Theater of the absurd takes one-act play to Texas

Let’s start with the obvious: The presidential election is over, Joe Biden won and Donald Trump lost. No matter how many Trumpsters howl, or feverishly embrace conspiracy theories, the American people have had their say, and they said, “Joe.”

Enter Texas’ attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is suing Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin because, he says, pandemic-inspired rule changes in conducting the November election in those states somehow led to massive voter fraud that has harmed — wait for it — Texas.

Paxton, who has also led the Trump-backed legal fight against the Affordable Care Act, himself is under indictment on felony securities fraud charges. Top aides also filed a recent letter of complaint calling for Paxton to be investigated over allegations of bribery and other abuses of office.

That, of course, makes him a perfect water carrier for Trump, who has his own history of using the power of his office for personal business gain.

Legal scholars rolled their eyes at what seems to be mostly a one-act play in the theater of the absurd. Even the most conservative of the Supreme Court justices whom Paxton asked to weigh in on his argument that presidential electors in those four states should be disqualified aren’t likely to find much sense in Paxton’s nonsense.

But these and other concocted legal arguments bolster the fiction beheld as truth by Trump supporters that a vast conspiracy has acted to overturn the will of the people and deny Trump a second term.

Democracy has always held the keys to its own demise through the act of democracy itself. For it to work, people have to believe in the process and the outcomes. More importantly, they have to accept the outcomes even when their candidates lose, then look ahead to the next election rather than rejecting — without valid cause — the results.

Trump emerged politically five years ago as the grand marshal leading a growing parade of Americans who distrusted the federal government. Now, having lost re-election, he is leading his supporters off into a wilderness of delusion and disbelief.

And he is being aided by fellow Republicans such as Paxton, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell of Kentucky, House Minority Leader Kevin Mccarthy of Bakersfield and others who have refused to do something so basic as affirm the reality of the election results.