I’ve been an absolute pessimist about the future of the US, for this reason – the current administration has done so much illegal stuff that there’s no way they can allow themselves to lose power. I don’t know exactly how they’ll handle the midterms and/or if P2025 has a playbook for them, but Republicans approval ratings are getting worse and so I see wholesale disregarding of elections from blue states/counties.
Anyone see this playing out a different way? Or is there anything out there that is more specific about how MAGA will cement itself as a dictatorship?
My fear is the ‘best case scenario’ is the dems win the house and we have a lightweight like Hakeem Jeffries in charge. I would like to believe he would actually do something effective, but so far I haven’t been impressed. His caucus did refuse to support the funding bill this spring though, but who knows what was really going on behind the scenes (if Jeffries knew Schumer was going to support the bill anyway, etc).
I do not thing the GOP can wholesale steal the 2026 election. Midterms are more determined by turnout, and in midterms the party that doesn’t hold the white house is more motivated than the party that does hold the white house.
Now that the democrats have overturned and reversed gerrymandering in a lot of states, the 2026 midterms will probably be more favorable to them than the 2018 midterms.
I wouldn’t go that far. Because elections are directly administered by the states, there will certainly be many states that at least attempt to carry them out.
I will agree inasmuch as Trump’s federal goons will do everything in their power to make those elections irrelevant, though.
The successful dictatorships keep having elections. It placates the masses. The key is stage managing who’s allowed to run, who’s allowed to vote, who counts the ballots, and how they can end-run the few results they can’t fix via the other upstream means.
I have predicted elsewhere that I expect Trump to call out the national guard to prevent insurrection (aka voting) in enough Democratic districts to hang on to the House. For the Dems to retake the senate is just this side of impossible. Maybe if there is enough stagflation.
There will not be fair elections. This regime has not violated the Constitution and hollowed out every government institution to chance an election removing them from power and holding them accountable. I don’t know how they will do it but look at what they have accomplished in less than six months. We can’t even imagine what this country will look like in a year and a half.
That’s a later stage of dictatorship than we will be in next year.
Also, given the laws and traditions of the U.S., stealing a congressional election is harder than stealing the presidency. JD Vance has no say in whether my Democratic house member is reelected.
The key to the stage we are in is how much of the media is controlled by the autocrat.
Agree the Feds have little direct influence in e.g Congressional elections. OTOH, the MAGA takeover of state electoral machinery continues apace. That’s where / how lower level elections are stolen.
For sure I agree w your point about media control. But I submit that in 2025 with the separate media spheres of normies & MAGAts that your legit conventional wisdom may be real stale. The tyrants have controlled the RW side of the narrative for over 20 years already.
I still say there is NO WAY the GOP will allow the Democrats to take control of either chamber of Congress regardless of the results in 2026. There will be elections but they will be rigged so the GOP continues to hold a majority in both the Senate and House. It is likely impossible to get things close in the Senate for Dems but the House will remain close. Rigging a handful of results won’t be that tough.
The actions they have taken in the months since convince me this will happen.