Democracy's stress test: We survived the worst of Trumpism - By Barney Frank

[DonViejo]

BY BARNEY FRANK, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR — 01/31/21 11:30 AM EST

When asked about Republican control of the House in 1994, I answered that as a gay, left-handed Jew I was used to being in the minority. I now have an addition to that list: I believe the outcome of Donald Trump’s malign, ridiculous assault on the election results is evidence not of the fragility of our democracy but of its durability.

To the charge that I am minimizing the seriousness of the parade of horribles that culminated in the “Trumpling” of the venue where the voting math was stored, my response is that it's precisely the depths to which Trump and his minions plunged which convince me that the pro-democratic forces in our country are strong today and will get stronger.

Most important is that the increasingly desperate schemes of the Trump-Giuliani-Hawley-Cruz-QAnon alliance to subvert democracy never came close to succeeding.

From the unbroken string of legal defeats inflicted on them by Trump- and non-Trump-appointed judges alike, through the universally failed efforts to strongarm Republican state officials to lie about the election’s results, to the unsuccessful pressure on Republican state legislative leaders to usurp Constitutional powers, and ending with the spectacularly counterproductive effort to prevent Congress from registering the results, at no point did this contemporary version of “The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight” pose any real threat to

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https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/536654-democracys-stress-test-we-survived-the-worst-of-trumpism

[Mme. Defarge]

1. Wonderful!

[MyOwnPeace]

2. To those willing to listen......

Barney Frank always had a keen insight into the actual "politicing" that was taking place in DC. I'm encouraged to see a positive statement from him in these troubling times.....

[gulliver]

3. I sure don't feel like we've seen the last of Trumpism and its whole nutty idea reservoir.

First, there's the idea of extinction burst. Trump got these wacko pigeons in the habit of getting a piece of corn every time they take a peck at the foundations of democracy. Behaviorism suggests they won't give up pecking just because the corn stops flowing. They'll start to frantically peck even harder for a long time before giving up (if they ever do).

Plus there's Murphy's Law and corollaries.

We've got to get results and win more votes from the other side to our side, imo. I'm optimistic too. But we're not out of the woods.

[dsc]

4. I love me some Barney Frank

and usually I agree with him nearly totally but not this time. The one and only reason they failed this time is that Biden won by enough states that no one person could change the outcome. Had Biden only won by one state, instead of five, I absolutely think, Trump's attempted coup at the DOJ would have happened and may well have worked.

[msfiddlestix]

6. I agree completely with you..

Love Barney... kind of feels like he's trying to be a morale booster, and that's fine.

But this will never glossed over for me. Jan 6th, and everything that culminated to that day I cannot brush off that lightly. And firmly believe that came really close to have been successful coup de'tat, with a lot more deaths. And oh by the way, it's sort of still happening. I don't see this as over by a long shot.

And Moscow Mitch's treachery just has to be checked immediately. We don't even have an Attorney General confirmed yet.

[malaise]

5. I agree with him

although some serious reforms are needed