These California Republicans sold their souls to Trump and betrayed American democracy

The Electoral College has done its job. Former Vice President Joe Biden has won the presidency. Sen. Kamala Harris is his vice president. Election 2020 is over.

Of course, this was clear to any rational American on Nov. 8, when Pennsylvania put Biden over the 270 electoral votes needed to win. This inconvenient but incontrovertible fact was also clear to 17 Republican state attorneys general and 126 GOP members of the House of Representatives. But since they didn’t like the election’s result, they decided to file a shockingly ridiculous lawsuit to overturn it.

Last week, the United States Supreme Court, which has a conservative majority, refused to hear their fraudulent case. It cited a lack of standing by the lead petitioner, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The Texas top cop is currently facing a federal indictment for securities fraud.

So much for “law and order.”

Unfortunately, four of California’s GOP congressmen joined him in this thoroughly corrupt attempt to overthrow a free and fair election. They are:

▪ House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield

▪ Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale

▪ Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, and

▪ Ken Calvert, R-Corona.

LaMalfa, one of California’s most embarrassing and inept congressmen, appeared on CNN a few days ago and humiliated himself by giving a bizarre interview to host Chris Cuomo.

Cuomo: “You got any proof that anything was done that was fraudulent in any election?”

LaMalfa: “You know, I don’t have proof that men landed on the moon in 1969 because I wasn’t there.”

You are now standing on a loony surface, Rep. LaMalfa — along with Elvis, Bigfoot and your own Pizzagate president.

These extreme sore loser antics would be comical if they weren’t so destructive to American democracy. This woo-woo cuckoo coup attempt is another example of why LaMalfa, McClintock, McCarthy and their pro-authoritarian, anti-democracy colleagues are utterly unfit to govern.

Democracy is a fragile thing. It depends on trust, honor and loyalty to the law. President Donald Trump and his wannabe-seditious stooges in the Republican Party have done everything in their power to smash confidence in our election system and ensure that millions of voters remain skeptical of the election results.

McCarthy’s decision to sign on to this effort is even more sickening because he knows better. Once a promising rising star in the GOP, he’s now become an anti-democratic thug in the tradition of Hungary’s Viktor Orban, Russia’s Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The only difference is that these other tyrants have successfully undermined democracy to seize power. McCarthy and his Republicans failed in their attempt to destroy American democracy this time, but they will surely try again.

How sad to see the party that once produced leaders like Lincoln, Eisenhower, Ford and Reagan find itself terminally diseased by a blind fealty to a delusional reality television real estate developer who blundered into — and through —the presidency.

Trump lost fair and square. Democrats and Republicans can and do disagree on many political issues. Still, anyone who seeks to undermine free elections can no longer claim loyalty to the United States and its Constitution. You can’t claim allegiance to the flag while seeking to destroy the democratic system it represents.

These California congressmen have betrayed their oaths of office and demonstrated stunning disloyalty to our system of democratic governance. We would recommend that they engage in some serious soul searching, but they have clearly traded their souls to Donald Trump.

When they face voters again in 2022, they will presumably win with support from the voters they have deluded into believing that Trump won. And though many Californians don’t like the idea of lying, anti-democratic zealots holding high public office, we’ll have to accept the results if voters re-elect these disgraceful clowns.

Because that’s the American way.

This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 5:00 AM.