Braced for Impact

My maple flooring is taking a beating today as I pace from end to end of the house, waiting for one of the remaining states to drop the hammer on Trump’s dwindling Electoral College hopes.

I can’t even concentrate long enough to cook something, had to work my way up to typing out this post. I just can’t sit still for long.

My kid isn’t helping much. Whenever a state reports a new vote count, they yell downstairs, regurgitating everything I’ve just read online. But they’re just as anxious as I am, and at 23 they haven’t yet lived through much election weirdness.

“Did you hear about the riot in Detroit, the Trump supporters harassing the vote counters?”

Yes, dear, I did, and it’s like the Brooks Brothers riot all over again, with fewer hanging chads and pinpoint oxford button-down shirts, with more camouflage and Confederate flags.

“What’s a hanging chad?”

~sigh~

We know it’s inevitable. The writing is on the wall. It’s even on Fox News but Trump refuses to yield to reality, just as he’s never yielded to the truth for his entire term in office.

The worst part: the anger is turning dangerously nasty, and it’s not just Trump but his family, minions, and his hardcore whackdoodle base who are going past acceptable expressions of frustration and grief.

Some of what we are seeing is intended to create chaos while disrupting the normal election process.

In a word, it’s seditious.

Now bmaz may jump on me for using a legal term here though I’m not a lawyer.

I do mean seditious, referring to seditious conspiracy.

Here’s the Wikipedia definition of sedition:

Sedition is overt conduct, such as speech and organisation, that tends toward rebellion against the established order. Sedition often includes subversion of a constitution and incitement of discontent toward, or rebellion against, established authority. Sedition may include any commotion, though not aimed at direct and open violence against the laws. Seditious words in writing are seditious libel. A seditionist is one who engages in or promotes the interest of sedition.

Here’s the U.S. Code for seditious conspiracy:

18 U.S. Code § 2384.Seditious conspiracy

If two or more persons in any State or Territory, or in any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, conspire to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof, they shall each be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than twenty years, or both.

Emphasis mine.

Our country is a democratic republic. Voting and counting those votes to elect officials is foundational to our system of government. It’s embedded in our Constitution including several amendments.

Advocating any interruption of normal voting and vote counting, especially the increasing calls for violence including militarized language, could be construed as incitement. Two or more people working to this end could be construed as seditious conspiracy against the United States.

All votes must be counted. The counting process will weed out those ballots which are not valid. This is how democracies work. It’s outlined in our Constitution and laws and undermining these laws is seditious.

It’s horribly embarrassing that our country’s president has attempted to claim a victory before all the votes are counted, but that so many attempts have been made to obstruct the normal electoral process. The world sees this very clearly for what it is, sees Trump for what he is.

We can see that Trump knows better as well; he has all the appearance of a narcissist in meltdown because he isn’t getting what he wants to feed his ego.

This has to end. It will end, as soon as the next state — likely Pennsylvania — finalizes their vote count, pushing Joe Biden to or past the necessary 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

The really sad part is that we don’t know what will happen when it does end.

Will the real tantrum begin? Will Team Trump engage in a smash-and-grab on the way out? Will they obstruct what should be a peaceful transition of power?

We can’t tell. We can only brace ourselves for impact.