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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsRepublicans never see Democratic Presidents as legitimate
What they're doing by questioning President Bidens legitimacy isn't new. Since 1968 they've believed they own the White House and any Democrat in the oval office is an imposter.
They'd rather buy into wild conspiracy theories than admit their Presidential nominees are usually wildly unpopular.
That Carter was only elected because Democrats conspired to destroy Nixon with the Watergate impeachment hearings.
That Clinton was illegitimate because of the Whitewater land deal and because he cheated on his wife.
That Obama was illegitimate because he was born in Kenya.
And now they think Biden is illegitimate because Republican lawmakers have concerns about "irregularities" in 2020.
When in fact the only thing irregular about the 2020 election was that it was held during a deadly pandemic. And elected officials had to expand mail in voting so people wouldn't have to vote in person and spread Covid to one another.
It's all a pattern. Some of their voters will never see a Democratic President as legitimate. And the Republican lawmakers who continue to refuse to tell them the truth that Biden won and Trump lost in a free and fair election should be ashamed of themselves.
hauckeye
(635 posts)I remember some Republican saying he really wasnt a legitimate president because he didnt get above 50
kairos12
(12,862 posts)arlyellowdog
(866 posts)No one I know did. No one cared what we thought. Why should we care about what those people think. Its not going to change them.
WarGamer
(12,452 posts)Or are you arguing that Trump and shurb were legitimate?
dsc
(52,163 posts)or the election of the first Bush. We may not have liked the fact they won, but we admitted they won.
WarGamer
(12,452 posts)TraceNC
(254 posts)Vogon_Glory
(9,118 posts)have acted like theyre entitled to the Presidency by divine right since the 1980 election. After 40 years that delusion has become an integral part of their mindset.
Mopar151
(9,989 posts)Ike's 2nd term (begat the Birchers),
Celerity
(43,416 posts)vote or at least approve a Dem POTUS-nominated SCOTUS justice, and likely also block all or most all Federal judiciary lower court Dem nominees. The same for many other positions needing Senate confirmation.
If Sinema has her way, even the 2 mini-nuke exceptions will be repealed, so it will be back to the filibustering days for all applicable positions now exempted. In fact she wants a 60 vote threshold for ALL Senate actions. she needs to primaried in 2024. If is pointless to primary Manchin, as he is the only Dem who can win in NV in 2024 and beyond, but I think he goes down (if he even runs again) then in the general anyway, especially if he and Sinema do not cave, and we fail to pass the voter protection/rights bills. Failure to pass those seriously damages our chances in 2022 and 2024 (and beyond) up to and including the POTUS race in 2024.
Finally, and in line with the OP and the question of Dem POTUS legitimacy, I will not be shocked at all if the Rethugs do take the House in 2022 (and in numbers large enough to overcome some House members who may not play ball) that they then proceed to impeach Biden on ludicrously false grounds, even knowing it has no chance in the Senate.
The Rubicon has been passed, the iron dice tossed, and it is dark days ahead I fear, as the Rethug QMAGAt-controlled party will continue to further attack democracy's bedrock foundations. They are past the point of no return if they stay intact as a party, as they are now 100% wedded to an overarching stratagem of white nationalism-maintained rule, which requires evermore draconian voter suppression tactics, and an ever-increasing share of the white vote, to make up for demographic-based changes in the composition of the American electorate.
They have played the long game since the mid 1960's, and have damn near gamed the constitutionally-mandated system of federalism, from top to bottom, from local, up to county, up to state and finally, up to the tripartite federal levels. The have built it from both the bottom up, using the smallest units of the power, dominating local, county, and state elections in far too many places, whilst doing their Machiavellian best at the Federal government level to bore down from the top. It is a classical pincer movement, expressed in political power manifestations instead of a kinetic warfare theatre of battle.
We still have elements within our own party that think this multi-headed hydra can be engaged with, worked with, reasoned with, the experiment of democracy played within a self-imposed constricting prism that sees things as having 'good-faith' boundaries the other side will surely honour. That is the stuff of normalcy bias, and yes, perhaps even of madness, and likely, at the end of the day, will yield the destruction (to what level remains to be seen) of the democratic (small d) rule of law in the Union of the States. Once, if that both noble and necessary premiss fails and turns to dust in too many cracks and crevices, at too many structurally integral joints and intersections both large and small, the Union itself will be in danger of atomisation, at least as it is currently constituted.