Constitutional Wrangles and Election Hysteria

A number of books have now been published relating to the events at the conclusion of the Trump Presidency and the Inauguration of Biden as the 46th President of the United States of America. Each book and study on these events are expected to be dramatic, relaying interviews with prominent politicians and Government officials, with many giving new revelations from participants with different slants on their motives and what they in effect prevented. The authors and media personalities were then rushed off to TV studios to speak again about their interviews and the impressions they formed about what the outgoing President and his allies were doing as a result of the loss of the 2020 election.

Without going over the various revelations and reports of the events leading up to the riot of January 6th and the assault on the Capitol building, the consensus was the horrifying conclusion that on January 6th the Constitution of the USA “hung by a thread”. It was suggested that the American state and way of life was in danger and could have been extinguished that very day. It was none the less an extraordinary event, an outgoing head of state in a presumed stable democracy calling out supporters to invade the session of elected representatives disrupting the result of elections for his replacement. The rationale, the excuse for the mobilisation of protesters was that the election was stolen from Trump and that far-fetched and outlandish claims were made about fraudulent means had been used to “steal the election”.

The traumatic events since the election of Biden in the November 2020 General Election are still being played out on many levels with the ferocious campaign by Trump and his supporters to question if not overturn that election. The wrangling going on in Congress, the previous replacing of various government agencies with more “pliable” people (including the Pentagon), the investigations about attempts to suborn the Department of Justice, the various cases both criminal and civil going before the Courts as well as the pantomime of the Maricopa County ballot “audit”. We have not touched upon the civil and criminal investigations into the Trump organisation and its related companies, the demand for the release of Trump’s Tax Returns, and the eventual biggie, possibly conspiracy and sedition charges against Trump and / or his associates.

There are well-used methods of ensuring the turning out of supporters at election time. There is the well-known arrangement called Gerry-mandering after the way Catholic voters were confined to voting areas in Ulster in order to maintain a Protestant majority in the Northern Ireland Parliament. A similar system has long been used in the US in reducing the number of non-white representatives who are sent to Congress. There was a tried and tested system used in Australia, later imported into the UK, where certain parts of the population and certain marginal areas were targeted with resources in the strategy of getting an electoral victory. Similar methods previously had been used in the US. However for 2016 more drastic steps were taken when being confronted by the almost certain chance of Hilary Clinton being elected. The Hilary Clinton candidacy proved to be organisationally inept and outclassed by the Republican candidate (Trump) who had the internet backing of Moscow and media algorithms to target potential voters.

The 2020 Presidential Campaign

The accusation of the “stealing” of the election away from Trump seems to be a contingency already prepared for in Trump’s White House no matter what reservations some of the Government officials may have had. The crippling of the Postal Service (an attempt to limit large scale postal voting) and the reliance on far-right forces such as Alt-Right and QAnon was having an impact on traditional Republican supporters. Attempts to limit voting in Georgia was having widespread criticism amongst business sectors, with a clear threat to move business interests out of that state. This was a clear unease by sections of the capitalist class about the way the Trump administration was conducting itself.

During the last year it became apparent that the Biden campaign was outspending the Trump campaign by three to one, an unheard of imbalance – this was a clear expression of the support from business in general for the Democratic candidate as the one standing for stability and certainty in economics and politics. Although there has traditionally been two main parties of the American bourgeoisie (Republican and Democratic parties) with the election process switching between the two, depending upon the usefulness of the policies being expounded, the instability and uncertainty of whose interests the Trump administration was representing (had Moscow something on Donald Trump was a common concern) has led to a pronounced shift to the Democratic Party as the preferred main party of the American bourgeoisie, at least for the moment. The desire for consistency and certainty of the Biden administration is a recognition that the American state and its institutions are there to represent and protect the interests of all of the capitalist class (in so far as that is practicable) instead of that of a bunch of property speculators and apparently unhinged conspiracy theorists.

Trump’s campaign was thrown into a panic and sought urgent financial funding from his supporters, in most cases taking multiple bank payments, many payments having to be refunded. The frantic conspiracy theories were reaching a fever pitch, especially plots by the “Deep State” to take over the country.

It was the Arizona election declaration which gave the clear indication for a Biden victory. This was followed by a similar result in other swing states. Initial election results were showing that tens of thousands of normally Republican voters were either abstaining or voting for other candidates. It was this defection of republican voters (who voted for Republican candidates in everything but the Presidential election) which gave rise to the absurd claims that some software had been used, or some mechanism had been fitted which caused the “flipping” of votes from Trump to Biden. Recounts were done, and proper audits were carried out which confirmed at large the original result. This did not stop the hysteria of election fraud, with the attempted invasion of election ballot counts to “monitor” events. Nothing to change ballot counting results were ever found, for the simple reason they did not exist. The handful of fraudulent voting turned out to have been carried out by Republican party supporters. But the lack of any way of changing the voting totals did not stop such idiotic conspiracy theories such as “Italygate”, laser signals supposedly from Italy were being sent by satellite causing voting machines to switch votes. Why these signals from Italy were taking place was never explained. That lack of reality did not deter Trump from raising this absurd notion with all and sundry. There were even weirder theories, some gleaned from the internet, such as wifi access being gained at counting stations through room temperature thermometers. The very fact that the election counting machines were isolated (not connected) to the internet has been mostly ignored. Each more outlandish theory was desperately considered by Donald Trump. One White House official reportedly stated that the “crazies of the crazies” were being entertained, while the White House staff are reported to have been keeping their distance from these events and preparing to head for the door.

The so-called January 6th Insurrection

The Presidential election results stood despite attempts by Trump and his allies to intimidate State officials into changing the voting outcomes. The results were due to be counted and certified by Congress on 6th January, but Trump and his MAGA (Make America Great Again) wanted to challenge that. First of all there was to be a Million MAGA March on Washington DC, then that was scaled back to half-a-million “Stop The Steal” rally outside the White House, a projected “wild event”. The vast crowd of half-a-million never materialised. Trump and his associates had been visited and assured of a mobilisation of militias, a Patriot Caravan, etc. There was supposed to be vast multitudes to overwhelm Washington DC to clamour for the 2020 election to be nullified and changed. The vast crowd did not appear.

The subsequent event of the fiery speeches, the march on the Capitol building, its invasion and partial occupation, with the disruption of proceedings have all been televised. The fiery orators had all disappeared, the out-going President feeling they were not his sort of people, went back to the White House to watch events on TV. What was the storming of the Capitol to achieve except to delay the certification of the election. Security forces evacuated the Vice President and Congress members to places of safety and waited out events. After hours of rioting the protesters withdrew and the business of confirming Joe Biden as President took place. All the rioters had achieved was wrecking part of the Capitol building, taking off some trophies and taking loads of selfies and video recordings which the FBI would use later to identify many of the key rioters.

The Military and other State agencies begin their work

Once the confirmation of the Electoral College results by the Vice President Mike Pence that Joe Biden as the following President the military took over. There would be a peaceable takeover as laid down in the Constitution. A ring of steel was placed around the White House and surrounding area. Arrangements were made for the orderly leaving of Donald Trump and family (by the back door) and for the installation of the Biden Presidency. In that way it was shown that the American state and its institutions had taken the strain, buckled slightly but had held. The FBI, supposedly affected by the previous sacking of its Head (Comey) did not wait for the Inauguration of the next president but were already investigating events. More than 500 of the rioters have been arrested and charged with some already been sentenced.

A second Impeachment charge was brought in the Senate against the outgoing President Trump, but there were insufficient votes to carry out the trial. There was a determined closing of ranks by Republicans Senators to protect trump and keep the Republican Party in some sort of order. Congressional enquiries are taking placed to examine all these previous events. The attempts to pressurise (and weaponize) the Department of Justice is beginning to emerge.

Trump and his diminishing band of supporters have continued the campaign of discrediting the election count and trying to substantiate claims of outside interference, and that the vote counting machines had been hacked into “flipping” votes to Biden. This campaign has broadened out into a general assault on elections, and trying to get the Presidential election declared invalid. The Courts have systematically thrown out of all the election challenges, Judgments coming out that the cases were frivolous, unbelievable and even ridiculous. THE Lawyers who brought many of these cases are now paying a high price for bringing these cases, by being suspended from practice, some threatened with disbarment as Lawyers and ultimately having to pay damages and for all the Court costs of the cases.

Further discrediting of the Election process

The big test on the election counting process was to be the “audit” in Arizona, in Maricopa County where the ballot papers and vote counting machines were handed over to self-styled Cyber Ninjas (a Republican Party sponsored organisation which had no experience in audit ballots). The “audit” which was started in April was to last for three weeks, but what we are labelling as a pantomime has been going on for more than three months. First of all the ballot papers and machines were being scanned for traces of bamboo (presumably the suspicion that ballot papers had been surreptitiously imported from China to replace the original ones. How this was to be done was never explained, especially replacing ballot papers which were specially milled (with distincived water mark) printed ballot papers. After failing to find traces of bamboo, searches were made of the ballot counting machines looking for nefarious devices for changing the ballot counting. Again nothing was found. The examination of the voting counting machine had led them been declared unusable and needing to be replaced. This will be costing Maricopa County $3 million to be replaced. The “Cyber Ninjas” finally demanded that the routers should be handed over to be examined. Maricopa County officials refused to part with the computer system routers, not only because they would not reveal any useful information, but also because they were being used for the County’s services and would cost $6 million to replace. Nothing has been produced to point to any irregularities or fraudulent behaviour. It has however led to threats and intimidation of election organisers in various states in the US, including death threats.

The Arizona “audit” was to be the centre piece of the campaign to overturn the 2020 Election, to reveal that Trump won by a Landslide at a so-called Cyber Symposium in South Dakota on 10th – 12th August. After all the “incontrovertible” evidence were presented the big revelation would hit the country and Biden and Harris would be forced to resign and that it would go to the Supreme Court who would vote by Nine to Nil for Trump to be reinstated as President. All this was to take place on Friday 13th August. As we all now know Friday 13th came and went and no big change took place.

All this has descended into a farce. The chaos and lack of evidence was put down to disruption and infiltration by Antifa, even though there were few people at this supposedly 72 hour rolling live coverage. The Cyber expert on the stage said he had not seen any “legitimate” internet evidence, and was reported as saying he had been handed “a turd”. The “white-hat” hacker whose evidence was being relied upon was finally named, and apparently this former Casino worker had reportedly previously hoaxed the Pentagon and CIA. It is not known how much was paid to this “white-hat” hacker.

The campaign to discredit the 2020 Elections, which has no basis in reality (even the outgoing Trump Attorney General Bill Barr conceded that the election was fair), and is getting further out of touch with reality. The US bourgeoisie has ended up in a real bind.