It’s a possibility.
If they try it, they’d better be careful, though. There are a lot of people taking cell-phone video these days. Fakery might not be as easy as it was in the olden false-flag days…
I suppose they could directly to the fascist route, but what’s more likely, IMO, is trying to use crisis to win legitimacy for their ideas. There’s less resistance that way.
Right now the country is outraged and bitterly divided. There’s some evidence showing that a fair number of independents are displeased with the direction that Trump and the GOP are taking with regard to immigration and other social issues. But if you can convince impressionable white voters that people of color have lost their minds, and that “They hate us because we own a house” (anyone remember that one?), then it’s easier to legitimize extreme policies.
Some of Trump’s behavior - maybe most of it - is just Trump being himself, but there’s definitely a way to capitalize on utilize that behavior for political purposes. And if you’re Stephen Miller, you’re urging more of it from the president. The strategy, in short, is to take the very legitimate anger and outrage from people of color and to turn them into “domestic terrorists.” Easier to demonize and de-legitimize them that way.
I forgot where I read it, but some of the strongest brands of authoritarianism (outside of North Korea) gives people the illusion that they have at least some influence and that the government is, in fact, doing what the people want them to do. That’s why I find some of the more extreme scenarios a less likely; instead, they’ll continue to give people the impression that federal government is hopelessly dysfunctional and that it operates best when it upholds strict constitutionalism, stays out of the way, and lets private companies and states deal with the undesirables.
I’m becoming convinced that this is the exact playbook. Not from Trump - he is too stupid and too egotistical to even have a “playbook”. But from the white nationalists in the background.
They’ll be looking for a spark. Perhaps a fire. In a national building. That could be conveniently blamed on immigrants, or hispanics, or some kind of evil Democrat Party Scheme. After all, who is going to investigate? Trump’s Dept. of Justice? Trump’s FBI?
The only hope is that the Republicans are too damn stupid to pull it off, and outsource the job to some nitwit.
I don’t disagree with either this or your previous post. Certainly the big money boys will be urging the Trump Admin to keep things in the realm of precedent–no actual brownshirts, no actual goosestepping.
But Trump himself is going to become ever more desperate as it looks more and more likely that Russia’s efforts will be for naught: if it’s likely to be a landslide for the Democrat (and particularly if we are able to get paper ballots in the majority of states), Trump won’t be able to skate by on the usual voter-suppression tactics. Having the hackers throw people off the rolls, closing polling places, social-media efforts to discourage voting by young and black and brown voters, etc.—they won’t matter if there’s a tidal wave of votes against Trump. And Trump’s inevitable cry of ‘rigged’ won’t be convincing.
At that point he’s going to be listening to Crazy Steve/Stephen (Bannon and Miller), and listening hard. Gather, darkness.
This scenario has certainly occurred to me. Pin something on ANTIFA, but now it’ll have to be something really big. Perp killed at the scene, a couple of his buddies (total innocents) brought in for show trial. Spin it out anyway you like, but Cohen was right. He will not go peacefully.
Dude, if there are paper ballots in only some states and it looks like Trump is going to lose, the GRU will just hack things where they can for his opponent in such a way as to lay blame at said opponent’s feet. Trump will cry “rigged election!” and he’ll be right. BAM! Crisis situation, fake election, Trump stays in power.
Yeah, that’s why the push to get paper ballots (or backup) everywhere is so crucial.
Trump can be counted on to cry ‘rigged,’ and the Russians can be counted on to try to hack. But we don’t have to make it easy for them.
And the more widely this is discussed—the fact that Trump will try to stay in the WH no matter what the election results might be—the better. There are plenty of Americans who aren’t either Trump fans or plugged-in leftists, who will react with distaste to the prospect of a president trying to make himself king.
Yeah, I don’t understand why people would disagree with the notion that in order to have confidence in a secure election, there must be a paper trail. We have no evidence that there was any hacking that changed votes in 2016, but if they were successful in their hacking, would there be?
As concerned as I am about Putin or the Koch brothers choosing our next president, I’m just about as concerned that our next president may be chosen by a 12 year old who downloaded a script from the internet.
Of course, now that I think about it, a paper trail has a vulnerability, namely, paper’s mortal enemy, fire. “We would sure like to look in to those suspicious election results, but unfortunately, there was this totally not suspicious fire.”
If there are paper ballots, we will begin to see not just voter suppression, but voter intimidation - as in armed white nationalist thugs, perhaps including officers of the law showing up on behalf of white nationalists, warning blacks or latinos they’ll be beaten and/or jailed for voting. Not hyperbole; where there’s a history, there’s the possibility - no, the likelihood - that it’ll happen again. Especially now.
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