When Team Trump took the Big Lie to court after the 2020 election, it went something like 1-62. That includes going 0-10 in cases that didn’t get laughed out or angrily thrown out of court but actually got as far as a decision on the merits.
Some of my favorite political moments of recent years were the judges issuing the kind of wrath and ridicule that the Big Lie deserves.
In a sensible world, that experience would be a win for reality and a reality check for Team Trump. But of course, all it revealed is that the Big Lie is a core component of the mythology Trump tells himself everyday, which makes it a core component of the job description of everyone in his circle. A circle of jerks.
Feels like a perfect moment for this Billy Preston tune.
“I’ve got a story, ain’t got no moralLet the bad guy win every once in a while …”
Which Brings Us To Voter Rolls
Donald Trump loves putting people in “acting” leadership titles and keeping them there. It lets him avoid proper confirmations, and it keeps his employees a little more on edge.
Never has the “acting” been more appropriate than for our titular DOJ chief, Todd Blanche. In Trump world, it doesn’t matter if you’re on a fool’s errand. It just matters that you keep beating your head against a wall in Trump’s name. Loyalty over competence has been the hallmark from the start, of course.
The result is a lot of taxpayer money wasted on theater. In Blanche’s case, performative litigation to get states to hand over their voter rolls, including sensitive voter information.
All of your “strict constitutionalist” friends who oddly never use that term anymore would recognize the folly of this effort immediately. Whether they’ll admit it is something else entirely. Funny how that goes. The silence is deafening.
On that note, let’s take a quick catchy Gomez break.
“I’ve been caught in a trap I set for myself …”
But losing time after time for all the right reasons doesn’t slow down Blanche, whose team has pursued the rolls in at least 48 states. Sixteen have rolled over for the DOJ in one way or another because they’re run by spineless toadies.
How are the other cases going? Well, so far, Trump and Blanche are 0-17 in this little vote suppression exercise. New Jersey became the 17th defeat just yesterday.
And by defeat, I don’t mean the case was heard and didn’t go their way. I mean that case got tossed out of court. Because states run their own elections. It’s not a grey area … for the reality-based among us.
If they were really concerned about the health of elections, they wouldn’t be simultaneously trying to shut down civil rights enforcement and limiting voting opportunities in every way possible.
Instead, we’re stuck watching them waste boatloads of taxpayer dollars and resources all in the service of assuaging an old narcissist’s ego.
The sad part for Blanche? This won’t end well for him because he can only demonstrate his fealty with a maximum of 33 losses in the name of Dear Leader. But he’ll nonsense as hard as he can nonsense at our expense, in hopes that his confirmation can squeak through the Senate.
Does anything say “I’m a loser!” as much as an obsession with telling everyone, “I’m not a loser!” instead of doing your damn job?
“I’m a winner. Things are gonna change, I can feel it …”