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I'm fine with Biden and the rest of the presidential transition team treating this whole episode as a giant con. The problem with everyone else handwaving on it...is the rubes that now overwhelmingly comprise the GOP base aren't in on the joke. And neither is Trump himself. https://twitter.com/TPCarney/status/1326881574609068033
Deep down, the man fundamentally doesn't understand how our government & legal system work, & because he's been given a free pass by RW media, GOP electeds, and GOP voters on every other attempt to torch our Constitution, legal system, and norms, he sees no downside here either.
The recurring story of the past 5 years has been those theoretical adults in the room humoring him & his beyond-the-pale statements, violations of norms, & outright abuses of power. All because "we need his supporters." And then once it goes "too far"...post-facto justifications.
The result is these cowards have stumbled beyond so many lines they certainly never intended to cross, & later found themselves justifying those breaches to themselves because "in for a penny, in for a pound." And nobody has smacked them hard enough to force a course correction.
So my fear is that even if all these people around Trump and in the upper echelons of GOP leadership genuinely believe he's cooked and are indulging this anti-democratic bull**** to humor him & his cultish supporters, that doesn't make these actions & statements any less serious.
What % of GOP voters would prefer the state legislatures, courts, & other back-door mechanisms to reverse Trump's resounding loss? Almost certainly north of 80%. We have enough partisan state legislators & judges in these places to take the threat at least somewhat seriously.
At some point, the rule of goats applies. It stops being an charade, and the more Trump and his campaign get a pass from party officials, the more emboldened they'll feel to apply more pressure on friendly actors to undermine the will of the electorate.
No, I'm still not concerned any of this will work. But I don't appreciate the handwaving from AATers so they can later accuse media overreaction of being The Actual Problem.
