necessary.
