Impeding the Transition Will Not Stop It

It is not normal for the losing side to make death threats to people who are counting ballots.

It is not normal for the losing side to file an avalanche of lawsuits with no evidence to back them up, just an intention to create a misleading narrative. If you or I attacked someone with a flood of baseless lawsuits, we would be slapped by the courts, penalized for clogging the legal system with nonsense. The courts are not a toy.

But those, and the fundraising the GOP is basing on all that generated fury, pale by comparison with the Administration’s refusal to allow the start of normal transition activities. Denying office space, budget and access normally granted the day after the result is called hinders the Biden-Harris team’s preparations for taking up the reins.

Many other countries have a quick transition of power after an election. Those countries are often smaller, more cohesive, and have a governmental structure that keeps a shadow government ready in the wings. The UK where I live is like that. But to do it that way, the UK limits its government Ministers to members of Parliament and makes them hold two full time jobs at once, one legislative and one executive, with built-in conflicts of interest. The UK often suffers the consequences of drawing from such a limited talent pool, best oriented for legislating and getting elected, to be in charge of its most important executive roles which need a very different skillset and knowledge base.

The long transition period in the USA may originate in the distances, travel methods and communication methods from well over two centuries ago. But the USA is also structured so that government can, in theory, put the most appropriate talent into its key roles. The Cabinet draws from the entire vast talent pool of the citizenry. A person doesn’t have to be good at winning elections and legislating to be chosen for the Cabinet. The person can simply be damned good at running a large endeavor and immensely knowledgeable about the department they are chosen to lead. It is not practical to keep an entire shadow government revved up and ready to go in the American system. That makes us need a substantial transition period even in the modern era. Maybe not as long as the transition we have, but we do need a relatively long one.

That said, although hamstringing the transition will make life harder for the Biden-Harris team, the GOP has miscalculated if they think it will be a fatal blow. The incoming team is phenomenally skilled and well organized. They’ll find ways to make do if they must, and they will take office on Inauguration Day regardless of whether their predecessors are squatting in the White House.