Stop laughing

The Atlantic's Zeynep Tufekci has written an insightful essay for that magazine, published — perhaps appropriately — on 7 December 2020, 79 years to the day after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor and dragged the U.S. into World War II. What she describes today might be compared to a not-so-sneaky attack on not just a naval base, but on the heart of our nation.

Tufekci argues that too many of us are being too cavalier about Trump's attempts to overturn the election. Legal scholars have mocked the lawsuits filed on his behalf as comically devoid of merit, inviting a lot of people to laugh at them.

But while laughing, we underestimate how subversive and undemocratic it is that he even tried.

If things proceed in their ordinary course, the Electoral College will soon vote, and then Biden will take office.

But ignoring a near catastrophe that was averted by the buffoonish, half-hearted efforts of its would-be perpetrator invites a real catastrophe brought on by someone more competent and ambitious. President Trump had already established a playbook for contesting elections in 2016 by casting doubt on the election process before he won, and insisting that he only lost the popular vote due to fraud. Now he’s establishing a playbook for stealing elections by mobilizing executive, judicial, and legislative power to support the attempt. And worse, much worse, the playbook is being implicitly endorsed by the silence of some leading Republicans, and vocally endorsed by others, even as minority rule becomes increasingly entrenched in the American electoral system.

Joe Biden's inauguration will not end this crisis. The rot is embedded in the millions of disappointed supporters whom Trump and his accomplices egg on to greater resentment, bitterness, and rage with every passing day. They will remain resentful, bitter, and rage-filled for as long as Trump and his accomplices — who include not just most Congressional Republicans but most right-wing media pundits, too — keep lying to them about the election.

Once president, Biden's plate will be overflowing. Even so, he and the rest of us must seriously reckon with Trump's subversive attacks on our democracy. Else, as Tufekci astutely warns, we will have more experience with autocracy than we wish.

So stop laughing and start thinking about how to counter the antidemocratic impulses Trump is unleashing. We're not out of the woods, not by a long shot.