A republic, not a demo(no)cracy

The great manifestation this weekend, barely two weeks after the election this November the fifth, by which I mean three (in recognition of two of England's great cultural treasures) and about four before the actual election this December, British-born Hungarian (and thus authoritarian to the bone) intellectual hack Sebastian Gorka arose to give perhaps the most acrimonious, and certainly most arousing to the soul of a harshly battered Trumpista - or Kekist, as I have proposed to christen this movement once, if not now then certainly after the next election, it has passed the surly bonds of president Trump's example. In the million MAGA march, matching in sweet acrimony as well as the vitriol many examples set by the recent past of American mass movements, but surely not its most obvious reference in historical signifance. Dare I say it. But nonetheless, we should not dismiss this as a death rattle, no more than the Hundred Days of Napoleon was necessarily that, nor a divinely ordained return of grace. Only speculate whether it is part in the downfall of Kekist moment, or its re-christening under a different man, and not necessarily a presidential ("candidate" or "one", fill in the blank as you please) at that. 

This movement, echoing again the words of president-elect (without office but already with certainty) Santos, this movement was never about him, nor about Gorka, Jones, Spencer, or any of the profligates that have, independently long since or grabbing onto the coattails or a supremely stupid, ignorant, absent-minded (fill in fully at whim) bulwark that was the Donald, presidential now by definition. It was about, as I wrote in 2016, a rejection or five R:s, or something like it ( Although the media has poignantly asserted that Trump's overtures to overturn must be rejected, it is all but clear that this division away from an Archimedean solid point has affected or been brought about by all parties, with even VOX, that I just linked, asserting in faux-rhetorical format that "the Supreme Court [might] steal the election" for the Republican ticket, something not even stated (if not exactly never implied) in the long aftermath of the sordid and swiftly quickened (or even stillborn) decision of Bush v. Gore of late 2000. Of course, the 2016 narrative of an election stolen, if not outright by Trump or his menace in red, or their nefarious efforts throughout state governments, then by Russians and their collaborators (those who don't denounce the bear in the proud tradition of the watchful senator from Wisconsin, that is) 

All over this hovers the maxim, repeated into the modern period and proper American democracy of the post-1960s - also the era of imperialism and decay of what might have been considered the original American spirit, constitutional and federal in character and to the heart engaged in struggle against itself and its own legitimacy - of "a republic, not a democracy". This statement, preceded by Franklin and repeated by the more bulwark-conservative (and consummated never-Trumper) senator Lee, to Victor Davis Hanson, to "American studies" professor Bernie Dobski, to Gorka this year, of course, and no less in the aftermath of the refusal of democracy's mandate to concede to the GOP ticket (the 2004 election remaining, thus, the only time it has carried a majority or even plurality, if not a majority of states) has the insidious character of potentially denouncing democratic mandate in a subversive way, of which none would be more insidious, or more importantly destructive, than the destruction of the electoral result in the states where the count, and potential recount, is under assault. In this, however, these state governments must - I mean do already - partake a share of blame. For when a court would find the need, or at least ability, for electoral booths to keep open beyond the expected deadline, in particular states, in such a fashion could be expected to favour a certain result, the protest and appeal to have the "surplus" votes suppressed - lest the entire election is to be redone - . (This in turn, of course, is in rebuttal to the Republican, mainly, efforts to shut and limit and circumcise the opportunities to vote in particularly early and in absence, as well as Trump's personal war on the postal department in hope to widen the gap between postal and "real" votes to "normal", and I think desirable, proportions.)

In this new millennium, a decision to maintain - as in this last major decision of the last - may be as acrimonious as to overturn (unquestionably certain to slip loose the dogs of political warfare, even if the law indeed did state clearly the foundation for doing so). And if so happens, it will be not because of the honestly (if yet loudly) argued point, argued on the streets that is, that the Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and so forth electoral codes did indeed at onset favour the exclusion ensuring a Trump re-election, however slim. Rather, it will be because of the over-argued and well-put point that this movement which he has mounted (rather than given birth to) fears downfall, and - I would add - for all the right reasons. The remaking of the electoral map, unlike the sloppy notion of letting votes be cast without identification (something I've always showed, and would expect to be shown, during any election whose result I would consider credible) is a fair shot, however, and it is here up to the Republicans to ensure greater participation as well as favour for the Republican ticket in the conscience of "new" Americans (Anglo-Saxons and forward). In this, they have - without much singing - largely succeeded. African Americans voted in favour of Trump, it seems, to about double the tally of in 2016, if not exactly in Lincolnian or even Eisenhowerian terms, and latinos - rapists or bringing drugs or the dully, jolly unexcited - have shown similar, if not as stark numbers of surge, suggesting either that the joyfully capitalist-wokeist alliance of mainstream Democrats - and the stupid X campaign - have a negative appeal (or, as Swedish politicians would say, have "not been fully appreciated and understood"), or the America First-line not being out of touch with largely traditionalist, overwhelmingly Catholic ex-citizens of Latin America whose desires and expectations of America, bar "north", is aligned with an ostensibly conservative past. If this trend continues, the Democrats continuing their abrasive expectation that the Spanish-speaker and foreigner belongs to them (as they still may believe of the Irish; if they're still undesirable enough to be desirable) the results may, in the future, be astounding for those seeing in Trump, now leaving after his four years, a new Hitler. 

And what will come of this? Well, bar the expected delivery of a verdict, so long sung and (bar Bush v. Gore yet) unaddressed in reality,