Politics & Government
Elected Oregon Republicans Choose Trump Over Democracy
Elected Oregon REPUBLICAN Legislators:Democracy Destroying Texas Lawsuit YES. President-elect Joe Biden NO
As of 10 PM Sunday December 13, 2020 ALL of Oregon’s elected Oregon Republican legislators*1 indicated these answers to the following two questions:
Did all the elected Republicans that publicly supported the state of Texas’ seditious lawsuit at the Supreme Court to overturn the votes of more than 10,000,000 Americans in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, i.e. Donald Trump, the Attorneys General of 18 states, 126 Republican members of the House of Representatives, senators Lindsey Graham,Ted Cruz and a few other Republican senators, do the right thing in the best interests of our country, the United States of America?
Find out what's happening in Portlandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
YES
Find out what's happening in Portlandfor free with the latest updates from Patch.
"The Court should not abide this seditious abuse of the judicial process, and should send a clear and unmistakable signal that such abuse must never be replicated.”*2 It did.
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a lawsuit by Texas that had asked the court to throw out the election results in four battleground states that President Trump lost in November, ending any prospect that a brazen attempt to use the courts to reverse his defeat at the polls would succeed.
The court, in a brief unsigned order, said Texas lacked standing to pursue the case, saying it “has not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections.”*3
‘An Indelible Stain’: How the G.O.P. Tried to Topple a Pillar of Democracy
The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump was also a blunt rebuke to Republican leaders who had put their interests ahead of the country’s.
The Supreme Court repudiation of President Trump’s desperate bid for a second term not only shredded his effort to overturn the will of voters: It also was a blunt rebuke to Republican leaders in Congress and the states who were willing to damage American democracy by embracing a partisan power grab over a free and fair election.
Through their explicit endorsements or complicity of silence, much of the G.O.P. leadership now shares responsibility for the quixotic attempt to ignore the nation’s founding principles and engineer a different verdict from the one voters cast in November.*4
The G.O.P. Can No Longer Be Relied On to Protect Democracy
By John Cassidy 12-12-20
A fair reading of the G.O.P.’s record of gerrymandering and voter suppression over the past couple of decades, and its abject servility toward Trump during the past four years, is that its commitment to democracy has long been subservient to its desire to retain power. But even for an organization as tarnished as this one, the decision by so many Republican congressmen, and so many state attorneys general, to support the Texas lawsuit marked a new low.#5
The Supreme Court Rejects Texas’s Shameful Lawsuit, But There Has to Be a Reckoning
By Amy Davidson Sorkin
Even the Court’s conservatives, then, seemed to recognize that this was not a constitutional controversy that merited its involvement but a crude power grab.
There is so much that is wrong with the Texas and Trump filings—not just legally but factually.
There is no acceptable justification. There needs to be a real reckoning; if prominent Republicans do not now use the Court’s decision to renounce Trump’s campaign to overturn the election, they will do real and lasting harm to the country. The early signs are not good. The head of the Texas G.O.P. put out a statement suggesting that “law-abiding states” might want to form their own “Union of states,” while others, as of Saturday morning, were silent.
Courts obviously have a role in protecting election integrity and insuring that individual voting rights are not violated. But Texas is not, say, a voter who has wrongly been subjected to a poll tax. And, as each of the four sued states noted, Trump and his allies have brought dozens of suits in courts across the country, many of which judges have heard, and some of which have reached the Supreme Court. He just keeps losing them.*6
Have you publicly acknowledged that Joe Biden is the President-elect of the United States of America?
NO
The top Republicans who have acknowledged Biden as president-elect
Some elected Republicans are breaking ranks with President Trump to acknowledge that President-elect Biden won the 2020 presidential election.*7
It is very important as our Oregon's next legislative session begins in the new year that elected Democrats in the legislature, other elected officials, educators, journalists and citizens throughout our Oregon be informed and continually reminded of the dangerous antidemocratic and authoritarian political values held by elected Oregon Republican legislators with a long history as Trump collaborators.
Stay safe. Don’t travel if you can avoid it. Stay home when you can. Avoid lengthy indoor gatherings especially with non-household family and friends. Practice social distancing. Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Get vaccinated. Praise medical personnel whenever possible. Beware of ignorant, anti-science, toxic, life-threatening medical disinformation from Republicans. Heed public health instructions from our Oregon governor, Kate Brown. Listen to Dr. Fauci and his fellow public health and science experts on President-elect Joe Biden’s Coronavirus Task Force.
Richard Ellmyer
North Portland
NAV, Non-Aligned Voter
Author of The Ellmyer Report, a newsletter that informs, educates and influences on public policy. Occasionally distributed to more than a quarter of million readers in Oregon and beyond. Facebook, Portland Politics Plus . Opinion contributor to Patch.com news.
*1
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/senate/Pages/senatorsRepublicans.aspx
https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/house/Pages/RepresentativesRepublicans.aspx
*7
*/ /*-->*/