Last Updated on January 3, 2021, 11:28 AM | Published: January 3, 2021
U.S. Senator James Lankford, in an act of sedition against the United States of America, has signed onto a letter with 10 other senators and senators-elect demanding that a commission be formed to audit the 2020 general election.
If that commission is not formed, the signees intend “to reject the electors from disputed states as not ‘regularly given’ and ‘lawfully certified’ unless and until that emergency 10-day audit is completed.”
Lankford and his cohort are attempting to invalidate the election of President-elect Joe Biden. It is the incitation of an attempted coup, and Lankford must be held responsible.
Opinion by George D. Lang
In the event that U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer becomes Senate Majority Leader following Tuesday’s special election in Georgia, Lankford and his fellow seditionists should not be seated as part of the 117th Congress.
Lankford’s candidate, outgoing President Donald Trump, lost the election in the key battleground states of Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania after multiple recounts, lost the national popular vote 81,281,502 to 74,222,593 and lost the electoral college 306 to 232.
Attempt to invalidate election
In response, the senator from Oklahoma is attempting to invalidate an election and end democracy in the United States. He and his fellow traitors must be stopped in accordance with Section 3 of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability,” the section reads.
Justice
This anti-democratic move against the seating of an elected President of the United States must be taken seriously and addressed with swift justice. The laws surrounding sedition and treason are to be taken seriously. Lankford and his fellow senators brought this on themselves.
Our nation is unlikely to heal if justice is not served, and if these traitors like Lankford are not punished with expulsion from Congress, the Republicans will undoubtedly try this maneuver time and again until they succeed in overthrowing the U.S. Government.
Lankford announced his decision to join U.S. Senator Ted Cruz’s cabal on Saturday, which sides with a mob composed of diehard Trump cult members, Qanon believers and white supremacists who believe that the only acceptable outcome of the general election is the reelection of Trump. Any other outcome is unacceptable.
“If we can agree to form the electoral commission and submit its findings to the individual states, I am prepared to respect the final decision of the states,” Lankford said in his announcement. “But, if we cannot agree to hear the concerns of millions of Americans, I am prepared to oppose the electors on January 6 since I cannot be certain that they were ‘regularly made,’ which is the statutory requirement.”
If Lankford “cannot be certain” that such votes were “regularly made,” then what will a 10-day commission reveal that has not been made plain by the seemingly endless recounts and legal challenges that Trump’s lackeys have inflicted upon our electorate for the past two months since the election? And who will be on this commission? What lineup of anti-democratic trolls will they deem acceptable?
Modeled after 1877 Election Commission?
According to Lankford’s Saturday Facebook post, this is supposedly being modeled after the 1877 Election Commission that was established when presidential election results from three states — Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana — were in dispute. The race between New York Gov. Samuel Tilden (who won the popular vote by 260,000 votes) and Ohio Gov. Rutherford B. Hayes hung in the balance.
In that instance, the commission was to consist of seven Democrats, seven Republicans and one independent. However, the independent, Supreme Court Justice David Davis, dropped out to return to Illinois, resign his position on the court and become a senator. When Davis left, he was replaced by a Republican.
The commission’s vote fell along party lines with the Republicans winning, and a compromise was struck making Hayes POTUS. In return, Democrats got to end Reconstruction, which allowed for Jim Crow laws to proliferate in the South.
There is nothing in either Lankford’s statement or the one issued by Cruz indicating that this will be an evenly divided commission. Furthermore, they are acting like such a commission is just a necessary part of the process. But the 1877 Election Commission denied Tilden the presidency and allowed Democrats in the South to subjugate people of color for the next century.
Bowing to public opinion created by Republicans
In his announcement, Lankford claims that he is responding to public hue and cry over the election outcome.
“These are not questions that exist in the dark corners of the internet, but ones I hear at the grocery store, the gas station, through text messages, and on phone calls,” Lankford said. “For the sake of the nation’s unity, these questions should not be ignored.”
What Lankford fails to acknowledge is his party’s participation in a massive disinformation campaign that began with Trump questioning the validity of the election before it was held. It continued through these long weeks of litigation by Trump lawyers like Rudolph Giuliani, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell. It was amplified by Trump media toadies like Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity and Maria Bartiromo. If there is public outcry, it is because Lankford and his party ginned it up.
Mob rule?
But mob rule is not acceptable. If that is Lankford’s justification for his actions, then he is closer to being a coup instigator than he perhaps realizes.
We must be unequivocal: anti-democratic actions by a sitting senator will not be tolerated, even in Oklahoma.
If Lankford pushes forward in his efforts to retain an authoritarian tyrant in the White House, then he should not be allowed to run for office again.
According to FindLaw, “seditious conspiracy often occurs before an act of treason.” In effect, Lankford and his group of senators declared themselves part of a seditious conspiracy this weekend. If Lankford is not called out and held accountable for his actions, then every effort must be made over the next 22 months to send Lankford back to Falls Creek.
George Lang has worked as an award-winning professional journalist in Oklahoma City for over 25 years and is the professional opinion columnist for Free Press. His work has been published in a number of local publications covering a wide range of subjects including politics, media, entertainment and others. George lives in Oklahoma City with his wife and son.
