Joe Biden’s election as the next president of the United States was formally certified by Congress early Thursday morning, just hours after a Trumpist mob invaded the Capitol demanding that the results of the election were tossed out in favor of their demagogic leader.The violent insurrection—which left four dead—backfired on the Hill, where some of Trump’s lingering support dissipated amid the tear gas.The Senate was first to reject the bid to block President-elect Joe Biden’s win in Arizona late Wednesday after several shocked Republican lawmakers abandoned their effort to challenge the election results.The 93-6 vote in favor of certifying Biden’s win in the state came after Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), who lost her re-election bid to Democrat Raphael Warnock on Tuesday, backtracked on her vow to object.“The events that have transpired today have forced me to reconsider and I cannot now in good conscience object to the certification,&#x
The Atlantic
Trump’s threats aren’t performative he’s pointing a loaded gun at democracy.
January 5, 2021
Shutterstock / The Atlantic
If people “define situations as real, they are real in their consequences,” William Isaac Thomas and Dorothy Swaine Thomas wrote in 1928. That sociological insight often referred to as the Thomas theorem offers the best way to think about this peculiar moment in American politics.
It’s what the “senior Republican official” quoted by
The Washington Post in early November, on how to respond to President Donald Trump’s baseless allegations of electoral fraud, failed to understand. “What is the downside for humoring him for this little bit of time?” the official asked.