Trump planning next coup with 'hostages'

“We are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before: A former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages…” — Rep. Liz Cheney

by Tom Maertens

Tom Maertens served as White House National Security Council Director under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. 

The Jan. 6 insurrection was the worst conspiracy to overthrow the government in our history. It was led by the former president of the United States, who is continuing his effort to overturn the election, with the assistance of the Republican Party.

Trump’s coup attempt almost succeeded; it failed because a number of elected officials in key swing states, many of them Republicans, refused to capitulate to Trump’s pressure.

The final step in thwarting the coup was Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to decertify the results from several states, as Trump had demanded.

Numerous commentators have observed that a failed coup is practice for the next one.

Trump and the sedition party are already preparing to steal the election in 2024. Their plan involves using voter suppression to keep minorities from voting, gerrymandering electoral districts, replacing impartial election officials, transferring vote counting to Republican state legislatures and other measures.

As Republican Rep. Liz Cheney said, “We are confronting a domestic threat that we have never faced before: A former president who is attempting to unravel the foundations of our constitutional republic, aided by political leaders who have made themselves willing hostages …”

Conservative Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin wrote, “Republicans have pushed more than 200 bills around the country that would enable Republican legislatures to dislodge neutral election officials, challenge and overturn results and undermine confidence in election outcomes.”

Gerrymandering is central to the steal. The Wisconsin legislature passed extreme gerrymandered maps that would give the GOP 75% of U.S. House seats and 60% of legislative seats although Biden won the state.

The New York Times reported that Wisconsin G.O.P. officials, led by Sen. Ron Johnson, want to eliminate a bipartisan elections agency in Wisconsin — and possibly send five of the six members of the election commission to jail for guidance they gave to municipal clerks early in the pandemic.

In North Carolina, Republicans have drawn a new congressional map that gives them at least 10 of the state’s 14 congressional seats — in a state that re-elected a Democratic governor in 2020 and where Joe Biden got 48.6% of the statewide vote.

Republicans in Texas have drawn lines that blunt the immense growth among the Democratic-leaning Hispanic population to shore up the GOP’s hold on as many as 25 of the state’s 38 congressional seats.

Texas’ population is 39.8 percent white and 39.3 percent Hispanic, but the redistricting approved by the Republican Legislature ensures white people comprise a majority of eligible voters in 60 percent of districts, while Hispanics are a majority in only 18 percent of districts.

Even though people of color accounted for 95% of Texas’ population growth over the last decade, there are no districts where minorities make up a majority of the population, illustrating what the ACLU has asserted, that racism has always been the reason for gerrymandering in the U.S.

In addition, 19 states have enacted 33 laws that will make it harder for Americans to vote, reports the Brennan Center at New York University

According to FiveThirtyEight’s count, Republicans will control the redrawing of boundaries in 187 districts in 2021, bipartisan and independent commissions 167, and Democrats only 75. Much of the reason for the disparity is that many blue states have adopted non-partisan commissions to conduct redistricting in the interests of good government.

Ohio has already passed a map that gives Republicans 86% of seats in a state where Trump got only 53% of the votes, and Georgia passed a map giving Republicans 64% of the seats in a state that Biden won with 49.5%

In North Carolina, Trump got 49.9% of the vote but the Republican map gives Republicans 71-78% of seats.

Two pending bills before congress could stop the fraud.

The Freedom to Vote Act is a comprehensive package of voting, redistricting, and campaign finance reforms, which includes national standards for voting that would ensure access to the ballot across the country.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which has passed in the House, would complement the Freedom to Vote Act, and prevent changes to voting rules that discriminate on the basis of race.

Republicans oppose both bills.

Meanwhile, more than 700 people have been arrested for the Jan. 6 insurrection, and more than two dozen members of the Trump sedition team have been subpoenaed to provide documents and testimony to the commission.

Trump has “ordered” them to invoke executive privilege to refuse to cooperate, but Trump isn’t president and they are private citizens; that order is meaningless.