Friday, December 11, 2020

Predictable. Supreme Court rules in favor of the constitution

As I noted in a post earlier, it seemed unlikely the scotus would rule in favor of Texas in their suit against other states.

There was no constitutional issue at stake, and the states themselves run elections and had already worked through the courts up to the Individual state Supreme Courts. Constitutionally, that was the way this should have been handled.

And because of "equal protection," the states can run elections however they see fit. As long as they are running free and fair elections that don't favor one group, party, or location, they can apply the rules in whatever way suits them, so long as it fits within the general guidelines set forth in the US constitution.

And never mind that the down ballot races were not questioned by anyone. This was strictly about trump. A peculiar argument indeed.

And so, the court declined to hear further arguments, apparently with no dissenters, meaning it was a 9-0 decision; with all 6 "conservative justices" in concurrence. Justices Alito and Thomas had suggested letting Texas proceed with their suit, but with no other remedy. Had this been accepted, this would have meant that the vote would be certified, but Texas would have an opportunity to prove that they were harmed. But no other justices signed on, so this idea died.

I decided to slip into the rabbit hole of reaction, and read through some of the comments from maga-aligned folks. I would summarize what I saw thusly:

* some comments were wholly unintelligible. I mean through misused words, misspellings, and unclear statements, I really didn't understand what they meant

* the notion of civil war, which I first heard rush Limbaugh talk about a couple of days ago, came up frequently.

* as expected, there were a lot of comments about "the swamp" and how the Supreme Court had been subverted. Even though there are 2 justices who nearly always support pet conservative causes (in Alito and Thomas), and 3 others who trump appointed in this term. Seems logical to me...oh wait. No it doesn't.

* there were many, many mentions of prayer and god and how he would correct this action ... somehow

* a lot of name calling, and flat out saying that Biden is corrupt and communism or socialism (I think people get confused on what they mean) is coming to the United States and they are going to take your fredoms!

* there were claims it's not over, and trump would go over the courts heads, declare Marshall law, or otherwise stay in power (perhaps using Jedi mind tricks or magic?)

* some commentary was about how the democrats spent so much money to look into Russia interference (they even had a very specific number, 47 million repeated, which seems odd) while "not caring" about this election. [also remember that through several actions by mueller, the us government seized funds that entirely paid for the investigation, so technically no taxpayer dollars were spent]

* I read a lot of parroting of the maga talking points; the typical things you hear from trumps allies, or Fox News. Everything from not understanding voting machines, how elections work, mail in ballots, affidavits, etc to wild claims of mysterious voters fraud that everyone can see!

It was a peculiar set of reactions, and in some ways I truly feel for them. 4 years ago, the people who saw through trump felt similarly aggrieved, though I might argue that Russian influence seems to have been somewhat real....nevertheless, losing sucks. Especially if you are passionately for (or against) a candidate.

But that does it. The electors meet on Monday, and vote.

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