What If 2020 Was Just a Rehearsal?

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/09/26/trump-politics-american-democracy-threat-2021-2022-analysis-514180


Rick Hasen isn't getting much sleep these days.

One of the nation’s foremost experts on the laws that hold together democracy in America, Hasen used to be concerned about highly speculative election “nightmare scenarios”: the electrical grid being hacked on Election Day, or the pandemic warping turnout, or absentee ballots totally overwhelming the postal service. But now, what keeps him up at night aren’t fanciful “what if” exercises: It’s what has actually happened over that past nine months, and how it could truly blow up in the next presidential election.

For the first time in American history, the losing candidate refused to concede the election — and rather than dismissing him as a sore loser, a startling number of Americans have followed Donald Trump down his conspiratorial rabbit hole. The safeguards that ensured he left office last January after losing the presidential election may be crumbling: The election officials who certified the counts may no longer be in place next time he falsely claims victory; if Republicans take Congress, a compliant Speaker could easily decide it’s simply not in his interest to let the party’s leader lose.
“You could look at 2020 as the nadir of American democratic processes, or you could look at it as a dress rehearsal,” says Hasen, a professor of law at UC Irvine.

To understand this fragile moment for American democracy, you could take a 30,000-foot view of a nation at the doorstep of a constitutional crisis, as Robert Kagan recently did for the Washington Post. Or you could simply look around you at what’s happening at the ground level, in broad daylight, visible to the naked eye, as Hasen has been doing. As he sees it, it’s time for us all to wake up.

*snip*

[Stinky The Clown]

1. "What if?" I believe it became such when it failed.

[CrispyQ]

2. It was a genuine attempt that almost succeeded.

Anyone who thinks they aren't studying the replays & figuring out how to do it better next time is living in la-la land. I don't get a feeling that our side is taking this seriously enough. Or maybe we just don't know what to do. ??? We don't have the numbers in the Senate to pass voting legislation. There are too many republican-controlled state legislatures in charge of swing states & willing to do anything to win. And the courts are seriously compromised, with the top court of the land horribly stacked in their favor. Our side has always had GOTV on our side, but that may not matter anymore.

[hermetic]

6. Sadly,

I totally agree with everything you said there.

[KentuckyWoman]

3. I they intended to succeed and will keep trying.

It was not a dress rehearsal. They simply failed.
They'll try again.
They'll keep trying until they succeed or are stopped.

[mopinko]

4. the electoral college must die. if they're gonna weaponize it, it's time to blow that shit up.

[Bluethroughu]

5. It's ti.e to handle treason the way our Country says it should be handled.

[lastlib]

7. Drop the "what if" and the question mark, and it's a true staement of fact.

Next time, they could win. We. MUST. STOP. "Next Time"!!

We start by EXPELLING the Treason Caucus.
Cruz, Hawley, Lee, Graham, any other traitors from the Senate.
Greene, Gosar, Gohmert, Boebert, Jordan, Brooks,.....(who am I missing?) Exercise the 14th Amendment, Article 3. NOW.

[Baked Potato]

8. We can hold accountable those who deserve it. That we can do. Nt

[LetMyPeopleVote]

9. Great, detailed view of existential threat

The Washington Post editorial is scary.

Link to tweet

[Initech]

10. That's what 45 years of one sided, extremist 24 hour a day propaganda will get you!

[Evolve Dammit]

11. Not being taken seriously enough. At all. We are not in the game of defending from domestic terror.

FBI seems overwhelmed. Perhaps another 10,000 agents? Do we have time?

[Slammer]

12. You know what they say

...bad rehearsal, good performance.

[keithbvadu2]

13. A failed coup unpunished...

[doc03]

14. I don't think it was a rehearsal. It just was a failed attempt.

The Loser refused to do anything until 3 hours later when he realised they failed. They will be back in 2024 if The Loser doesn't stroke out. They may find someone with a brain to replace him.

[Hortensis]

15. Agree it was a first try, lessons taken and prep underway for next one.

Maddow discussed another, similar explanation by conservative Robert Kagan about what he believes is happening, the most read opinion piece in the WaPo. It was mentioned on another thread, but here's a link again. It's a very compelling description of how they intend to pull off a coup d'etat and discussion of the factors leading to this very grave threat.

Our constitutional crisis is already here

But about these things there should be no doubt: First, Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate for president in 2024. ...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/23/robert-kagan-constitutional-crisis/

[Snackshack]

16. We have not seen anything

Yet- this was a dress rehearsal mostly in the sense to see just how far they, think far-right groups, federalist society, GOP could go and still get away with it. They are probably in blissful bewilderment at how far they have got. Here we are 9mos and the only people to feel any consequences are RG and the dolts who listened to DT and broke into the capital.

2022 and 2024 are going to be a disaster now that they know President Biden, DOJ, Dems will do nothing.