The same ones that have protected him from all the laws he has broken.
From emoluments to bribery of foreign governments in exchange for interference in the election, the Republicans have given him cover every time.
And quite a number are asking themselves. “I’ve already broken laws, what happens if Trump loses? I could end up in prison.”
Because Trump’s voters, are their voters.
Trump’s benefactors are their benefactors.
In late 2012, having been defeated by Obama, the Republicans thought about their future. It was dubbed by pundits as “the autopsy,” and in that report, with an eye toward the future of a country undergoing rapid demographic change, it laid out what Republicans could do to compete with Democrats in the marketplace of ideas. A lot of Republicans discussed it and even pointed to some of its merits.
One of the first tests of that new path forward was immigration reform. The Republicans in the Senate seemed warm to opening up their party to a new future, with Senators Flake, Rubio, and McCain joining what would become the Gang of Eight to push for reforms that would allow for increased legal immigration. That effort then went to the House, where Republicans there refused to take it up. And that was that.
Not even 2 years later, the fake billionaire rode down his escalator and completed a hostile takeover of the party, and it’s been his party ever since. He bullied and belittled McCain. He crushed and taunted Little Marco, and turned him into an internet meme during the primaries. And he sent Jeff Flake into retirement and on the periphery of the conservative movement. He sent others like Bob Corker, Jeff Sessions, Mark Sanford, and Justin Amash packing with him.
Normal people believe that when we see someone acting abnormally, they will eventually revert to normality. They’ll come to their senses. That is a great weapon and tool that Donald Trump has used because he is not a normal person. He senses weakness. Trump saw that the Republican Party was full of weak people and he could just come on in and take over.
I think that last part is important to understand. I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Trump may be an intellectual ignoramus, but he senses weakness and he understands how to exploit it. Your average con man may not be a Harvard grad, but that doesn’t mean he can’t rob you blind.
Stealing an election isn’t necessarily against the law. Or stated differently, Trump’s supporters might not have to break laws to steal the election.
We all know what Mitch “Merrick Garland” McConnell, Mike “Jerusalem Convention Speech” Pompeo, and William “Undermine the Impeachment” Barr are capable of, as well as numerous other norm-busting members past and present in the Trump administration. I have no doubt they will do many other similar things before the election, but no matter how reprehensible, I’d argue none come anywhere close to tying to actively undermine an election with any of the tactics mentioned in this thread. It would take too many people to go along with it, there is no way all of these could get together in secret to collude, and none of them individually are going to stick their neck out hoping others follow along. IMO. YMMV, etc…
Why would it have to be in secret? Trump could simply tweet “State legislators SHOULD NOT certify these FRAUDULENT results,” and with Fox News pushing the fraud story, plenty of Pubs would go along.
But, they say that if they do it in public, then it’s not illegal.
The whole problem we’re facing right now, and why this is turning out different than Watergate, is because cheating the elections no longer has to be done in secret. The conspirators can do their thing out in the open, and their voters will say things like “I see no problems with what is going on, that’s just how we have to do things now.”
ETA: The ones sticking their necks out will be those who oppose the cheating rather than those who support it. Right now it’s not William Barr, Mitch McConnell, etc. sticking their necks out, it’s the few remaining decent Republicans like Mitt Romney who are sticking their heads out to oppose the cheating.
What I meant was, it would take a lot of people to agree before the election to make whatever plan they cook up work, and they would all have to make sure everyone is going to go along. They would have to secretly plan it all. That is, I don’t think it would be possible to do it “your” way, just by tweeting or the like.
That’s where the disagreement is.
It would not take all that many, all the players who would be required are already on board, and they are colluding in public, right now.
I disagree with your premise that things are “turning out different”. Things by definition regarding the actual election are not turning out at all, because of course there has been no election. You are assuming the conclusion before the event, are you not?
Absolutely none of this is happening in secret; quite the contrary, it’s happening right in plain sight. This isn’t a crime of cunning; it’s brute force.
Fair enough. I think it would take a hell of a lot of people to make this work. But who then are the players that you say are on board?
What is happening?
In a sense, it actually does take a lot of players, but the problem is, Trump and his co-conspirators have them: 60-65 million of them. That’s another aspect of this conversation. To the libs who are being owned, it would be having their political will stolen from them. But for the tens of millions of Trump’s supporters, the right people are taking control of their country again. There’s no problem, as far as they are concerned. They will shove democracy up our asses and go right back to watching Fox News and sharing conspiracy theories on Facebook - they won’t lose a wink of sleep over it.
You lost me. How are his supporters co-conspirators?
Things have already turned out differently. If Richard Nixon had done even one tenth of Trump has done, he would have been impeached and convicted by the 1974 Congress very quickly. Trump is doing things like publicly ordering his postmaster general to remove mail sorting machines (already done), telling Republican voters in North Carolina to vote twice, threatening to send DHS officers to watch the polls in urban areas (IMHO likely to come true), ordering his Director of National Intelligence to no longer brief congress on foreign election interference (already done), etc. All these things, IMHO, constitute unfair ways to run for office, and all have already been or are likely to be done, all out in the open.
Just as I assume the conclusion of a car wreck as the car is heading down the wrong side of the freeway before the event.
The heads of several federal agencies, the DOJ and postal service being two major ones. The governors and legislatures of a few select states, and more importantly the secretary of states of those states, as they are responsible for the elections.
The militias who have already shown a willingness to arm up and storm state capitals over masks and haircuts.
The current senate.
Police departments across the country in urban areas where voting is already hard enough, made harder by actions of the secretary of states.
And the american people, who would rather hand a false victory over to Trump than to have a civil war over it.
But were you not talking about the election? Not just things in general? Because things in general always turn out different. And I say, the election is not yet turning out to be anything, because it hasn’t happened. That’s all I’m saying.
I would need names, otherwise it’s just another faceless conspiracy.
Not to mention that the entire electoral college system depends on states assigning their electors to the candidate who wins the state’s polls. (It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the gist.) Many swing states are run by Republicans, who might be perfectly happy to follow Trump’s directives if there’s any question at all about the veracity of the vote count. Meanwhile, Trump is doing everything he can to undermine the veracity of those votes. And it’s all being done in plain sight.