TIM WESSELMAN: Georgians can help halt attack on Constitution

As Americans witnessed the highest daily COVID-19 death toll last week, millions were on unemployment benefits set to expire after Christmas, others faced eviction in the new year, and a government shutdown loomed.

Congressional Republicans, however, were not focused on a pandemic killing more than 3,300 Americans a day. Instead, they fought a battle they lost a month earlier. Despite losing nearly 30 appeals to lower courts and one to the U.S. Supreme Court, the GOP still sought to overturn a record 81 million Democratic votes cast in the Nov. 3 general election in which Democratic challenger Joseph Biden defeated incumbent Donald Trump.

With the Electoral College having officially name Biden president-elect, Republicans in Congress floated plans for a Congressional vote that would overturn the election results. The leader of the Republican Party in Texas said that “perhaps” GOP-rich states should secede.

Despite their party’s attack on the very fabric of the nation — the public vote — it was Georgia’s incumbent Republican senators who continued to call their Democratic challengers “radical” in a barrage of expensive campaign ads.

As the week drew to a close, it became clear that for the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, Georgia voters must elect a new Senate.

Without the votes of Democratic challengers Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Congress could conceivably attempt to overturn the will of a record 81 million legal votes cast for Biden. Without a nearly evenly split Senate that would have to respect the will of two parties and nearly 160 million voters, Republicans will use their lock on the upper chamber of Congress to thwart a new president, the courts, and the people.

Trump has alleged voter fraud and refuses to concede. However, he and his supporters failed to present any credible evidence in more than 30 trips to court. It would be tempting to dismiss the “Stop the Steal” rhetoric whipped up by the Republican party and some in Albany as merely posturing and theater.

However, the GOP seeks to steal the votes of the same majority of Americans who favored a Democratic president in five of the last six presidential elections. Losing the popular presidential vote is not new to Republicans. They are just upset their grip on the wheels of electioneering used to overcome popular will is slipping.

These attacks come at a time when the nation needs a peaceful transition of power more than ever.

Yet Republican election protests are not harmless or peaceful. In Michigan, armed protestors gathered outside Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s home earlier this month. Days later, the Arizona Republican Party shared on its official Twitter account a Tweet asking followers if they are “willing to die” to overturn the presidential election results. The GOP in Arizona, which has also seen the home of its elections chief surrounded by menacing protestors, insisted it was not inciting violence, but did not condemn the Tweet.

In Georgia, Republican incumbents Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue called for the resignation of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a fellow Republican, as ballots in their races were still being counted last month. The Georgia GOP chief recently told Fox News the party recruited 4,000 “poll watchers” for “the largest and most aggressive ballot security operation in Georgia history.” Elections officials now must ensure “ballot security” does not become voter intimidation.

For his part, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., continues to block economic stimulus relief for working Georgians. Congress has been deadlocked since the summer on additional stimulus despite new COVID-19 spikes and continued economic losses for working Americans. Meanwhile, corporate America experienced strong profits and pushed the stock market to new highs.

McConnell made it clear which America he was most concerned about when he made his latest stimulus offers this month. He proposed a paltry package that provided more Payroll Protection Plan money and liability protection for corporate America, but no direct payments to Americans and no aid to state and local governments left to grapple with a pandemic poorly managed by the incumbent administration.

As absentee voting remained underway and early in-person voting for the Jan. 5 U.S. Senate runoff elections began Monday, Georgians found that nothing less than the rule of law, the integrity of the U.S. Constitution, and the will of the people is at stake. Georgia must vote for change, for Ossoff and Warnock. Anything else will once again allow McConnell to Trump the voice of the people.