The current headline on the CNN website is “Trump again stirs fears of stolen election claims with latest attacks on Harris” but I’ve encountered surprisingly little discussion of “what will Trumpers do if Harris wins?”
I fear a January 6 on steroids, only they won’t wait until then, it will start immediately after polls close and results start coming in.
Is there anything do be done to head it off? I’d like to think that excruciatingly transparent election operations would show people, “look, there is no way this is rigged” but I realize that is impractical - budgets are already stressed and positions are understaffed. It’s also naive to think that any level of transparency will satisfy Trumpers who are just looking for a fight - they will take ANY evidence provided and twist it or lie about it to claim fraud.
I’m quite worried - not for myself, as Hawai’i is reliably blue, not to mention scattered across a lot of islands and I don’t live on 'Oahu where the capital is. But I’m worried about the chaos and bloodshed across the US that I fear is inevitable.
I’m more concerned about violence if Harris loses due to dirty tricks in state elections and SCOTUS turning a blind eye.
Without Trump being the sitting POTUS this time I don’t beleive his supporters will do much other than continue to bitch and moan if he losses. And many of them will be down right tired (or unable) to give him money.
Yes, you are too pessimistic. Most of those folks are either cowards or immensely stupid or both. The FBI already knows a huge percentage of the likely perpetrators and will be following them closely, probably with surveillance on their communications (based on warrants, of course, everything by the book). They’ll round up a few when they have evidence of conspiracy, and that will be (most of) that. In my opinion, of course.
I’m gobsmacked at how quickly the Harris-Walz ticket has righted the ship. I didn’t think it was possible. But I think there is a combination of factors that has served to dial down the potential for violence in a dramatic way.
First, there is a hunger for optimism in the country. For so long, it’s been all lies, doom and gloom and TRUMP TRUMP TRUMP. People are just sick of it and ready for a change.
Second, Harris-Walz have been pitch perfect in their campaign rhetoric, capitalizing on this nation-wide mood. They maintain a sense of joy and relentless positivity. With good reason! Things are so much better than they were when Trump left office. Thanks, Joe Biden.
Third, Trump’s supporters have watched as the DOJ makes their way through the long list of January 6th criminals. It may take some time, but a price will eventually be paid for committing such acts. Just as we saw Trump supporters fail to turn up in New York or Florida to disrupt court proceedings, I think many will give it a second think and decide that staying below the radar is the better choice.
There may be pockets of violence. Some people are really invested in Trump’s dark fakery. But I don’t expect it to be widespread or lengthy in nature. Nor do I believe Democrats or the current administration are oblivious to the potential. They will be ready for it.
Harris should publicly announce that she will resign the presidency and hand it over to Trump if enough Trumpers can get into a Secure Location XYZ - which will have vast minefields.
I expect some violence at least. How much will depend on exactly how much she beats him by. If it’s a very narrow win, I expect the “stop the steal” bullshit to be much more popular, and thus, likely more violent.
But it won’t be one large even like last time. It will happen much more locally, around State Houses and any other place official election procedures are being carried out. That will make it both easier and harder to stop. Local police and National Guard units will have little difficulty dealing with a couple of hundred rioters, but with many more such events, it’s also more likely that at least a few will have some early success, and maybe kidnap or kill some officials, or burn some buildings down.
But a big blow-out win will be harder to sell as a fixed election. That would take the wind out of a lot of sails. Some die-hards will probably still get together to throw a few rocks through a few windows, but they won’t have any real effect on anything.
The MAGA-world wants the average American to have this in the back of their mind. It’s called Voter Intimidation, and in this case, it’s more subtle than the MAGA skulking around polling places. Don’t let them have this - I reject entirely the threat Trump is playing-up if he doesn’t win. It’s just another moronic and empty threat by a bunch of whiny babies - they’re not going to do shit in any organized way. I do accept there may be some spotty, lone wolf stuff, but I am calling their bluff on widespread violence.
Nope. America’s conservative movement is violent and hostile to democracy, conservative terrorist attacks are pretty frequent in America. There will be violence.
January 6 only happened at Trump’s direct order. He told them that the country was at stake, that it was war, that the election was stolen, and that he’d lead them to the capitol to take action. He gathered them all there to speak and lead them. And hours later, when he finally told them to stop and go home, they did. It was all under Trump’s direct guidance.
Nobody expected anything so illegal and so blatant. If he tried something like that again, he would be stopped I’m sure. If anyone but him tried it, they wouldn’t be able to convince so many people to throw their future away. Thats his weird, fairly unique superpower.
People are not going to spontaneously recreate January 6, and nobody has the ability to pull off what Trump did. Also, there were specific circumstances that led to January 6, I don’t think Trump could have gathered a group on some random day to do the same thing. It was a perfect storm.
If violence happens it will be in small-scale, isolated incidents, the kind we unfortunately see on a regular basis anyway. I expect a Trump loss to demoralize more than energize people.
Right- the FBI and law enforcement got a pretty good preview of the dolts that would try something back on 1/6/2021.
I feel like the only real situation that would provoke any serious unrest would be if Harris wins, and Trump somehow disputes it, and we end up with opposing camps somehow. That could be bad. Or if somehow, Trump manages to fraudulently steal the election himself, I could potentially see some violence from the other side of the aisle.
Assuming that it’s just a Harris win, and we don’t have any serious dispute going on, then I’m not worried about violence.
I’m not worried about it, I’m resigned to it though. MAGA is prepared to reject any election result other than a Trump victory. I expect volunteers at polling places will be subject to harassment and possibly violence.
I suspect part of the courage of the insurrectionists came from assuming the President would protect them or even support them with the army. No such luck on January 6, 2025.
The state legislatures should pass laws making it illegal to challenge any voting irregularities once the votes have been declared certified by the first group of officials to declare them as counted. This would also take a lot of wind out of the MAGA sails. Put an end to all the “Stop the Steal” nonsense.
Edit: This needs, of course, to work in Harris’ favor. Otherwise Trumpish officials could try to manipulate vote counts.
