Cramming For the Democracy Exam

 

If you’re one of those people who doesn’t appreciate what you have until it’s too late, then you should really thank the former president. Before the near demise of the institution of democracy on January 6, C-Span may have been one of the least viewed channels in television history. Did you know that you needed ¾ of the Senate to impeach but only a majority to vote on the constitutionality of impeaching a former president.? Did you even know that House of Representatives voted to impeach a president, but it was the Senate who tried the impeachment? Did you know the process by which the electoral votes of each state are certified?  Did you know that certificates were sent to congress and tabulated by the Vice President until Mike Pence almost died upholding his duty? Couples take each other for granted until there’s a separation and you begin to tally up the good and the bed in order to determine whether to move on to divorce or not. Without the former president’s total disregard for literally every precept and value of democracy, few people but constitutional scholars and law students really understood what goes on in the sausage factory (and democracy US style is made up of a lot suspicious meat). Retrumplicans who still insist that the election was rigged and stolen will try to fire Dominion (the company that manufactured many voting machines) and install other voting machines that really are rigged. However, for the rest of the electorate, an overhaul of the electoral college itself could be the result of this latest stirring up of the pot. Joe Biden won by more than 7 million votes and he received 306 electoral votes, but Hillary Clinton won the election by 3 million votes and still lost. And before the recent debacle had you even heard of the senate parliamentarian?

Read "MAGA and the Coronavirus" by Francis Levy, The East Hampton Star