Donald vs. democracy

Having in 2016 published the longest editorial in our century-long history urging voters to defeat Donald Trump, having in 2020 detailed 99 reasons over 99 days to reject his reelection, we understand full well there’s little left to say that will refocus the American mind on just how threatening the now-ex-president was to America. But every now and then comes along a revelation so genuinely alarming it demands an exhausted public pay attention again.

Such is the case with the memo exposed in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s new book, outlining a six-point plan for how Vice President Mike Pence could overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Penned by Trump lawyer Mike Eastman — who met Trump in the Oval Office on Jan. 5 — the document argues that on Jan. 6, Pence should simply set aside the electoral votes of seven states with “competing” slates of electors on the way to declaring Trump the victor, finally kicking the vote to the House of Representatives after inevitable “howls” from

Democrats.

We know what actually happened: Pence, of course, refused to be used, despite being yelled at and demeaned by Trump and being hanged in effigy by a rabid crowd. But the sketch for how to cling to power despite losing the election is now on paper; all that was missing in 2020 was a pliant patsy to follow it.

Lest a future demagogue see the near-coup as the prototype for a successful one, Congress must fix dangerously vague language in the Electoral Count Act. It makes it far too easy for Congress to object to electors; gives states the power to appoint new electors if the election “failed,” without elaborating on what that means; and doesn’t clarify the limits of the vice president’s role, which is clearly intended to be merely ceremonial.

Reform those provisions before the next election or democracy may unravel before our eyes. And we can’t say we weren’t warned, and warned, and warned again.