I woke up this morning with a sense of dread that I can't shake. So I'm gonna put my doom spiral out there in hopes you all can convince me I'm just paranoid. Here it is, how Trump could still "win," a thread:

The basic worry is outlined in this Van Jones video from October, which considers the possibility of a "constitutional coup against majority rule."

Here's how it could happen:
1. Trump continues what he's already begun: he files dozens of lawsuits alleging fraud, insists he's the real winner of the election, and uses every available medium to propagate the idea that the election was stolen.

Now so far Republicans and even Fox News are resisting this, and Dems and leftists are laughing at it like it's pitiful and impotent. But Trump is not going to give this up. Not soon, not ever. What if Trump's base, his still-mobilized campaign continues to stand by him?

I think they will stand by him. It doesn't matter there's no real evidence of fraud. It's classic Hitlerian strategy, "the Big Lie." He lies with such conviction & perseverance that people believe there must be something to it. Specious "evidence" is invented faster than debunked

So we have ~70 million people standing behind Trump, "the LEGAL winner of the LEGAL votes," in defiance of "the FakeNews media" and "the lying communist Dems who stole the election."

Republicans soon realize that they're nothing without Trump. There is no turning back. And one by one they fall into line and accept the invented reality that Trump is the true winner. Conservative media joins them, endlessly broadcasting updates about the Election Fraud.

Now here's the part I'm uncertain about: The worry is that somehow, the Republicans are able to deny Biden a majority of electoral votes. Maybe by somehow replacing the state-certified electors with alternative electors.

Maybe Trump encourages faithless electors. Maybe he's somehow able to sow enough chaos that for whatever reason, come December there simply is no majority electoral vote.

In that case, the election is decided by the House of Representatives, which has no obligation to defer to the popular vote. The popular election simply does not matter. Worse, it's vote by delegation. Each state gets a vote. And there are more red states than blue.

So the red states appoint Trump, and he's sworn into office for another four years. And that's one way to do a coup.

How can we stop this? Can we trust the Republicans to fight it? Nancy Pelosi? The Democrats?

Obviously there would be massive protests if it happened. But would that stop him? There would be riots, which Trump would use as pretext to deploy military police. Maybe even private militias, who knows! LAW AND ORDER!! DEFEND THE ELECTION!!!

Please tell me I'm crazy, please tell me I'm wrong.

sidenote, do I look like I'm at brunch right now?