Remember back in high school, when that weird sophomore ran for student body president and lost, then whined to the principal that the votes of the entire junior and senior classes should be tossed out for no other reason than more of them voted for Wendy than for him?

Of course you don’t remember that. Because that’s not how freaking elections work!

Somebody tell Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.

• Paxton is a Tea Party goon who has previously been indicted by a grand jury on multiple counts of securities fraud, was recently accused by seven of his own aides of bribery and other abuses of his office, and may be gunning for a spot on Donald Trump’s pardon list. (He’s making a list, he’s checking it twice, whoever is on it is naughty not nice.)

• Citing already debunked myths about voter fraud, Paxton has filed an absurd lawsuit in the United States Supreme Court demanding that the election results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin be summarily cast aside.

• Paxton’s Attorney General counterparts in 17 other states have disgraced themselves and their offices by signing on to this legal nincompoopery.

• As have 107 members of the U.S. House of Representatives — lickers of Trump’s boot one and all.

To summarize:

The top law enforcement officials of 18 states, along with more than half of the Republicans in Congress, are actively backing a scheme to keep Donald Trump in the White House that would be too ridiculous for a television soap opera.

Over 39 million people live in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. That’s about 1 out of every 8 Americans.

And these 125 Republican leaders are practically frothing at the mouth to disenfranchise those 39 million Americans (even the ones who voted for Donald Trump).

Here’s the thing:

This all sounds preposterous, because it is. But it’s not just that.

While the Supreme Court must reject this “case” for the charade we all know it to be, the mere fact that so many Republican leaders have willfully attached themselves to it is cause for real alarm.

This is how authoritarianism creeps up on us: when just the idea of subverting democracy to attain (or retain) power is put forward then endorsed by people who know (or should know) better; when our institutions, and we ourselves, are forced to entertain these notions, even if only to deride and dismiss them.

Tell Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, the 17 other state Attorneys General, and the 107 members of Congress:

This Supreme Court charade is a direct attack on our democracy and on the very concept of democracy. Renounce it immediately or forever be stained as an accomplice to authoritarianism.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For democracy,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

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