Alabama representative Mo Brooks said he is planning to make use of the Electoral Count Act of 1877 law to force both houses of congress to debate the certified electoral vote. He needs a senator to agree with his plan (Ted Cruz will probably support him). To change the outcome of the election, both the house and the senate would have to disapprove the electors' votes, which is very unlikely to happen, given the Democrats' comfortable majority in the house. However, writes Ed Kilgore for New York Magazine, Brooks' move would "force each and every Republican member of Congress to go on record supporting or opposing Trump's coup, in the ultimate loyalty test just before the 45th president leaves office, shrieking and whining the whole way."
They all know Trump's refusal to accept defeat is childish and dangerous, but will they have the courage to deny him one final gesture of fealty? I wouldn't be so sure about it. But if they do succumb in large numbers to this last temptation, their party will for years bear the stain of so outrageous and authoritarian a measure, as bright and red as the biblical Mark of the Beast.
Image: By Адміністрація Президента України, CC BY 4.0, modified
