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The Florida Republicans who chose Trump over democracy | Column
“No one has a duty to represent the opinions of the woefully misinformed and the dangerously deluded,” writes guest columnist Mac Stipanovich.
 
Protesters storm the Capitol and halt a joint session of the 117th Congress on Wednesday.
Protesters storm the Capitol and halt a joint session of the 117th Congress on Wednesday. [ KENT NISHIMURA | Los Angeles Times ]
Published Jan. 7, 2021

My earliest memory of anything having to do with politics is in black and white: images of Soviet tanks crushing the Hungarian Revolution beneath their treads in the streets of Budapest in 1956. A lot of water has gone over the dam since then. Cold wars, hot wars, assassinations, civil unrest, economic distress, terrorist attacks. But I do not believe any event during all that time has disturbed me more as an American citizen than what transpired Wednesday in the nation’s capital.

Mac Stipanovich. [ Mac Stipanovich ]

Thousands of right wing extremists summoned to Washington by Donald Trump and incited to violence by him in a mid-day speech overwhelmed surprised security forces and invaded the U.S. Capitol. This was only the second time in our history, and the first time since the War of 1812, that invaders have profaned this most sacred precinct of American democracy.

A woman was shot dead. Dozens were injured. Members of Congress laying on the floor for safety were protected by Capitol police with guns drawn at barricaded doors as the Secret Service rushed Vice President Mike Pence to a secure location. The invaders occupied the building for hours before finally being expelled and dispersed by phalanxes of police reinforcements. All of this because Donald Trump did not want Congress meeting in joint session to perform the normally perfunctory duty of certifying Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory in a free and fair election that Trump and his irresponsible collaborators in the Republican Party, like Gov. Ron DeSantis and Attorney General Ashley Moody in Florida, have falsely and cynically persuaded the Trump cultists was stolen by fraud and official malfeasance.

Interrupted but undeterred, Congress reconvened after the Capitol had been recaptured from the insurrectionists — for that is what they were — and proceeded to complete the certification of Biden’s win in the wee hours of Thursday morning. But not without continued resistance, this time from elected Republicans in the Congress.

One hundred and thirty-eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives and seven members of the U.S. Senate repudiated American democracy because the would-be autocrat to whom they have pledged their fealty in contravention of their oaths of office refused to accept the unambiguous outcome of the presidential election. They did so by voting to void the legal votes of millions of their fellow citizens without cause.

All of the blather by Trump and his collaborators about vote counting irregularities, mail-in ballot fraud, compromised voting machines, disregarded state elections laws, and similar red herrings is meritless obfuscation designed to conceal their depravity. In not one of about 60 post-election lawsuits heard by more than 90 state and federal judges and justices, some elected, some appointed by Democrats, and some appointed by Republicans including Trump, was there any findings of significant flaws in the election, much less an outcome altering circumstance that would warrant rejecting the certified Electoral College votes of a state. But facts be damned when partisanship is the prime directive.

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Those who chose Trump over democracy on Wednesday try to excuse themselves by saying they had a duty to represent the opinions of their many constituents who believe the election was stolen. What a pathetically transparent dissimulation of their shameful purpose. No one has a duty to represent the opinions of the woefully misinformed and the dangerously deluded, however great their numbers. On the contrary, it is the duty of every elected leader worthy of the name to do exactly the opposite, a point made by Edmund Burke, the progenitor of modern conservatism, in a famous speech to his constituents when running for re-election to Great Britain’s Parliament:

“(It) ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. ... But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. ... Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”

There are 13 men and women in the Florida Congressional delegation who we now know to a certainty lack the mature judgment and enlightened conscience of which Burke spoke, 13 people who betrayed their constituents and their country on Jan. 6, 2021. They are Rick Scott, Mario Diaz-Balart, Kat Cammack, Byron Donalds, Neal Dunn, Scott Franklin, Matt Gaetz, Carlos Giminez, Brian Mast, Bill Posey, John Rutherford, Greg Steube and Dan Webster

May their names live in infamy.

Mac Stipanovich was chief of staff to former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez and a longtime Republican strategist who is currently registered No Party Affiliation.