The Congressional Hearings about the January 6th insurrection are showing the length former President Trump will go to avoid being a loser. The three hours and seven minutes of the attack on the Capitol analyzed by the House Committee dramatizes the minute-by-minute rise of the violent coup at the direction of the President of the United States. Trump was bent on overturning the Constitution and becoming an unelected leader and killer of the American democratic experiment.
The revelations of the behind-the-scenes activities at the White House and the Capitol reveal the inner workings of a Trump-led plan to take over the country. He eventually recorded a video asking his followers to go home only after he was convinced that the security forces directed by Vice President Pence were in the process of restoring order and resuming the ceremonial counting of the Electoral College vote that certified President Joe Biden’s election victory.
Having failed to overturn the 2020 election in the courts and making a defeated effort to mobilize a successful insurrection at the United States Capitol, Donald Trump has gone on to direct and fund a movement across the country to elect state officials that would assure his victory in the 2024 election regardless of the vote count. This eventuality is very real and poses a clear and present danger to democracy in the United States.
One of the telling points made by the hearings is the fact that our democratic experiment is just that. Because it involves the voice of every citizen, the process of making that voice count can become cumbersome and complicated.
That is why the role of our institutions is so important. Strong institutions make it possible for democracy to work as they conserve and operate the levers necessary to make sure citizen voices are heard especially at the ballot box.
It is the manipulation of these institutions that is in play. There is a malevolent intent in finding ways to place individuals in positions that oversee political races, count the votes and certify elections. This can guarantee a win regardless of whether the vote is there or not. The effort can be masked as a legitimate democratic activity that, with a slight of hand, produces a desired outcome.
I saw this type of process occur in the 1988 election of Mexico’s Carlos Salinas de Gortari who was declared the winner over Cuauhtemos Cardenes Solorzano, the son of Lazaro Cardenas, a former President of Mexico. Salinas, the candidate of the ruling Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI), was reported to be losing to Cardenas when the IBM vote counting machine went down.
When the machine was supposedly fixed and restarted, Salinas was declared the winner. His “election” led, in part, to the loss of the PRI’s 71-year hold on the Mexican political system.
This example of political corruption is what awaits the United States if Trump is allowed to follow-through on his scheme. His obsession with erasing his political loss to President Biden by denying it and then “winning” in 2024 is about an illusion tied to his desire to be the all-powerful authoritarian.
The Congressional Hearings are indicating that the Trump-related dangerous political crisis the country is navigating may lead to the birth of a banana republic. Ambition and his appeal to the White racist community could very well end our democratic experiment.
Former President Trump is persisting in his effort to regain the White House. If not stopped, he can do it again.
Trump can win Presidency again.
