If you paid any attention at all to the litigation over the 2020 election, you know the name Marc Elias: the Democrats’ super-lawyer who ran up the score against Trump’s attempts to get the courts to help him steal the election.
The guy is a genuine hero.
Elias, who was general counsel for the presidential campaigns of both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry, remains very much the tip of the spear in efforts to defend democracy in the courts. He describes his new website, Democracy Docket, as “the leading progressive media platform dedicated to providing information, opinion and analysis about voting rights and more."
So, he is presumably a very busy man these days, which makes his new obsession more than a little strange.
ICYMI, Marc Elias’s idée fixe is dragging the media for being nice to Republicans like Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger. In tweet after tweet after tweet after tweet, he ignores the other 200+ GOP members of Congress, while dragging the handful of Republicans who have been the most outspoken about the attacks on January 6.
Since the end of July, I can find only two Elias tweets that mention Kevin McCarthy (one of them is actually an attack on Kinzinger). He’s mentioned Mitch McConnell in his own tweets a grand total of two times during 2021.
And the the only time I can find that he’s even mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene or Lauren Boebert was this tweet from early December, when he explains that Kinzinger and Mitt Romney are worse than the actual crackpots.
This seems, um, skewed… and more than a little counterproductive, especially in the context of the ongoing attack on democratic norms.
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Elias explains that he is “absolutist in advocating for the right to vote and democracy. I criticize anyone who claims they are in favor of the second, but not the first.” Both Cheney and Kinzinger voted against various Democratic voting rights bills that have been before Congress. (For the record, I also disagree with them and would have voted for the John Lewis Act.)
But this is what has turned Elias into an obsessive scold.
So, last week after Tim Alberta profiled Rep. Peter Meijer — one of the 10 Republicans who voted for Trump’s second impeachment — Elias insisted that the media stop “making heroes” of anti-Trump Republicans. And by “heroes,” he means giving them any credit for the stands they have taken.
His contempt for Meijer is consistent with his stance on other anti-Trump Republicans. Despite Liz Cheney’s role on the 1/6 committee, Elias is triggered by favorable coverage or suggestions that she might be showing political courage.
He’s also upset by praise for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who not only resisted, but also blew the whistle on Trump’s attempts to steal the election in Georgia. Elias devotes his most recent post to putting Raffensperger back in his place. "No one suggests that Raffensperger did anything exceptionally good, only that he did not do something exceptionally bad,” he writes.
But his objections to Cheney and Raffensperger pale next to his obsession with Adam Kinzinger. See for yourself.
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Both the focus and the timing of Elias’s jihad are curious. The next Trumpist coup is already taking shape, and Stop the Steal candidates are running for offices that will control the next elections.
Elias defends his attacks on anti-Trump GOPers by citing Martin Luther King Jr.’s comment that “the greatest tragedy” in the struggle for civil rights was “the appalling silence of the good people.” And, indeed, Elias is making an important point about the GOP’s surrender to Trumpism. The best do lack all conviction while the worst are filled with Fox-fueled passionate intensity.
But… this is where he loses the thread.
Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger have been anything but silent. They may not agree with 100% of Elias’s agenda, but “silence” is not among their sins.
And here we come to the real strangeness of Elias’s case: The rescue of democracy will ultimately have to be a bipartisan affair — and democracy also includes the acceptance of disagreements from temporary allies.
So maybe Cheney and Kinzinger are not worse that MTG? And Boebert? And Paul Gosar?
And maybe Marc Elias will remember that sometimes the enemy of my enemy is… my friend?
I think this is a situation that is hard for you to understand Charlie… you are a long time Republican and were very prominent in my home state of Wisconsin’s conservative political scene… I know you’ve been called out before for your past and I am certain there are things you would do or say differently now that you aren’t on the radio every day needing to entertain the Republican mob who grew up on Rush and love to see libs, black and brown, gay, and women folk put in their place. Still, there is a real anger and resentment by the non powerful people in this country towards the concerted effort by White Conservatives (mostly) to negate the voting power of minorities mainly… the force of state legislatures and courts have been used to consistently minimize black and brown voting power and Wisconsin is a prime example. NC and Georgia and on and on and on… the common refrain is well Dems should do it too or do, do it in places like NY… why wouldn’t the answer be nobody should do it? We are rightfully concerned about 2024 being the last election and pissed that Trump tried to subvert the will of the voters in 2020 but it wouldn’t even be an issue if Republicans had not gerrymandered up a storm and got a bunch of Congress seats they wouldn’t have had… these issues go hand in hand. For Liz and Adam to vote for Trump in 2020 after all he did the prior 4 years and said up to the election was insane and just typical got to be part of the team thought processing… I’m glad they finally saw a Red line they wouldn’t cross and are radically vocal critics of Trump and their old colleagues now but it smacks a bit of people who only care about an issue when it finally negatively impacts them while a similar issue has been affecting millions for years. I ageee Marc should go after the others more but quite frankly we have the Bulwark for that! You all do plenty to call out Lauren and MTG and Gaetz. Bottom line is, I understand why someone like Marc, who has had to deal with the button up and suited types trying to subvert voters for years, wants people to remember Liz and Adam have contributed to our voting problems in this country.
Elias has become blinded by his need for continued relevance. According to Carl Jung, people can have a dark "shadow" side that is prone to psychological projection. Elias' own darkly perceived personal inferiority is recognized as a perceived moral deficiency in someone else.