TRUMP-GIULIANI AGONISTES

By John P. Flannery

Trump and Giuliani appear unable to conquer their shared self-pity and despair, and so, drawing upon art and biblical myth, we may conclude that, unlike Samson, they will not be restored to whatever “storied” strength they may claim to have enjoyed.

Following the election on November 3rd, the Nation suffered an identity crisis — a kind of Jeckyl-Hyde split — there were those who hadn’t had enough of Trump — and the rest of us — including you dear reader who prefer democracy to monarchy –who realize we must suppress the beast that lurks within the body politic.

Consider how truant our Chief Executive, Donald Trump, has been since he lost the election, barely lifting a finger to ease the pain of the sick and dying, obsessed only with how he may succeed himself in office — by overriding the will of the voters.

It was clear two days after the election, that the transition from Trump to Biden would occur with or without Trump’s participation.

Trump’s challenges to the election, in and out of court, evaporated in the days that followed like a morning mist dissipating in the daylight’s warming rays.

Judges asked the right questions, found no fraud in the election, and repeatedly denied Trump’s laconic lawyers who appeared ethically inert to professional demands that they only argue what is true and lawful.

Biden marched on giving the nation a new look, a regular order, conducted with respect, patience and decency.

Biden announced his chief of staff, and his picks for State Department, his National Security Adviser, the Ambassador to the United Nations, and more.

Biden consulted with infectious disease experts to fight the pandemic while Trump preferred to golf.

The cynical say Trump is using the crisis he has created to build a war chest for another presidential race in 2024.

Of course, Trump could have done that without undermining faith in our election.

The nail in Trump’s political coffin came out of the federal court in Pennsylvania.

U.S. District Judge Matthew W. Brann wrote a 37-page ruling upholding the Nov. 3rd election in Pennsylvania, signaling that Joe Biden, with 81,000 votes more than Trump, won that State’s election fair and square.

This will likely be the final word on all the bogus Trump-Giuliani challenges in all the battleground states, brought by outgoing President Trump and his “personal lawyer,” Rogue Rudy Giuliani.

Judge Brann, an active Republican before taking the bench, and a member of the Federalist Society and the National Rifle Association, cannot be dismissed as a partisan.

Rudy Giuliani took over the case though he had not appeared in a federal court in thirty years and, when he did appear before Judge Brann, he did so without any preparation, as to the pertinent facts or the law.

Judge Brann characterized the papers Rudy presented as “strained legal arguments without merit and speculative accusations.”

Judge Brann said that Trump’s attorneys had haphazardly stitched this allegation together “like Frankenstein’s Monster” in an effort to avoid unfavorable legal precedent.

Judge Brann explained that Plaintiffs were “trying to mix and match claims to bypass contrary precedent” and that was “not lost on the court.”

Plaintiff Trump and several voters claimed they were denied “equal protection.”

Of course, there was no unequal protection between what the republicans and democrats were permitted to do — when observing the count.

Sure, the Secretary of State told all counties they could give notice to voters they could cure mail in ballots if an error was noted in the ballot. Several voters said, however, they were not allowed to do this — to have errors cured.

The Court, however, said they could have asked that their votes be allowed. Instead, these voters only wanted to deny everyone else’s ballot. The court said that was not the remedy, that is, to deny others the right to vote.

The court found the Secretary of State and the Counties “impose[d] no burden” on the Individual Plaintiffs’ right to vote, disputing the equal protection argument.

When Rudy was asked in court whether he claimed any fraud, he said he did not make such a claim. But Rudy said something quite different when not in court.

What happened in Pennsylvania, follows upon 30 or more other cases lost or withdrawn that Trump brought in battle ground states challenging the election results.

Former New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie said, “The conduct of the president’s legal team has been a national embarrassment,”

Outside court, Rudy Giuliani and others were holding press conferences claiming there was fraud and conspiracies that reached around the world, to Venezuela, involving a dead head of state, Hugo Chavez, coming close to sedition, sans violence, transparently calculated to undermine our electoral process.

Trump also reached out to party leaders in Michigan and Pennsylvania to defy the voters cast ballots and overthrow the certifications in those states confirming Biden as the winner of those state’s electoral votes. That didn’t work.

More and more Republicans are presently pushing back on Trump.

The wind is at our back. We may have to squirm and fight. But that day is coming when we can grab old glory and plant the flag of the united states in a newly restored republic. We’re talking January 20, 2021.

# # #