On Tuesday, the man who lost his bid for reelection as president by more than seven million popular and by more than 70 electoral votes, groveled at the Supreme Court’s feet urging the judges to “have the courage” to subvert the will of the people in Pennsylvania and – indirectly – of more than 81 million Americans and declare him president.
“Let’s see whether or not somebody has the courage — whether it’s legislatures or a justice of the Supreme Court or a number of justices of the Supreme Court — let’s see if they have the courage to do what everybody in this country knows is right,” Trump lied.
“If somebody has the courage, I know who the next administration will be,” he doubled down.
A few hours later, apparently all nine women and men at the Supreme Court did indeed show courage by decisively and summarily slapping down Trump’s undemocratic, narcissistic, baseless plea.
“The application for injunctive relief presented to Justice [Samuel] Alito and by him referred to the Court is denied,” the Supreme Court judges said, suggesting there was no dissent among them.
Add one more “yuge,” embarrassing defeat to Trump and his so-called legal team to the “about 50 challenges to the presidential election in the past five weeks, as judges in at least eight states have repeatedly rejected a litany of unproven claims…”
The courage displayed by judges at all levels and by governors and state officials all around the country stands in sharp and shameful contrast to the cowardice of Trump sycophants in Congress who, at best, by their silence, acquiesce and at worst are complicit in their leader’s brazen attempt to overturn an election, to deny a duly elected president his legitimate role and place in our nation’s government.
Recently, Michael Gerson at the Washington Post wrote about the “three stages of Republican political pusillanimity”: “Feral cowardice,” “calculating cowardice” and “complicit cowardice.”
Most of the GOP — “the Trumpified GOP” — is definitely in the third stage, “complicit cowardice” described by Gerson as “…silence in the face of presidential attacks on the constitutional order — a silence that rings out across the prairies and down the hollows as approval and permission.”
