[OPINION] Attempts to break the guardrails of democracy have failed, at least this time

It’s rare to wake up feeling energized these days, but on Wednesday morning I felt energized. It appeared that Reverend Raphael Warnoc and Jon Ossoff were going to sweep the Senate races in Georgia and hand the Democrats control of the Senate (with Vice President Kamala Harris as the tie breaker). It felt like things might settle down and maybe some good governing might happen. 

That feeling didn’t last long. By lunch time, news about Trump supporters gathering in the US Capitol had filled my social media feeds. The more I scrolled, the worse it got. There were pictures of men and women in MAGA hats climbing walls to get into the Capitol building, and pictures of law enforcement officers pointing guns at people trying to get into the congressional chamber. There were videos of people breaking doors and windows at the entrance of the Capitol. 

The pictures and videos were shocking and upsetting, but not really that surprising. Since 2015, when Donald Trump announced his candidacy for President, his rallies have been filled with racist, violent rhetoric. At one rally, he called Mexican immigrants rapists. At others, he supported and encouraged the harassment and attacks on the non-violent protestors who attended the rallies. And he said all these things with the understanding his supporters were going to be loyal to him, even notoriously saying, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” 

We’ve now had 4 years of that same racist, violent rhetoric in the White House, so no, a violent mob breaking into the US Capitol in Donald Trump’s name was not surprising.  

There have been numerous times in the last 4 years when I’ve felt concerned, and even scared, about the Trump administration’s actions – the announcement of the Muslim ban, the response to the Charlottesville riot, the response to the racial justice protests, the mishandling of COVID-19, etc. And every time I would get concerned that maybe what Trump was doing was breaking our democracy, my mom would say, “That won’t happen in America.”

My parents moved to the United States from the Philippines in the 1980s; my mom arrived in 1983 and my dad and I followed in 1987. Both my parents witnessed the presidency and dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos. They remember the human rights violations, the attacks on the press and opposition leaders, and my dad even has a trove of stories about the protests he attended.

The actions of the Trump administration, and the actions of President Trump himself, were starting to sound like the stories I heard from my parents and stories I read about authoritarian governments around the world. I was starting to feel uncomfortable, to say the least. But not my mom. Even with all of the problems we have in the United States, she has always chosen to see the best parts of the US and its potential for good. 

She wasn’t wrong; at least not this time. 

Just in the last two months, despite a pandemic ranging across the US, Trump has seemingly been spending all his time trying to overturn the results of the election so he can maintain power. He has made accusations that the election was rigged, and his legal team and their allies have filed lawsuits in local, state, and federal courts around the country in an attempt to decertify votes and disenfranchise millions of voters. Trump has also made attempts to pressure state election officials, even going so far as to ask Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, to “find” him votes. In a recording of a telephone call between Trump and Raffensperger, Trump says specifically that he wants to “find 11,780 votes,” which conveniently, would give him the win over Joe Biden, who won by 11,779 votes. 

Even with all the pressure that the US systems have had to endure in the last 4 years, and especially in the last two months, these systems held up like they were supposed to. 

The states held secure elections, counting and recounting votes to ensure the outcome was correct. Even Trump’s own elections officials confirmed the election was secure. In a statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), officials stated, unequivocally, that “[t]he November 3rd election was the most secure in American history.”  

The Trump team filed their legal challenges (which they should be allowed to do); and the courts’ denied them, 62 times. Even judges nominated by Trump were not shy about their dismissals of the lawsuits. Judge Stephanos Bibas, who was nominated by Trump in 2017, wrote the opinion denying Trump’s appeal of a Pennsylvania case. In the opinion, Judge Bibas writes, “calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here.”

The mobs outside of the Capitol and the Trump allies in Congress tried to hold up the certification of votes, but Congress pushed through, certifying votes late into the night and finally finishing at around 4 am Thursday morning. When I woke up that morning, Joseph R. Biden and Kamala D. Harris had been certified as the next President and Vice President of the United States. 

Despite insidious, dishonest attempts to break the guardrails of US democracy, it didn’t happen, at least not this time. Mom is still right. – Rappler.com

Johonna Veloso is currently working as a paralegal in Los Angeles, CA. She is also an experienced political organizer, and has worked on local and national campaigns.