The USA or the US cray?

Donald Trump and his Republican allies' repeated baseless claims that widespread election fraud or irregularities cost him the White House are taking root. A new poll from The Hill/HarrisX shows similar results to a previous Politico/Morning Consult poll that found nearly a third of Republicans believe Trump will take over for President Biden sometime this year. Even though the U.S. Constitution includes no mechanism allowing for the "reinstatement" of a former president who lost an election, fully 30% of Republican voters in the HarrisX poll believe it's "likely" that Trump will return to the White House in 2021.

• — Extremists of the extremists. Among QAnon adherents, 73% think Trump should still be in the White House. At least 20% of Americans subscribe to a core QAnon tenet that "there is a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders." And, according to the poll, 15% of Americans believe the country is "so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country." 
   
• — Say what? Even 13% of Democrats and 26% of independents polled by HarrisX said it's "somewhat" or "very" likely that Trump is reinstated. Fortunately, there's good news. Majorities on all sides are a bit more clear-eyed—77% of respondents said it's not likely Trump is reinstated, including 87% of Democrats, 74% of independents, and, notably, 70% of Republicans.
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• — For the record... Biden won the November election by more than 7 million popular votes and bested Trump in the Electoral College 306 to 232. Congress certified the electoral count, and Biden was inaugurated president in January. Short of resignation, the only Constitutional way to remove him before his term expires is through impeachment and conviction or the 25th Amendment. In either case, Vice President Kamala Harris would be sworn in as president—not Donald Trump. That should all be common knowledge, but alas, here we are. —The Republican

Shafer: The remedy for insurrection revisionism? Good journalism

"If Republicans are serious about their revisionism, these topics should rise to the top of their list of grievances, not vaporous fantasies about how the Jan. 6 riot was really a harmless joyride by winter tourists through the Capitol. Unless Republicans change their stripes—fat chance of that—we can never expect the current Congress to answer our questions definitively. That leaves it to the press to sort the Jan. 6 sense from the nonsense wherever and whenever it appears." —Jack Shafer in Politico

Jack Shafer is the senior media writer at Politico.

MORE: Tucker Carlson calls journalists 'animals.' He's also their best source —The New York Times

Borders to remain closed for now

U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada will remain closed "to reduce the spread" of COVID-19 through the end of July, the Department of Homeland Security announced yesterday. The agency, in conjunction with its Canadian and Mexican counterparts, originally closed the U.S.'s northern and southern borders to leisure travelers in March 2020 at the start of the pandemic. The restrictions have been extended on a monthly basis ever since, though "access for essential trade and travel" is still allowed, according to the DHS. Currently, about 45% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and cases are declining in a majority of states. —USA Today

MORE: Unvaccinated Americans are at risk of an aggressive and more dangerous COVID-19 variant. These are the most vulnerable states —CNN

Will Dems make hay on healthcare?

Savoring Thursday's surprise Supreme Court decision upholding the Affordable Care Act for the third time in a decade, Democrats are eager to leap above and beyond. Their ideas fall into two big silos: expanding coverage and benefits through public programs such as Medicare and Obamacare, and using the power of government to rein in the price of prescription drugs. There is no shortage of proposals, but complex budget procedures that would allow them to pass legislation by a simple majority in the Senate may limit the types of proposals that can be considered. There's also concern about deficits, and with Democrats holding only bare majorities in Congress, a winnowing down of expectations seems likely. Stay tuned. —USA Today

MORE: Affordable Care Act survives third Supreme Court challenge, as case from GOP-led states and endorsed by Trump Administration is rejected —The Washington Post

Kempe: Bolstering the Western alliance

"Back in December of last year, I wrote in this space, 'Joe Biden has that rarest of opportunities that history provides: the chance to be a transformative president.' Biden's trip to Europe recognizes and builds upon that opportunity. However, perhaps just as motivating is the understood but unspoken cost of failure at a time when the question about what global forces will shape the future is up for grabs." —Frederick Kempe on CNBC

Frederick Kempe is an author, journalist, and the president and CEO of the Atlantic Council.

MORE: U.S. preparing more sanctions against Russia, Sullivan says —The New York Times

Focus on Iran's presidential election

Iran has a new president. Ultraconservative Ebrahim Raisi will take over the highest civilian position in the nation after eight years of President Hassan Rouhani's more moderate rule. A protege of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Raisi scored a landslide victory on Saturday, capturing nearly 62% of the vote in an election that most Iran observers see as orchestrated. A U.S. State Department spokesperson said, "Iranians were denied their right to choose their own leaders in a free and fair electoral process."

• — Known as the "Executioner of Tehran," Raisi, Iran's judiciary chief, served on a four-member committee that ordered the execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. He has since been sanctioned by the U.S. for human rights violations, as recently as two years ago, and has faced a barrage of criticism from human rights groups. —NBC News
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• — He won't meet with President Biden. Raisi also indicated today that he is not willing to negotiate over Tehran's ballistic missile program or Iran's support of regional militias. The Biden Administration had hoped to finalize a revised nuclear agreement, via indirect talks through EU intermediaries in Vienna, before the new president took office, but that has not happened. —Axios
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• — "A fair distance to travel." The future of the negotiations now remains murky. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says that any potential nuclear deal will take some time and effort. "I think what we need to do in the U.S. is keep our eye on the ball," Sullivan said yesterday. "Our paramount priority right now is to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. We believe that diplomacy is the best way to achieve that, rather than military conflict." —The Hill

Warren: Protecting voting isn't enough

"The administration's approach to the domestic and global crisis in democracy has been centered on focusing on voting rights and planning a 'Democracy Summit,' bringing together countries and civil society around the world dedicated to the pursuit of democracy. Voting and a summit are not enough. ... Biden should recognize the existential nature of the threat to democracy, and articulate and pursue a similarly bold democracy agenda. This agenda should focus on the hyper-local and the macro-global: promoting democracy at the most local levels of government, while also leading a global vaccine distribution plan that demonstrates the soft power of the American government at the international stage." —Scott Warren in Yakima Herald

Scott Warren is the founder of Generation Citizen, which engages young people in political activism to promote civic education, and a visiting fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

MORE: How Democrats are 'unilaterally disarming' in the redistricting wars —Politico

There seems to be a common fiction that the Republican Party went rogue only when Donald Trump was nominated in 2016. The reality is that the party started down a treacherous path long before he was a player in their politics. The advent of "conservative" talk radio in the late '80s and into the '90s started the slide as commentators competed with one another to make the most attention-grabbing statements and prove their machismo and pretended patriotism. Seldom advocating restraint, discipline, and truly conservative values, they attacked anyone and any group they could vilify. And soon Republican candidates were flocking to the studios to join in the shouting. The trend only increased in intensity and public reach with Fox News.

The term RINO joined the lexicon of American politics as they began to attack anyone within the party who disagreed with their outlandish positions. Any moderate was, and is, a RINO and unwelcome under their tiny tent. By the time Barack Obama became president, the party had fallen under the control of the most belligerent and radical elements on the right who despised having an African-American president.

This process created a perfect setup for a conman man like Trump, so that when he announced his candidacy, the right-wing public were actually enthralled by someone who spat on traditions and norms of decency and said what they'd already been hearing from commentators. And many had no problem standing with Trump in spite of his racist statements about Mexicans and other supposed villains during his campaign announcement—statements that only a few years prior would have been disqualifying.

The net is that Trump was a symptom, not a cause. Certainly he exacerbated the negative exponentially and completely abandoned any pretense of governing within the norms of tradition or within the bounds of the Constitution, but the party was ripe for a person like him already. Now, to see the cumulative effect on the party, consider Mitch McConnell's statement that he'd refuse, if once again Senate majority leader, to consider SCOTUS nominations put forward by President Biden as just one of many indications that the entire party has moved away from the cooperative democracy that has been a hallmark of American politics since the 18th century. This process has completed Republicanism's decent into what is now essentially a fascist organization. The party of Lincoln is dead.

I do not believe the Republican Party can be restored. And I have no idea how we can remove its devastating influence on 21st-century America, but I'm hoping and literally praying that the wisest among us will find inspiration to understand how to overcome having one of our major parties reject democracy. —Nathan J., Virginia

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.