Quote:
Some Democrats filed objections in 2001, 2005, and in 2017, following elections that Republicans won. But the circumstances were different from those in 2021. In the earlier years, the losing candidate had already conceded. After the 2020 election, Trump was trying to overturn the election, and he had met with some House Republicans to further that goal. In the previous years, not even the losing candidates were seeking to overturn the results. The objections were more symbolic than the 2021 effort to block the election results. In 2021, the objections could have overturned the presidential election.
So even Alan's article agrees that the circumstances and the potential outcome in the 2020 certification were entirely different. While in all instances, it seems those in Congress had the legal ability to challenge/not certify, for the Democrats, it was a protest that they knew was going nowhere, as the Democratic contenders had all acknowledged their loss (due to the electoral college only - they DID win the popular vote, unlike Trump). Those who voted to not certify, after Jan 6th, knew that what they were doing was perpetrating a fraud, and was an attempt to subvert our democracy and electoral process. And "countless" d(D)emocrats? that really seems a stretch.