There Will Be No Trump Coup

A final pre-election case for understanding the president as a noisy weakling, not a budding autocrat.

‘Across the last four years, the Trump administration has indeed displayed hallmarks of authoritarianism. It features egregious internal sycophancy and hacks in high positions, abusive presidential rhetoric and mendacity on an unusual scale. The president’s attempts to delegitimize the 2020 vote aren’t novel; they’re an extension of the way he’s talked since his birther days, paranoid and demagogic.

These are all very bad things, and good reasons to favor his defeat. But it’s also important to recognize all the elements of authoritarianism he lacks. He lacks popularity and political skill, unlike most of the global strongmen who are supposed to be his peers. He lacks power over the media: Outside of Fox’s prime time, he faces an unremittingly hostile press whose major outlets have thrived throughout his presidency. He is plainly despised by his own military leadership, and notwithstanding his courtship of Mark Zuckerberg, Silicon Valley is more likely to censor him than to support him in a constitutional crisis.

His own Supreme Court appointees have already ruled against him; his attempts to turn his voter-fraud hype into litigation have been repeatedly defeated in the courts; he has been constantly at war with his own C.I.A. and F.B.I. And there is no mass movement behind him: The threat of far-right violence is certainly real, but America’s streets belong to the anti-Trump left.
[…]
Meanwhile, the scenarios that have been spun out in reputable publications — where Trump induces Republican state legislatures to overrule the clear outcome in their states or militia violence intimidates the Supreme Court into vacating a Biden victory — bear no relationship to the Trump presidency we’ve actually experienced. Our weak, ranting, infected-by-Covid chief executive is not plotting a coup, because a term like “plotting” implies capabilities that he conspicuously lacks.’


I don’t necessarily agree with the last paragraph; Democrats would be insane to underestimate Trump, he will certainly seek to compromise the election process to his advantage – and Democrats must be prepared to oppose Trump’s every attempt.
Trump himself is too fucking stupid to plot, but those in his orbit could. Buckle up - Nov. 3 will be messy. His supporters will blindly go along with it guaranteed.
Correct.

It will be Republican party bosses and conservative operatives at the state level trying to sow chaos and interfering with the election process.
Our only hope is a Biden landslide victory.
Lol. Good luck. Your only shot is is cheating . Ballot harvesting , been the plan all along . You guys are so close to destroying America you can taste it . But, along comes superman .
Who, exactly, is doing the ballot harvesting? Also,
How does anyone get away with it if republicans control the elections in most of the swing states?
Cheating democrats . The ford woman . You guys have a scammer or whatever ya need. Remember, its hard to find one dem that is honest.
 
A final pre-election case for understanding the president as a noisy weakling, not a budding autocrat.

‘Across the last four years, the Trump administration has indeed displayed hallmarks of authoritarianism. It features egregious internal sycophancy and hacks in high positions, abusive presidential rhetoric and mendacity on an unusual scale. The president’s attempts to delegitimize the 2020 vote aren’t novel; they’re an extension of the way he’s talked since his birther days, paranoid and demagogic.

These are all very bad things, and good reasons to favor his defeat. But it’s also important to recognize all the elements of authoritarianism he lacks. He lacks popularity and political skill, unlike most of the global strongmen who are supposed to be his peers. He lacks power over the media: Outside of Fox’s prime time, he faces an unremittingly hostile press whose major outlets have thrived throughout his presidency. He is plainly despised by his own military leadership, and notwithstanding his courtship of Mark Zuckerberg, Silicon Valley is more likely to censor him than to support him in a constitutional crisis.

His own Supreme Court appointees have already ruled against him; his attempts to turn his voter-fraud hype into litigation have been repeatedly defeated in the courts; he has been constantly at war with his own C.I.A. and F.B.I. And there is no mass movement behind him: The threat of far-right violence is certainly real, but America’s streets belong to the anti-Trump left.
[…]
Meanwhile, the scenarios that have been spun out in reputable publications — where Trump induces Republican state legislatures to overrule the clear outcome in their states or militia violence intimidates the Supreme Court into vacating a Biden victory — bear no relationship to the Trump presidency we’ve actually experienced. Our weak, ranting, infected-by-Covid chief executive is not plotting a coup, because a term like “plotting” implies capabilities that he conspicuously lacks.’


I don’t necessarily agree with the last paragraph; Democrats would be insane to underestimate Trump, he will certainly seek to compromise the election process to his advantage – and Democrats must be prepared to oppose Trump’s every attempt.
Trump himself is too fucking stupid to plot, but those in his orbit could. Buckle up - Nov. 3 will be messy. His supporters will blindly go along with it guaranteed.
Correct.

It will be Republican party bosses and conservative operatives at the state level trying to sow chaos and interfering with the election process.
Our only hope is a Biden landslide victory.
Lol. Good luck. Your only shot is is cheating . Ballot harvesting , been the plan all along . You guys are so close to destroying America you can taste it . But, along comes superman .
Who, exactly, is doing the ballot harvesting? Also,
How does anyone get away with it if republicans control the elections in most of the swing states?
Cheating democrats . The ford woman . You guys have a scammer or whatever ya need. Remember, its hard to find one dem that is honest.
Well, nothing you said here is evidence of anything. Hey here’s a fun fact, 2 Trump supporters got caught voting twice in the 2016 election.
 

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