Sometime prior to November 8, 2020, four members of the Fea household voted in the presidential election. We joined millions of Pennsylvanians who voted by mail. We are the “people” of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Our voice was heard.
Missouri Senator Josh Hawley disagrees.
Here is a taste of Philip Bump’s piece at The Washington Post:
On Friday, Hawley gave a keynote speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Florida. And according to that speech, the senator who sought to block the will of Pennsylvania voters from being counted in the 2020 election is now a champion of restoring the voice of the people in American politics.
He began by disparaging the power of big technology companies, as he had in his Dec. 30 news release.
“We can have a republic where the people rule or we can have an oligarchy where Big Tech and the liberals rule,” Hawley said. “And that is the choice, that is the challenge that we face today. It’s a perilous moment.”
It’s worth noting the dichotomy he draws here. Either “the people” can rule or “the liberals” can — as though liberals aren’t Americans who have a voice in government. The reason “the liberals” have power in Washington at the moment is that more Americans voted for Democrats in the 2020 election.
But Hawley still insists somehow that the opposite is happening.
“That’s the fight of our time: to make the rule of the people an actual thing again, to restore the sovereignty of the American people,” he said a bit later.
The rule of the people is “an actual thing,” since the efforts of Hawley and his allies to block the people’s voice fell short. The American people have sovereignty, because Hawley’s cynical decision to pander to Trump supporters failed.
The implication from Hawley’s speech is that, at least in part, the system doesn’t accurately reflect the popular will. He insists that tech companies shape and obstruct that will, which he’s welcome to claim. But this is also again a tacit endorsement of Trump’s wildly false claims about the legitimacy of the election.
As you might expect, Hawley also explicitly defended his actions on Jan. 6.
“On January the 6th, I objected during the electoral college certification. Maybe you heard about it,” Hawley said.
The crowd, heavily populated with fervent Trump supporters, offered him an extended round of applause. Which, of course, is why he offered his objection on Jan. 6 in the first place.
“I did,” he continued, over the cheers. “I stood up — I stood up and I said, I said we ought to have a debate about election integrity. I said it is the right of the people to be heard, and my constituents in Missouri want to be heard on this issue.”
Hawley concludes: “Hawley used his effort to undercut democracy to proclaim how he would defend the democratic voice of those who agree with him. It doesn’t get much more cynical.”
Read the rest here.
Josh Hawley, please stop trying to say my vote didn’t count.
