The Overview (Monday, December 14)
Responses to the Jericho March, the politicization of religious freedom, and American politics through the lens of Whole Foods and Cracker Barrel
Later today the Electoral College will formally elect Joe Biden as the next President of the United States. But if you were hoping that would officially be the end of the 2020 presidential election, I’m afraid I have some bad news.
With virtually all of President Trump’s legal challenges either languishing or rejected, the president is turning to his next battleground: Congress. Under the Constitution, both chambers of Congress must approve of the results of the Electoral College vote. And while a faithless elector or two may cast his or her vote for someone other than President-elect Biden or Trump, we all have a better chance of winning the lottery together than 37 Democratic electors deciding not to back Biden and thereby changing the outcome of last month’s presidential election. As far as the Electoral College is concerned, it’s over.
But like I said, Congress technically has the final say. Early in January, once the new Congress is sworn in, one of their first responsibilities under the Constitution is to approve the results of the Electoral College. This has been a ceremonial formality for most of the country’s history. However, in keeping with the theme of 2020, we can expect some fireworks this time around.
If one member of the House and one member of the Senate object to a state’s electoral results, both the House and the Senate are required to return to their chambers to debate the objection for two hours. Then, the objection is either voted up or down, and if both chambers vote in favor of the objection, then that state’s electoral votes are set aside.
Trump’s next (and final) move would be to convince enough Republicans in Congress to object to this process to toss out the electoral votes of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin — which would keep Biden from winning the required 270 to become president. The problem with this is twofold. First, Democrats have a majority in the House, meaning that even if every House Republican voted to strike a state’s result (this alone would be unprecedented, and it’s very unlikely to happen), it still wouldn’t be enough to dismiss the states’ electoral votes. And second, several Republican senators—included Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, and Pat Toomey—have acknowledged Biden as president-elect, and would thus be unlikely to support such a move in the Senate; given the composition of the new Senate, this would be enough block the objection there.
Still, the endgame for Trump may not be to remain in the White House in 2021. Instead, by convincing enough Republicans in Congress to take the steps outlined above, Trump would extend his efforts to sow doubt about the legitimacy of a Biden presidency, casting a shadow that would extend throughout Biden’s four years in office. Republicans would continue to be pressured to hold the line Trump is drawing, perhaps interpreting any action that recognizes Biden as president (attending his addresses, confirming his nominees, or even engaging in legislating) as anathema to the pro-Trump element of the party.
In short, while the 2020 election has been an exhausting slog, there are reasons to think we’re far from returning to a sense of normalcy any time soon.
With that, here’s the Monday, December 14 edition of The Overview:
1) This past weekend thousands of Americans marched on Washington D.C. in support of President Trump’s claim that the presidential election had been stolen from him. One of there organizers of the show of support—dubbed the Jericho March—was Eric Metaxas, the Christian radio personality whose claims about a stolen election have upset some of his allies and friends in the conservative Christian movement. Among them is Rod Dreher, who previously defended Metaxas’s punching a bicyclist (“I don’t care that Eric threw a punch at that guy” Dreher wrote. “He had it coming”), but has had enough of his post-election rhetoric. Additionally, David French dedicated his Sunday column in The Dispatch to the Jericho March. Needless to say, he was not amused:
I’m going to be as blunt as possible: Language like Metaxas’s … embody a form of fanaticism that can lead to deadly violence. There isn’t a theological defense for it. Indeed, its fury and slander directly contradict biblical commands. When core biblical values are contingent, but support for Donald Trump is not, then idolatry is the result.
2) Writing for USA Today, lawyer Asma Uddin and political scientist Andrew Lewis (a friend of mine) explain how religious freedom has become increasingly politicized during the coronavirus pandemic. Specifically, following the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision striking down New York regulations on churches, partisans on both sides quickly dug in to paint the issue in a particular light (in reality, the decision was fairly narrow and fact-dependent). “Constantly shouting that religious freedom is under threat and proclaiming that one political party is the offender or defender of religious freedom,” Uddin and Lewis write, “inflames division and polarizes…. [T]he culture wars will obscure these more complex discussions.”
3) John Reinan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune reports on a recent city council decision permitting a church with white supremacist ideology to use an abandoned church for its meetings. The city council of Murdock, MN, voting anonymously, allowed the Asatru Folk Assembly to utilize the building despite opposition from the community, including the mayor. But the city attorney encouraging the council to permit the gathering. “There's not a compelling interest in keeping that building from being used for meetings,” he said. “Just because you don't like it doesn't mean they can't do it.”
4) The Cook Political Report’s Dave Wasserman reports on one of the starkest political phenomena of the last several election cycles: the partisan gap between counties with Whole Foods stores and counties with Cracker Barrel restaurants:
This gap has increased steadily over the past several presidential elections, as Bill Clinton won just 60 percent of Whole Foods counties in 1992 (a gap of 20 percent). This year’s gap of 53 percent highlights the continued exacerbation of the urban-rural divide in American politics. The whole thread is available here.