GOP Stooges Try to Overthrow Democracy

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist

Aside from serving as the Attorney General of Texas and dealing with all of the business associated with that public office, Ken Paxton also has plenty of stuff of a personal nature on his plate that he could be dealing with.  He was indicted on charges of felony securities fraud in 2015, a case which has yet to go to trial - and recently several members of his staff accused him of bribery and influence-peddling in a letter that has stirred an FBI investigation.

But Ken, who may be auditioning for a Trump pardon, has pushed all of that other bother aside and is now resolutely focused on a legal effort that he initiated to to have the electoral votes of four swing states thrown out and the electoral votes of those states decided by their state legislatures - all of which are Republican.  The four states in question - Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan - were all won by Democratic candidate Joe Biden.

While many elected officials, including John Cornyn, the senior US Senator from Texas, have been critical of Paxton for trying to interfere in the elections of other states, some GOP officials from around the country have latched onto Paxton's effort in what looks like an attempt to curry favor with Donald Trump - or at least to avoid his unhinged wrath.

Paxton's suit seeks to get the US Supreme Court to involve itself in the 2020 election by throwing out the results of the elections of those four states - Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan - and allowing the state legislatures in those states to decide who gets their coveted electoral votes - and thus to decide who is officially elected President of the United States.  The suit alleges that the states instituted pandemic-related changes to their election procedures that allowed for fraud (things like easier access to absentee ballots and voting boy mail).    Joe Biden received over eight million more votes than Donald Trump and a clear majority of the electoral votes according to the state laws that covered the elections in the fifty states as of November 3rd, 2020.

But the rights of those states to set and enforce their own election procedures are being challenged by a whole raft of people from other states.

Seventeen state attorneys-general have signed onto Paxton's Hail-Mary attempt to overturn democracy in the United States, and so have one hundred-and-six members of Congress, again all Republicans.  (By today that figure had grown to 126, still all Republicans.)   Noticeably absent among the Republican members of the House of Representatives who signed onto the lawsuit were House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and the Republican Conference Chair, Congresswoman Liz Cheney.

As a Missouri resident, I find it troubling that my state attorney general, Eric Schmitt, finds merit in Ken Paxton's political ploy and that they both have enough free time on their hands to allow them to dabble in the politics of other states.   As a resident of Missouri's 8th congressional district, I also find it troubling that my congressman, Representative Jason Smith, himself an attorney, also finds merit in this blatantly political maneuver whose obvious intent is to subvert democracy.  Congressman Smith has an abundance of local matters that are in need of his attention.

The people have spoken through the ballot box.  Joe Biden won the presidency and Trump lost - decisively - and no amount of pretending otherwise will change those results - nor will the courts.   That's the real world, and those who cannot tolerate life in the real world need to hop in their clown cars and go someplace else. 

Meanwhile this Missourian is pleased with the results of the presidential election and anxious to see our country once again headed toward greatness!