TWGB: The Eastman Problem

 

I just want you to think about John Eastman for a minute, because in ordinary times, that's a name you never would have known. There is no reason to. A John Eastman would just be a cipher, a small man with some strong ideas about how government can perpetuate itself, but, of course, he's a kind of crank. 

But in the world in which we live, he taunted the VP of the US for not violating the norms of his office, telling him the Capitol riot was his fault, literally, like a bully smacking Pence for hitting himself. Why was Pence hitting himself? 

That's a big problem. I don't fathom how deep Claremont and Federalist Society counts for just this minute, but I know it's a big deal. But I definitely see it as something to think about--why is such a cranky idea as Pence's ability to change the election given credibility? Why listen to Eastman's far-fetched notion (in rather the way Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani, and others' wild claims of voter fraud were listened to?)

Because he said Trump won. It's what separates Eastman from the losers--the willingness to say a thing so untrue that no objective reality easily permeates the bald-facedness of the lie. Trump wanted to hear that there was a way that he won.

But what Eastman represents for our purpose is the fact of the collusion, There was a reason for every communication and act that day. John Eastman tells us it was to make Mike Pence grow a spine for Trump,. I think was a stupid ask, and side with Pence that he did not do it, because that day wasn't about Mike Pence's fidelity to the Constitution, but the failure of so many to consider what small d democracy was about. 

So many people who would lie for Trump. It needn't make you think, even. But you should think about that.