Recently Mitch McConnell GOP Senate Majority Leader blocked from coming to a vote via unanimous consent two Democratic bills aimed at tightening US Election security from foreign manipulation. Broadly one would have required paper records of each vote and the other would have required campaign reports attempts by foreign nationals and power to influence the election. For blocking these bills, and because the Russian interference in the 2016 that sought to assist Donald Trump in both the primary and the general election is ongoing many on the left gave McConnell the nickname ‘Moscow Mitch.’

Granted it did not look good but that may have been the point, in politics it is a common tactic to advance a proposition simply to force the opposition to vote it down or block because on the face it looks terrible when in fact there may be legitimate reason to defat any particular bill. Given that all of the recent foreign interference has benefits or sought to benefit the Republican Party it can’t be dismissed that at this time election security cuts against the GOP’s self-interest.

I poked around on general news, liberal, and conservative sites looking for various perspectives on these bills and McConnell’s action blocking them. Over at National Review I found a piece defending McConnell and that it very illuminating.

Rich Lowry’s defense of Leader McConnell falls into three major premises.

1) The American system localizes election and it is wrong for the Federal government to dictate to local officials how to conduct elections.

2) Broad legislation, law, and regulation are ‘more likely’ to capture minor and innocent transactions and incidents.

3) McConnell has already passed 380 million dollars of election security assistance.

In our federal system our election system is highly localized, so on that point Lowry is correct. Our decentralized election system has even been touted as a safeguard against electoral tampering because manipulating 8000 individual election authorities is vastly more difficult than attacking a single national system. And that would be argument for the safety and security of a decentralized system IFwe elected our president with the popular vote but the Electoral College turns that strength into a weakness. A bad actor seeking to manipulate our presidential contest doesn’t need to attack every election district in every state but rather merely a handful of districts in perhaps as few as one or two states to change the results of the election. Insisting on localism in this context means we are pitting the Cleveland Registrar of Voters against the combined might of the Russian Federation’s Security apparatus. This requiresfederal intervention.

To Lowry’s second element there is even less supporting his position. It is certainly a good ‘rule of thumb’ to consider how vast sweeping regulations and generalities interact with reality but when the focus is on a particular piece of law or proposed law then it becomes a requirement to showwhere it is overly broad and how that is counter-effective and Lowry’s doesn’t even attempt to do that. He spouts a platitude as though it is an argument and moves one.

Lowry’s third defense is also quite weak. 380 million dollars may sound like a lot of money to average people dealing with rent, utilities, and the minutia of life but in terms of large-scale projects it is a pittance. The reported budget for Avengers: Endgame  is 350 million dollars and certainly securing out elections if vastly more critical than even a very entertaining Hollywood feature. Remember there are about 8000 election authorities in the United States and 380 million dollars works out to each one getting less than $5000.  McConnell’s ‘assistance’ is barely more than lifting a finger.

Still, calling him ‘Moscow Mitch’ fair?

No, because his slavish devotion is to GOP power and not Moscow. If the Russians suddenly switched to helping the Democratic Party McConnell would become consumed with stopping them.

What we can say is that McConnell with his devotion to his party’s power at all costs and an utter disregard for all our political norms history and his willingness to advance our enemies cause if it helps his is that he is no patriot.

The most recent racist attacks by President trump are not the straws that broke any camel’s back. Politically accepting that Trump has a multitude of racist bones in his body was established when he took that escalator ride down into the Trump Tower Lobby and proclaimed Mexican people as ‘criminals’ and ‘rapists’ while reserving the privilege of assuming that ‘some’ were good people. The reports of Trump’s deep racial animosity stretches back throughout the entirety of his public life, including Federal law suits over his refusal to rent to African-Americans, and the ‘understanding’ of his casino floor managers that when trump visited to move African-Americans employees out of sight.  Nothing he has done as a businessman, public figure, or elected servant has contradicted this portrayal. Simply put, Donald Trump is racist.

The question is what do the rest of us do about it?

For independents and members of the Democratic Party this answer is obvious, oppose him, fight to defeat him, and drive him from the public square. But that’s a goal the Democrats and many others would have regardless of Trump bigotry.

For Republicans the challenge is far more consequential and very few appear to have the moral courage to meet it. At this date if one is unwilling to denounce and defeat this vile racism then you are left with just three options.

Complicity – you are a part of it. Your silence and refusal to take action make you into an ally in his smears, slanders, and bigotry.

Willful Ignorance – you ignore the facts, studiously avoid learning any of the man’s history, and pretend that in this media saturated environment you somehow have remained unaware of the truth.

Denial — One of my favorite authors once wrote ‘Mankind is not a rational animal but a rationalizing animal.’ This is never truer then when people invent fantastic leaps of logic in order to avoid the simplest and most obvious of conclusions. If you are finding byzantine explanation for how these numerous and repeated attacks are not ‘really racist’ congratulations you are in the state of Denial.

So which state is yours?

I am very concerned about the 2020 election cycle.

In addition to the on going interference from Russia there is little reason to suspect that other hostile foreign powers will not try to also influence the election. The Administration has made it clear that it intends to do as little as possible on the issue and there are a number of the countries that would seek the advantages of influencing the contests, and not just the presidency. While the 438 individual elections of the House of Representatives is a logistical challenge it would probably be more advantageous of a foreign power to try and effect the balance of powers in the Senate. Given the nature of our system and of the Senate there’s a lot of bang for the buck in influencing those elections.

Beyond interference there is also the very real possibility that we could have an election where the results are outright rejected by one of the parties, and of course I mean Trump. It is not the man’s nature to ever admit a loss, or a failing, or a failure.

Trump made no bones at all before Election Day in 2016 that he would consider a loss to be the result of a ‘rigged’ election. It is one thing for a candidate who had not got their hands on the lever of government to reject a result, but it is quite another thing to possibly have a president refuse to accept defeat in an election. The 2016 contest was decided by a handful of votes in just a few states and even then Trump refused to accept the actual numbers, insisting that his 3 million popular vote floss was a result of fraud, what may he do if this time it is a few thousand votes in a few states that elects his opponent?

I really doubt he would meekly accept the loss and leave, as he should.

What happens in that constitutional crisis, a type we in this country have never experienced? In confronting Trump core supporters the Republican Party have shown all the spine of amoeba. In such a hypothetical I have grave concerns about their ability to due their duty.

Yes, the report has been out for months and the reporting on the report has been extensive but I finally found time to read portions of the document myself and of course I have thoughts.

First off the mainstream media has been pretty much spot on about the report and what it contains. Some of the most explosive though ignored passages are taken verbatim from the document.

Second, the conservative media has done a disservice to their readers and viewers by making light of the reports serious and credible allegations. It is a display of power and partisanship over all principle.

Third, it is an established fact that the Russian government interfered with our 2016 Presidential election not out of a prankish goal of making things harder and more muddled for Hillary Clinton, whom Putin despises, but out of a clear preference for the election of Donald Trump. The intelligence operation to influence the election was broad, well funded, and sophisticated and began well before anyone suspected or feared the Trump would take the nomination. To be clear the Russian interference started in the primary with the clear goal of securing the nomination and eventually the Presidency for their candidate of choice, Donald Trump. This instance is far beyond the allegation that Senator Edward Kennedy sought support and assistance from the Soviet Union, an allegation supported by a single uncorroborated source.

Fourth, the evidence does not support with a degree of certainty that rises to criminal charges that the Trump campaign coordinated with the Russians to win the election. The facts support that the Russian interfered, including offering illegal assistance to the Trump campaign. The Trump campaign gladly accepted the assistance, knowing it came from an adversarial foreign power, but the evidence is thin that the two organizations plotted or planned together to win the election.

Fifth, on the subject of Obstruction of Justice the Mueller report reached no definitive conclusion other than that they could not state unequivocally that Trump did not commit obstruction and left that question to the political process.

To me it is clear that Trump, his inner circle, and perhaps more are compromised by a foreign power, and that’s without getting into the cash corruption of foreign agents and the President’s business holdings.

It is also clear that the loud conservative voice screaming about ‘Rule of Law’ during the Clinton administration are in fact hypocrites. It is a patriotic duty to secure our elections and be certain that the process reflects the will of the American people and not foreign interests, a duty the GOP is refusing to accept.

The truth is what I am about to say is pointless, those who agree with me will at best quote Die Hard  with the line ‘Welcome to the party, pal’ and those who disagree I think can never be persuaded but here goes anyway.

When the GOP pursues voter I.D. laws across the country their refrain is  that the actions are required to protect the sanctity of our elections. That these laws and changed to election systems are necessary to prevent voter fraud because nothing can be more important the safeguarding out election. It is outrageous that some voice suggest that the true purpose of these changes are in fact to suppress vote totals that may favor the GOP’s electoral opponents.

Of course at the time there was already plenty of evidence that ‘safeguarding election’ had nothing to do with the GOP’s intent. Absentee ballots already a rich source for vote tampering, see North Carolina’s 9th district as an example, and a source of votes that favors the GOP never seemed in need of protection. Now we have even greater proof that the GOP’s concern has always been victory over principle.

Naturally I am referring to Russia’s interference in our 2016 Presidential election and the Intelligence community’s assessment that they plan to continue attempting to influence the outcomes of our electoral processed. These are cold facts. Russian had a preferred candidate in the 2016 Presidential campaign, they orchestrated a sophisticated intelligencer operations stretching across many front and achieved their goals, and their preferred candidate now sits in the highest office of the land.

Even before the Mueller Report was completed and published Russian interference was a known fact and the GOP did nothing.

When the GOP controlled both Houses of the congress and could have passed laws taking sole credit for ‘safeguarding our election’ they did nothing.

When the President makes an open invitation for foreign powers to help his re-election the GOP does nothing.

Of you can find ‘statement’ and ‘deep concern’ but talk is cheap and character is revealed by action or in this case inaction.

It has never been about electoral integrity, integrity has never had anything to do with the GOPs actions. It is about power, pure and simple.

These are not the actions of patriots.