Rep. Michael Waltz received the Orlando Sentinel's endorsement in the 2020 general election for Congress. On Thursday, Waltz joined onto the traitorous Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the results in four states because they didn't break for Donald Trump. On Friday, the paper's Editorial Board formally apologized to their readers.
We had no idea, had no way of knowing at the time, that Waltz was not committed to democracy.
During our endorsement interview with the incumbent congressman, we didn't think to ask, "Would you support the effort to throw out the votes of tens of millions of Americans in four states in order to overturn a presidential election and hand it to the person who lost, Donald Trump?"
Trump has not been able to prove one case of voter fraud, and this latest lawsuit from Texas didn't even allege fraud. It just argued that states like Pennsylvania and Georgia didn't adequately suppress the vote like they did in Texas. The case, as you should know, was ridiculous in every sense of the word. The corrupt Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, who is bucking for his own pardon, essentially argued that states like Georgia made Trump lose by extending early and mail-in voting—which is exactly what Texas did.
Never mind that the Constitution specifically says that states can run their own elections as they see fit, and never mind that you can't argue election rules after an election, and never mind that Texas had no standing to sue. (Although part of me really hoped that SCOTUS would have taken this case up. I have my reasons.)
The fact that a representative of the United States government is okay with overthrowing an election (and let's not say "overturn,"—let's call this coup what it is), is seditious and, I would argue, treasonous since we've been in a war with Vladimir Putin. Instead of fighting us head-on, Putin has instead successfully taken control of a major U.S. party to destroy us from within. Waltz is either a coward who's afraid to stand up for democracy or is seriously okay with turning us into a developing autocracy beholden to Russian interests. The only thing I know for sure is that he doesn't deserve to represent the United States.
Kudos to the Orlando Sentinel for calling this assault on our democracy what it is. Others need to follow suit. Yes, it's embarrassing and didn't go anywhere, but that's not the point. Republicans know that the overwhelming majority of Americans rejected their platform. Instead of adjusting their platform, they simply decided to reject democracy. Utah Sen. Mike Lee didn't misspeak when he argued against "rank democracy" in this country. The GOP has become dangerous, authoritarian, and fascist under Trump, and it looks like they'll be staying that way after Trump.