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This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1436095
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1436095
Look back to the 2000 election and tell me now that not standing up to the Brooks Brothers Riot was the right thing to do.
Every time an event like this happened and nothing was done about it, the floor for what would be done next time was set.
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A lot of this is heartening, but –
The gasoline has been poured. The question is, is there going to be a spark?
In what universe will we avoid a “spark” when we have an army of arsonists flicking their Zippos in anticipation? Yes, there’s going to be a spark.
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This is, quite simply, the stuff of nightmares for a republic designed like ours. I keep trying to imagine the stories that will be dominating the headlines for the 2 weeks after the election. When partisans have the right to toss votes for signature “anomalies” and declare fraud when they see 2 ballots from someone named Carlos Garcia, any remotely close election in a purple state (like mine - AZ) will be full of weird and unexplained results that will be trusted by no one. The “observers” will bring all of their hallucinatory “reporting” (I saw a woman with a trash bag full of ballots!) and we will descend into the indecisive chaos so beloved by fascists.
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DOJ should be involved…
That is a Rule of Law issue.
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I think it comes from the fact that there is kind of a warped incentive structure where the losing presidential candidate is getting rich off of spreading the lies, so he’s going to keep doing it. And then the ecosystem of grifters that surround him are also getting rich; they’re lining their pockets with small donations from people who are sincerely disappointed about the outcome of the election.
Of all the reasons for ovethrowing the government by violence, I would not have picked “Because it’s an easy, really profitable grift.” Maybe Lenin was right about capitalists and rope sales.
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We’re lucky these dummies are jumping the gun. Litigating the bullshit for 2022 will protect 2024.
Meanwhile, Trump gets dumber and uglier every day, as well as entirely more obvious. He lost whatever nascent vote he had among non-Orthodox Jews.
All the talk from his side about election fraud in 2020 has a dual purpose. There is no way more Americans voted for Trump in 2020 than 2016. The fraud they speak of is their own, and we don’t see it yet.
We’ll see it this year, guaranteed.
I agree with those that insist that there be some kind of Federal legislation that protects the sanctity of the vote. Participants should be free of harassment and interference. Period.
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The problem as I see it is that the Republican Party does not have any leaders but only followers who will do whatever for money. That is I have some major disagreements with the article.
My first disagreement:
“As long as that incentive structure continues, I think the lies are going to persist. We now live in a country where, for many, a secure election is defined only as an election in which my candidate has won. That’s ridiculous. We need to change that incentive structure so that people stop exploiting their own supporters in order to make a buck.”
One of the funniest articles in the aftermath of the 2020 elections was about gambling houses making millions on Trump voters betting on Trump after the election was decided. One gambling house called it “taking candy from babies who deserve to have their candy taken.” While taking candy from babies who deserve to have their candy taken may be okay for gambling houses, but for politicians who want to lead America that is another issue.
Another disagreement is: “Where I find optimism is in institutions that have withheld so far, like the judiciary.”
The judiciary is the biggest danger to our elections. In addition to laying the groundwork and the floor plan for stealing an election aka the “independent legislative theory” which resulted in the “fake elector scheme”, the Supreme Court has gutted the voting rights act and any regulation on money and gerrymandering if not creating certainly allowing for the current situation.
But I want to end with an agreement.
“This is about the outcome being dissatisfying to some, and then looking for some reason to distrust the process.”
What the above says to me is that Donald Trump and the Republicans did not create their base but rather their base created Donald Trump and the current Republicans. Furthermore, Trump is not a leader of this movement but a salesman selling what people want to buy. Noting that you cannot love America if you hate Americans, the Republican base does not accept many Americans as equal to them and therefore do not believe “those peoples” votes should have the same force as their votes.
Or has been said many times, democracy where everyone is equal and racism where some are more equal than others is mutually exclusive. Racists, or people who believe their votes should count more than some other votes cannot by definition be supportive of democracy.
Which brings up the important question in regard to politics and this article; “how did we get here”?
The answer is wealthy elites weaponized White resentment to gain power and then used that power to enrich themselves at the expense of the very people who gave them that power all the time blaming minorities . Until Donald Trump it was possible for some Republicans with a straight face to deny this.
For example I once saw Steve “David Dukes without the baggage” (which is by definition a clansman with the hood still on/yet to reveal himself) Scalise" accuse Joe Biden of being a racist, but with the rise of Donald Trump the hood has been taken off the Republican base.
Or to put another way, the overwhelming support for Donald “grab her by the …” Trump proves that values in front of the word voter is and has always been code for race and to racists, democracy is the problem and not the answer.
The problem with the Republican Party is instead of leading, for the power to enrich themselves they are willing to exploit the worst and most deplorable including attempts, successful or not, to destroy democracy.