This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1341203
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1341203
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I’m still waiting for a journalist to ask Donald Trump if he wants Pennsylvania results on November 3 why he doesn’t tell his minions in the PA legislature to allow Pennsylvania to start counting (not recording) the votes as they come in rather than wait until after the polls close on election day?
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Frankly, I’d like a little more detail on concrete actions that we, the people can DO. “Rise up” – what does that mean, anyway?
Walk down the street carrying a sign? We’ve seen how feckless that maneuver is; folks have been “marching” for a decade protesting police shootings of black men, and it still continues.
Making phone calls? To whom? Who has any power to change things, given that Trump runs Justice and has the Supreme Court in his pocket.
I’d gladly “rise up”, if I knew what it was, and that it wasn’t just the same old stupid and pointless tactics the Left has been stuck on for the last half century.
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You can join a grassroots organization in your area and be included in emails, zoom meetings and what have you that will give you guidance and ways you can become involved and help out.
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The Democrats and the left in general are so organized I can’t believe it.
I think we’re ready and they ain’t.
Plus there is still time for the motherfucker to drop dead or resign.
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“He has shown time and again that he has no respect for democratic norms or the rule of law.”
More to the point: so has the entirety of the GOP. In fact, it’s not that they merely “have no respect for” those things. It’s that they want them dead and gone AND ARE ALREADY ACTING TO KILL THEM.
We may well survive this, but make no mistake: the GOP and its SCOTUS will use this election to lay the groundwork for upending future elections. You think you’ve “had it” with Trump and all this bullshit? Well, take that “had it” and multiply it by 1,000 to understand just how much the GOP and the Trump KKKult have “had it” with democracy.
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What rise up means is voting with your feet: putting yourself on the barricades, or in the march, or whatever.
It is a physical demonstration of support for the act of voting and insistence that the votes cast be counted fairly.
From the Declaration of Independence (an extremely radical document, emphasis added):
That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
Getting out there is reminding them that We, the People have the real final say. Revolutions are messy things, and revolutions in situ are especially messy. People in power have a tendency to die during those revolutions. Don’t think for a moment that politicians are not acutely aware of that fact.
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To judge by my inbox, there isn’t an organization that promotes a progressive America that isn’t prepared for the election and the aftermath.
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Rise up means to do something in the real world to protect the vote.
Step 1 for most people is to get organized. You can’t fight against a revolution on social media without people in the streets. Too many people have taken our liberties for granted.
Additional steps to be determined based on field conditions.
This is a democracy if we can keep it.
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Or running for office.
One of the article’s co-authors is identified thus:
Sean Eldridge is the founder and president of Stand Up America.
This is how he was previously identified by TPM:
Democrat Sean Eldridge, the husband of Facebook co-founder and editor-in-chief and publisher of the New Republic Chris Hughes, announced on Sunday night that he is running for Congress.
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For its time, definitely.
And maybe even now … if we could get Republicans to discuss it honestly.
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It is becoming clearer that protecting results will also mean protecting citizens while they vote and ballots after. The study linked below is the first serious attempt I’ve seen to quantify the scope and likely trajectory of right-wing extremist groups including the most likely sites for violence in this election and after.
Standing By: Right-Wing Militia Groups & the US Election
ACLED collects and analyzes information about the actions of state, non-state, and sole perpetrator1 violence and demonstration activity. MilitiaWatch tracks, documents, and analyzes contemporary US militia movements, and provides reports connecting long-term militia trends to broader political events. ACLED and MilitiaWatch data indicate that right-wing militias have steadily ramped up their activities, and taken on an increasingly outsized profile within the national political environment.
This joint report reviews the latest data on right-wing militia organizations across the country, identifying the most active groups and mapping the locations most likely to experience heightened militia activity before, during, and after the election.
...this report finds that capitals and peripheral towns, as well as medium-population cities and suburban areas with centralized zones, in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Oregon are at highest risk of increased militia activity in the election and post-election period, while North Carolina, Texas, Virginia, California, and New Mexico are at moderate risk. Spotlights on each of these states offer a glimpse into recent trends associated with militia activity in each context in recent months.
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You know, it’s just possible that it’s been too long since the GOP actually read the Declaration.
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There is that.
But also:
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I hope he STFU now.
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He does not have the power to declare election results. There is no Constitutional or legal requirement for him to concede. As noted, his assertions regarding an election-night decision are fraudulent. I don’t care about any of those issues; the only thing I eagerly await is Joe Biden being inaugurated next January 20th. And yes, I am well aware that 45 can (and will) do as much damage as possible between November 3rd and Inauguration Day.
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If the EC is something like … 330 / 218 … or up to …346 /198 … or beyond … The show’s over BOOM
Trump will piss & moan … but stomp away … because everybody with any clout will tell him “NO” …
what he would need would be bizarre total invalidation of results in multiple states … not just one isolated state … and maybe if it was real close in one situation he might be able to get somebody to put a thumb on the scale … but across the board invalidation of the entire process in a bunch of states - selected simply because they are the states that Biden has won …
… nobody will take on that fool’s mission … that would simply be seen as a corrupt coup!
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Yes – Will Rogers would hardly recognize his old party.
Plus there is still time for the motherfucker to drop dead or resign.
But Trump’s ilk, he’d have no trouble at all recognizing. They had plenty of mountebanks, snake-oil peddlers, robber barons, and corrupt self-dealers back then, too.