THREAD: Trump isn't going to steal the election. But what he and the GOP are doing is nonetheless extremely dangerous. The most immediate threat is violence against poll workers, election officials, and politicians. Election officials in Philly are already getting death threats.

In Philly, election commissioners are getting death threats and anti-Semitic messages and have police stationed outside their homes. Vote counters in Georgia have also been singled out by name and received death threats. https://fusion.inquirer.com/politics/election/philadelphia-elections-officials-death-threats-20201109.html

Trump and the GOP, by spreading the lie that this election has been stolen through voter fraud, are fomenting violence and putting civil servants at risk.

There's a real concern that it's only a matter of time before someone acts on one of these threats.

And the type of violence that Trump and the GOP are inciting is entirely predictable. They're trying to convince millions of Americans that Democrats literally engineered a coup through the use of fraudulent votes. If you believe that, why wouldn't you take up arms?

There are also longer-term reasons why what Trump is doing is so dangerous. This election wasn't close enough for him to steal. But that won't always be the case, especially for Senate, House, and state and local races. Many of them will be decided by much closer margins.

The message coming from Trump and the GOP right now is unambiguous: Democrats winning elections is inherently illegitimate and validly cast votes must be rejected when that happens. What Perdue and Loeffler are saying is a perfect example of this.

There's been absolutely no evidence that there was voter fraud in Georgia, let alone widespread voter fraud. Yet Biden is poised to win the state so both Perdue and Loeffler are calling on the Republican Secretary of State to resign.

Ensure that Republicans win or lose your job.

The play the GOP has drawn up won't work when Biden is ahead by 10,000 - 50,000+ votes in multiple states. Refusing to concede, baseless accusations of fraud, and frivolous legal challenges won't swing the outcome of this election. But that won't necessarily always be the case.

The fact that so many in the GOP and in rightwing media have gone along with Trump's plan is proof that this anti-democratic effort to subvert the will of the people, like so many other ills over the last four years, did not begin with Trump nor will it end when he leaves office.