[lesuorac]

We're talking about the same guy that sent a second slate of electors for the 2020 election.

The same guy that told the government of Georgia to add 10,000 votes to his total so he'd win.

The same guy that received 0 punishment for either action.

Why wouldn't he try something for the mid-terms?

[spwa4]

Let's hope next year we laugh about this with the question with "And why did he have any expectation it was going to work?".

[wheelerwj]

No man, thats not going to fly. No one ever got anything done by just hoping. Get started now.

[1-more]

Started doing what? Distributing Maoist literature and rifles, or donating to Act Blue, or something in the middle?

[mrbombastic]

Not recommending first point 3 letter agencies! but if we all did something, volunteer, protest, donate, boycott, we would win tomorrow. Boycotting seems particularly effective, would start there.

[1-more]

Win what tomorrow? An election? There's no election tomorrow. A coup? Intriguing! Probably take a while though.

Volunteer doing what? Donate to what? Boycott what with what demands? What's the most successful boycott in your estimation? I can only really think of buses in Montgomery and the Swadeshi movement in India, but even that started in like the 1910s and they didn't get independence until 1947 and who knows how much it mattered. If there were a big crank somewhere and you could guarantee me that turning it gives better than 50% odds that the world gets better in the ways I consider better, I'd be turning the crank. We'd all be turning the crank! But what's the crank?

[mrbombastic]

these choices are really up to the individual and what is important to them. as for win what, I am specifically talking about opposition to the current admin and political gravity, to which they are not immune. If say a protest of 30 million people happened tomorrow, the Republican's would see the writing on the wall and things like impeachment which previously seemed impossible now become required if you have any hope of maintaining a political future.

As for a recent successful boycott, see Disney Plus cancellations in response to Jimmy Kimmel being taken off the air.

here are some concrete things I can think of: - don't like that Sam Altman is aligned with the regime? boycott chatgpt, it fell from the top spot in the app store and Sam Altman felt forced to address the controversy to his employees, it wouldn't take much more to turn the tide and other companies take notice and be disinclined to do similar - don't like that your elected representative was mum on the Iran war? write them an email, call their office - think that a candidate is best chance at change? donate to their campaign - show up at the next No Kings protest, politicians take notice of the coverage and what people are mad about

If you are waiting for a guarantee your actions will affect change I can't help you, but I can guarantee doing nothing won't.

[epistasis]

Of course Trump will try something outrageous that would result in prison time for any other person. But I think that the states are also still independent, mostly ruled by law rather than man, and there's limited troop power to interfere.

Trump is not all powerful, unless everybody gives up their power. Not everybody is as weak as the SV elite, and the failures of Big Law and others that bent the knee were very instructive to everybody else. Bowing down to the king makes you his servant, but it does not protect you in any way.

[Hikikomori]

This time he has his own brown shirts, even fast tracking to to service without any training. DoJ had been getting their hands on voter rolls from swing states. Bondi and other trump top advisors and relocated to living on military bases. Idk where it's going but it's really not looking good.

[epistasis]

Yes, it's going to look bad, and Jan 6 was just a trial run. Now all those criminals that have been freed are in the ranks of a supposed "police" force that self-equips from US Patriot Tactical.

But there's not enough of them. Even for Minneapolis, a mid-size city. There might be a few targeted attacks, lots of voter intimidation, but the US is a very big place, and the ranks are too small, and their popularity is tiny compared to other authoritarian regimes.

It's going to be ugly, maybe really really ugly with violence and innocent voters hurt, but the forces of democracy will win out. Minneapolis shows that there's a strong backbone to this country still, even if some swing voters were tricked.

[Timon3]

There's more than enough of them to materially affect election outcomes. The number of votes you'd have to change to flip the outcome of the last few elections was very small, and the parties have a very good idea of which locations they'd have to disturb to achieve the greatest effect.

Now imagine you're a voter who shows any signal of potentially being Dem-aligned - for example a slightly darker complexion, or maybe dyed hair. On your way to the polling station, masked ICE goons "scan your face" with their AI apps, and the apps tell them you're illegal, so they put you into a van and drive you to a holding facility.

What recourse do you have? Even if they let you go the next day, you've lost your vote. And that's not a given, what if they hold you for weeks or months? How many people have others who depend on them, so they can't risk this?

I don't mean to sound dramatic, but if anything like this happens (and there's basically no way it won't) the fascist takeover is complete, and your only recourse left is civil war.

[Hikikomori]

Might be true if you didn't have the electoral college.

[skywhopper]

Yes, and Georgia refused. American elections are a lot more complicated than you seem to believe. There’s plenty to worry about in specific locations, but the federal government has no direct control over any of the voting processes or policies.

[bryanlarsen]

The Federal government has some direct control and lots of indirect control. Relevant right now is the horrible Save America act.

[malfist]

It doesn't. This is a power specifically granted to states. The Save America act is unconstitutional.

[lamontcg]

More than half the SCOTUS is corrupt and bought off, and the Republican Party in congress is just rubber-stamping what Trump wants. I don't have a lot of faith in the word "unconstitutional" anymore.

[FireBeyond]

> The same guy that received 0 punishment for either action.

and

> but the federal government has no direct control over any of the voting processes

Coming soon, to polling booths near you, "random" ICE activity.

[gdulli]

Well he and his people are far too stupid and incompetent to have come close to succeeding. While it's not great that there was no punishment, we should at least be thankful that they act on emotion and can only loosely follow playbooks for corruption from the past rather than write new ones for modern times.

[nemo136]

They still kill a lot of people and, through their actions/inaction, let many others be killed.

[Gud]

Yeah so stupid he managed to become president

[krapp]

Yes. He wasn't elected for his intellect, because Americans don't trust intellect. He was elected for his attitude and personality.

[xbar]

I am surprised to see that this kind of complacency remains.

The corruption competence of this body of actors is as impressive as it is horrific.