If This is 1776, John Eastman, You’re On The Other Side

The indictment of Donald Trump for his actions on January 6 has provoked a huge swath of commentary, much of it disingenuous. Walter Olson walks through some of the bad arguments (and one or two good ones) and our own David Thornton addressed the free speech issue here. As these argument fall apart like so many overcooked chickens, I expect that we will eventually circle back to the final rampart: claiming that Trump’s actions preceding and on January 6 were entirely justified because Democrats are so awful. One of the first to jump into that pool is attorney and part-time Mickail Gorbachev cos-player¹ John Eastman:

“Our Founders lay this case out,” says Eastman. “There’s actually a provision in the Declaration of Independence that a people will suffer abuses while they remain sufferable, tolerable while they remain tolerable. At some point abuses become so intolerable that it becomes not only their right but their duty to alter or abolish the existing government.”

“So that’s the question,” he tells Klingenstein. “Have the abuses or the threat of abuses become so intolerable that we have to be willing to push back?”

This is not exactly a new sentiment, having shown up on the day of January 6, most famously in a tweet from Lauren Boebert (R-C.Perfringens). Over and over, we have heard about how “conservatives” have been marginalized, silenced, and abused by tyrannical Democrats. But it’s rather different to hear this coming from one of the architects of the attempt to subvert the election. And it highlights why my response to this sort of this is usually:

What in the god-damned hell are you even talking about?

Let us consider some facts: the Republicans control 28 legislatures, with another 3 split. In some case, most egregiously Wisconsin, this is because of extreme gerrymandering that gives Republicans majorities or evens supermajorities with a minority of the vote. Republicans control 26 governorships and in 22 states have both the legislature and the governor’s mansion. The Republicans control the House and, after the next election, will almost certainly control the Senate, even if they get a minority of the overall votes. The Republicans have won two presidential elections while losing the popular vote and almost won in 2020 despite Biden getting seven million more votes. They have massive numbers of judges on the Courts and a supermajority on the Supreme Court. Finally, they have the unwavering support of the top-ranked news network, fresh off an $800 million settlement for promulgating GOP lies about Dominion, as well as two other networks — Newsmax and OANN — that make the DPRK News Twitter parody look subtle.

In short, the Republicans currently have more political power than they have had for most of my lifetime. When I was a kid, the Democrats controlled everything and there was no conservative media at all. Now, the GOP has so much political power that they are passing unpopular laws on abortion, child labor and education with little fear of electoral consequences and knowing the the Supreme Court has their back. Just this year, a District Judge in Texas temporarily outlawed abortion pills for the entire country based on pseudoscience, overturning a bureaucratic decision made 23 years ago and left standing by five Administrations, Republican and Democrat. And far from crying tyranny, the Republicans applauded it.

Our revolution against the British Empire was a result of disenfranchisement, a break from a tyrannical regime in which we had no voice. “No taxation without representation” was the battle cry of the powerless. But what we are seeing from the Trumpists these days is not the cry of the powerless, but the cry of powerfful. It is, as Jon Stewart observed during the 2004 election, the rage of the enfranchised. The Trump Republicans are not the colonists impotent against a distant monarch. They are George III having a fit that Parliament exists.

And Eastman is the apotheosis of this. John Eastman is a powerful lawyer who was literally sitting in the same room as the President. He had more power, in that moment, than 99% of the people who will ever live. And he’s bitching about tyranny and abuse? From whom? Did a waiter spill some water on his lap?

Actually, you don’t have to go far to figure out what he’s talking about. There are some legitimate issues like illegal immigration. But when you drill down to what they think justifies revolution, you inevitably run into things like pronouns and drag queen story hour and maybe OSHA regulations.² You run into California requiring clean cars and New York legalizing abortion through the third trimester. The problem of the Trumpists is not that they don’t have a voice; it’s that other people do. It’s that they can’t get everything they want — assuming they ever decided what they want. It’s that they might have to compromise with people who want different things, compromise being the essence of democracy. Why else would they love Donald Trump — who accomplished little but said nasty things about Democrats — and hate John McCain — who said little but got things done?

Now, to be fair, a lot of this 1776 talk is grifting from people who will say anything to get undeserved power, attention and money. But as Andrew so eloquently put it, this makes it even worse:

Anyone, regardless of their prior accomplishments, titles, experiences, or appeals who calls for secession or civil war is not doing so for the good of America. They are not after the peace and prosperity of all, or the rights of all citizens to pursue them. They are not “merely asking questions” or being clever or coming up with anything new. It is not quite treason, narrowly defined by the Constitution and the Supreme Court as actually “levying war” against the government or “adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort,” not just talking, conspiring, or hoping for it online or for fundraising. But the same wicked spirit is there, and those skirting that line for personal gain should be seen, marked, and called out for what they are: the unworthy schemers who, far from wanting law and order and freedom, only use such words to entice others into subjugation. Such folks have always been, and always will be. And they must be constantly contended against, and defeated, and scattered to the far recesses of our society generation after generation, if the Union and the Constitution are to endure. And endure they must, if the greatest experiment in a free people self-governing is to outlive the unworthy schemers constantly arrayed against it. Both from within and without.

John Eastman, as much as anyone, bears responsibility for what happened on January 6, an event that led to a ravaged Capitol and the imprisonment of hundreds of his supposed political allies. It was he, more than anyone, who pushed the cockamamie theory that Mike Pence could overturn the election. For him, from the comfort of his squishy chairs on various think tank boards, to casually throw out the Declaration of Independence to justify his actions is simply repulsive.

1. Not really.
2. There are some reasonable debate around these issues — at what point in pregnancy abortion should be legal, whether gender-affirming surgery should be allowed for minors, what reading materials are appropriate for children, whether we can scale back regulations without compromising worker safety. But these are debates we’ve been having for decades. The sudden urgency requiring rebellion is new and seems mostly motivated by inconsequential things like drag shows.