Tuesday 11 May 2021

Dangerous Precedents


A terrifying thread on Twitter this morning caught my attention: a series of posts warning that the GOP in the United States is not finished with their overthrow attempts, despite appearances.

Just as Adolf Hitler didn't give up after his first coup attempt in 1933, the same goes for the Republicans.  If one were to swap today's GOP with the one that existed six months ago and re-ran the election, there would be an entirely different outcome.  There would be dueling slates from all the swing states sent to the Electoral College.

That's how fast things are moving and it's showing no signs of slowing down.

Many predict that if Trump were to run for President again in 2024, all red states that Biden had clinched with a slim margin would send Trump electors to the College authorized by those state legislatures.  The American Constitutional order doesn't seem to have a good way to deal with dueling slates.  Therefore, Trump might very well seize the office through a House vote.

It's shocking enough that the GOP is openly signaling that they will do this, even if such a move would be massively unpopular.  They will try if given the chance.  It's clear that they are using an authoritarian playbook.  All the Democrats seem to be doing is hoping that it won't happen, which increases the likelihood of it actually happening.

The GOP has learned from its mistakes and found out that so far there hasn't been much of a consequence to attempting to overthrow the government.  So they will be be better equipped and prepared next time.  And the general public might not even notice until it's too late because it's too boring to listen to an explanation of the complexities of an electoral shuffle.

Already there are states that have passed laws to make voting more restrictive and complicated.  Already there are rumblings about cancelling state primaries.  Already the GOP is moving to oust its own conference chair because she dared to tell the truth.

President Biden might be in a tough bind with all this, but the reality is that catastrophe is looming and action must be taken NOW to defuse it.

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