When Congress meets to accept the results of the vote of the Electoral College, a large number of Republicans say they will object. They will object not because of facts or evidence or court decisions, but because they want to prove their devotion to Trump, the most incompetent and unhinged man ever to hold the presidency. The Republican members of Congress who deny the election of Joe Biden are, in the contested states, denying their own election. The Republican members of Congress from Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, andMichigan who support Trump’s challenge—even though the courts in their states threw out his claims—are saying that their own election was invalid. They should resign at once and wait for a new election.

Denis Smith, retired from the Ohio Department of Education, wrote the following:

“At least 12 Republican senators and potentially upwards of 140 House Republicans will formally object in writing to the electoral results submitted…”  says one report about tomorrow’s vote to accept the Electoral College results.  That number represents about 2/3 of all Republican members of the House, a startling figure when you consider that all of these people were democratically elected, that every state had their votes audited and certified, and that 60 court cases have been dismissed due to the sheer lack of evidence.

This would be laughable except for the fact that this whole spectacle is a challenge to democracy, an affront on majority rule – even though the Electoral College itself is a contradiction and a relic from the slavery era . In fact, Joe Biden won by more than 7,000,000 votes, yet we have at least 152 Members of Congress that are challenging that simple fact.


In light of all of this outrageous conduct and seditious behavior by Republicans, here are two quotes which I hope will be shared far and wide in the days ahead. I pulled them from my collection of favorite quotes assembled over the years, and do believe they are perfect for Americans to read before the debate in Congress tomorrow:
“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” (Attributed to several humorists, including Mark Twain, Josh Billings, Artemus Ward and Will Rogers)

“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.” — Hannah Arendt, “The Origins of Totalitarianism” (1951)

This quote from the iconic HBO series, The Newsroom, which aired from 2012-2014, has turned out to be particularly prophetic. Think about this observation spoken by Anchorman Will McAvoy, played by Jeff Daniels:

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“We have one party that has these characteristics:

“Ideological purity. Compromise as weakness. A fundamentalist belief in scriptural literalism. Denying science. Unmoved by facts. Undeterred by new information. A hostile fear of progress. A demonization of education. A need to control women’s bodies. Severe xenophobia. Tribal mentality. Intolerance of dissent. Pathological hatred of the U.S. government. They can call themselves the Tea Party. They can call themselves conservatives. And they can even call themselves Republicans, though Republicans certainly shouldn’t. But we should call them what they are – The American Taliban.”

Who would have ever thought that this nation would come so close to becoming an authoritarian state? The distance on the road from authoritarianism to totalitarianism is not that far. In the meantime, get out the popcorn for tomorrow’s authoritarian spectacle. What you see and hear should be much more frightening than entertaining.