Sunday, November 8, 2020

Dear ALGOP, what will you do?

Dear ALGOP,

How have four years of Trump changed you?

Have you become "Trumpists"?

How do you think Trump being gone as President will change you going forward?

Will you continue being "Trumpists"?

A. Trump's fraudulent election claims
The immediate question for you is whether you will continue with touting Trump's fraudulent election claims as Trump pursues his litigations regarding same.

Connected to that question is, if Trump does not prevail in his litigations and Joe Biden becomes President on January 20th, will you support using the election fraud claims going forward to "delegitimatize" Joe Biden's presidency.

On that latter question, will you be motivated by "tit for tat" for the GOP to do against Joe Biden to "delegitimize" him as being fair retaliation for what you believe the Dems wrongfully did against Trump for four years to "delegitimize" Trump?


12/4/20
B. Go to war for country; it's a civil war
Here is what Chairman Lathan has said that those in ALGOP should do:
Will all in ALGOP go along with Chairman Lathan?

Will some in ALGOP push for a different attitude and approach?


12/9/20
C. ALGOP coupmongering is bad for AL
Trump is trying for a coup to overturn the election. 

Some in ALGOP are cheering Trump on in his coup attempt to overturn the election.

This coupmongering by Rep. Brooks, Rep. Moore and others in ALGOP is bad for America, bad for democracy and bad for the United States economy and business, including Alabama business.

Any loser of an election can pursue legal rights to contest the election. 

Historically, contesting a Presidential election after votes have been counted and results reported has been avoided, because of a shared belief about the importance to democracy that Americans believe their Presidential elections have integrity.

Richard Nixon had reason to believe that, in the extremely close 1960 Presidential election, the election was stolen from him through Democratic vote fixing in Texas and Illinois. Nixon did not contest the election, largely out of a sense of civic responsibility that great damage would have been done to America's democracy if he had.

Five weeks after the 2020 election, Trump is relentlessly trying to overturn the results of the election in ways that are hugely unacceptable and damaging to the United States.

This is happening, first, because Trump is motivated exclusively to serving his personal interests and desires, and he cares nothing about whom and what he damages in the pursuit of his self interest. In his caring only about himself, Trump has shown he gets psychological gratification from being a wrecking ball and inflicting damage on others, and that he acts on that.

Trump could not do what he doing to try to overturn the election if Trump did not have the unquestioning support of Republicans in Congress, and Trump has that support because of Trump's control and power over his base. The Republicans cannot stay in office without the support of Trump's base, so those Republicans will not act to stop Trump from what Trump is doing in trying to overturn the election.

The damage to the United States that comes from Trump's coup attempt is increased by Trump's base believing the 2020 election was stolen from Trump. This belief of Trump's base probably would not stand up if the Republicans in Congress collectively said to Trump's base that the election was not stolen from Trump. The Republicans in Congress do not do that, and the belief that the election was stolen from Trump gets more deeply ingrained in Trump's base.

After January 20th, Trump will continue telling his base that the election was stolen from him, and, using the power Trump gets from the support of his base, Trump will use their belief that the election was stolen from Trump to help him get his selfish gratification from trying to be a wrecking ball against Biden's efforts to lead the country through the virus and economic crisis. 

Trump's vindictive spite, anger and selfishness make him indifferent to whether his actions cause a slowdown in America's winning the war against the virus, in repairing the economic devastation to tens of millions of Americans as a result of the pandemic, and in getting the economy fully back on track.

The foregoing bad effects for the United States emanating from Trump causing slowdown in recovery from the pandemic will extend to Alabama and its citizens, business and economy.

The ability of Trump to cause these bad effects would be less if Republicans in Congress tell Trump's base the election was not stolen from Trump.

Leaders in Alabama business should tell the ALGOP coupmongers to cut it out.


1/6/21
D. Stark choice to be constructive or destructive
ALGOP, and particularly, our ALGOP in Congress, have a stark choice. 

They can slavishly do whatever Trump wants them to do and destructively help Trump impede our country's war against the virus and its economic devastations.

Alternatively, they can choose not to slavishly do what Trump wants them to do to impede our country's war against the virus and its economic devastations, and instead they can constructively pitch in to their utmost to help in our country's war to defeat the virus and its economic devastations. 

Chairman Lathan is staying all in with Trump, going so far as to say ‘absolutely not’ when asked if  Trump bore any blame for the attack on the Capitol.

We can keep tabs on Chairman Lathan as to whether she will be destructive after January 20th and aid Trump trying to impede our country's war against the virus and its economic devastations.


1/9/21
E. Resignation or not; impeachment
Growing calls for Trump to resign call for reaction by ALGOP.

ALGOP can consider whether Trump should resign either from the perspective of the Republican Party  or from the perspective of the country as a whole. Resignation or not can also be considered from the perspective of Trump personally.

From the above news report, Chairman Lathan would appear to be of the view that ALGOP's position should be based on what is better for the Republican Party. I will leave it for Chairman Lathan to lay out the case of why it is better for the Republican Party that Trump not resign.

I will consider the resignation question from the perspective of the country as a whole and whether it is better for the country for Trump to resign, or better that he not resign, and how much better or not. 

In Trump's Thursday night video (which is no longer accessible on Twitter), Trump said "My focus now turns to ensuring a smooth, orderly and seamless transition of power."

I would contend that will be better ensured if Trump resigns and Pence oversees transition.

I having been tweeting the below

In addition to, or perhaps part of, the goal for the country to have a smooth transition, there is or should be a objective to lessen division in the country and have a healing process.

Lessening division and healing the country faces huge obstacles. Probably the biggest obstacle is that  tens of millions of Trump supporters believe the election was stolen from him. They believe this largely because Trump has told them that and Trump has given every indication that he will not stop telling his supporters that the election was stolen from him.

The Democrats adamantly do not agree with Trump that the election was stolen from him.

Progress will not be made on the unity and healing front without progress being made on resolving the disagreement about whether the election was stolen. 

A Trump resignation would go a long way to signal that the election was not stolen from Trump, and that would help the country.

Wrapped up with the belief of Trump supporters that the election was stolen from him is a further belief that Trump did nothing wrong in his Presidency and the Democrats have been evil in their attacks on Trump during the past four years. Trump has been adamant that he has done nothing wrong during his four years, and what Trump says is a main source of the belief of his supporters that he has done nothing wrong and is being monstrously treated by the Democrats.

As with the question of whether the election was stolen, little progress can be made on the unity and healing front so long as tens of millions of Trump supporters believe Trump did nothing wrong and has been monstrously treated by the Democrats.

A Trump resignation would go a long way to being an admission by Trump that he did wrongs as President, and that admission would help the country.

All of the foregoing is good argument why it would be better for the country if Trump resigned.

If there is a case to be made that Trump would be better than Pence for accomplishing the transition, or that Trump not resigning would be better contribute to unifying and healing of the country, or if there are other reasons why it would be bad for the country for Trump to resign, that case should be laid out by Trump or someone on behalf of Trump.

Impeachment

The Democrats are threatening impeachment if Trump does not resign.

The argument being made against impeaching Trump is that impeachment would further divide the country.

If Trump will not resign, that leads to considering whether impeachment would be better for the country compared to there not being an impeachment, with particular attention to which would better contribute to unifying and healing the country.

As stated above, no progress can be made on the unity and healing front if tens of millions of Trump supporters believe the election was stolen from him. Trump has given every indication that he will not stop telling his supporters that the election was stolen from him.

Progress will not be made on the unity and healing front without progress being made on resolving the disagreement about whether the election was stolen. This is true now and will be true after January 20th; it is true whether or not there is an impeachment, and impeachment will not increase division in the country above where division is at; and impeachment could accelerate resolving the disagreement about whether the election was stolen from Trump.

There is no getting around that the country must have more resolution about whether the election was stolen and whether Trump did anything wrong. There can be intense focus on these before January 20th by means of an impeachment. Alternatively, the questions will be around for months or years adversely affecting the country's governance and politics.

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