Michigan's dress rehearsal for the insurrection
12 January 2024
From David Rothkopf, author and columnist:
This New Year's Eve is a good time to reflect on all the reasons you loved living in a democratic, free society. Because 2024 could be the last year we do. And if you don't want it to be the last, make your resolution to fight every day against the MAGA authoritarian threat.
From Jocelyn Benson, Michigan’s Secretary of State:
I'm sure you're following the Detroit News report about just how much pressure Donald Trump was exerting on Wayne County's board of canvassers. It is clear the Trump team had a plan in every key state. This was not a random coincidence - it was a strategy to overturn the election. And Michigan was a key part of this strategy.
Remember that in 2020, Michigan was first among the battlegrounds to go in the certification calendar. Had Trump succeeded in delaying or preventing a county or statewide certification in Michigan, that precedent would have been used to delay or block certification in Pennsylvania (which was certifying the following week), Georgia and so on, paving the way for the false slate of electors. We knew we were the first domino to go and that what Michigan did would impact the others.
But rather than rehash the details of the rest of the article - which you should read in its entirety if you haven't - I want to take you back to the night of that meeting from my perspective. For me, the absolute lowest moment in the post election battle we endured to protect Michigan’s accurate and legitimate election results in 2020 was not when armed protestors stormed my home. It was the night of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers meeting.I distinctly remember coming home that evening feeling completely defeated. We knew about the pressure not to certify (though until last night, I did not know about the recording). We were prepared to go to court to successfully ensure certification at the local and state level - and we were confident we’d win in court. But blocking certification in Wayne County and pushing this to the courts would still delay and create enough doubt and uncertainty to enable the Trump campaign to push Pennsylvania, which was certifying the next week, to delay as well. And we knew other dominos would fall after that. How could we overcome the pressure of the then-President of the United States on local and state officials? Were the facts and law not enough?
Well, then something I’ll never forget happened. Hundreds - hundreds (!) - of citizens showed up to the meeting of the Wayne County Canvassing Board to remind them of their duty under the law to ensure their votes counted. Their voices mattered. Their votes mattered. In my view, that turned the tide. Citizens and election officials in Wayne County and statewide didn’t flinch, stood firm, and demanded their votes be certified as required under the law. And in the end, the Wayne County Canvassing board fulfilled their legal duty, followed the law and certified the election. What started as the lowest moment of the post election melee became the most inspiring. The voters won. Facts and the rule of law carried the day. Democracy prevailed.
That pressure campaign was part of a coordinated strategy to overturn the election. Everything that has happened in the three years since is telling us Trump will try again. They are building the apparatus to exert pressure and challenge results in every way you can think of. We have to be ready.
From Michigan State Senator Mallory McMorrow:
It’s hard to believe that it’s been three years since the January 6th assault on our nation’s Capitol. I vividly recall watching what was playing out on my TV screen with horror and, more sharply, deep and profound sadness, a sense of loss. The smashed windows, the people climbing the Capitol to pull down the American flag and replace it with a Trump flag, the gallows that people had built outside.
But I also distinctly remember thinking, “I’m not surprised.”
On April 30, 2020, more than six months before these dark images played out on millions of screens throughout our country, we had the trial run in Michigan.
Back then, I wrote an op-ed for NBC News trying to sound the alarm on what we saw in Michigan. Under the guise of a protest about COVID-19 stay-at-home orders, but inspired by Trump’s tweets to “LIBERATE MICHIGAN,” our Capitol was besieged with men in full tactical gear and assault rifles standing in the gallery, right above our heads — making me feel like a fish in a barrel. We saw nooses, swastikas, and Confederate flags. We saw Boogaloo Boys and Three Percenters.
Then, in October, we learned that these very same men in the Senate gallery were part of a plot to kidnap and potentially kill our Governor, Gretchen Whitmer. For months, we’d seen our Republican elected officials, including our then-Senate Majority Leader, try to have it both ways: on one hand, he decried the rhetoric on the Senate floor. Then he turned around and joined some of the same protesters on the steps of the Capitol, the very same day we learned of the kidnapping plot, and told them to “keep going.”
With no real consequences, and with so many elected officials in positions of power encouraging them, fanning the flames of hatred, bigotry, and violence — what happened at our nation’s Capitol on January 6th, 2021 wasn’t shocking. It was inevitable.
Because not enough people stood up when there were clear warning signs. Because too many of our supposed leaders were willing to turn a blind eye — or even to encourage chaos — all to benefit one deranged man’s narcissism and quest to deny the will of the voters, no matter what it did to the country.
This week, we’re entering our first week of session. And just days ago, Michigan’s Capitol — along with Capitols in multiple other states — was evacuated and closed due to threats of violence.
As we head into a new year, let’s vow not to turn a blind eye to the warning signs again. We’re sounding the alarm in Michigan for a second time — and we need everyone to listen.
We must be vigilant. We must not be intimidated. And we must recognize that our country and our democracy will only survive if we do the work to ensure that it does.
It’s a major election year. Countless Michiganders and Americans stepped up to defend democracy in 2020. Despite all of the efforts to thwart it, because of us, democracy survived.
The Talmud states, “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it” (Pirkei Avot, Chapter 2, verse 16). To me, this means that we have an obligation to act, particularly on important matters. Each small action we take is analogous to dropping a grain of sand on a sandpile. It may have little immediate impact, but when enough grains are dropped, the sandpile will change.
These essays discuss what you can do:
2024 resolution: Save democracy, 31 December 2023
Effective government requires our participation, 12 October 2023
What you can do to promote democracy, 25 August 2023
If you like these free essays, please share them with others.
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