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1. I think some Republicans are beginning to sweat. Not like Rudy Giuliani sweltered during yesterday’s loony presser. (Whether it was spray-on hair dye or mascara running down his cheeks seems to be subject to debate.) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/19/style/rudy-giuliani-hair.html?searchResultPosition=9
2. But perspiration always starts slow. The more the president denies defeat, the more some Republicans will sweat bullets.
3. To be clear, I have no doubt, had Joe Biden’s margin of victory been narrower, that the Republicans would have stood by while Donald Trump *successfully* stole the election.
4. He has followed a predictable plan: claim voter fraud, litigate outcomes in court, and, now, get Republican state electors to declare him His Holiness, the God-Emperor of the United States.
5. All of this will fail, but failing isn’t the point. The Republicans have demonstrated a dangerous tolerance for sedition. (That’s to be expected, I suppose, given GOP Senators acquitted Trump of treason, freeing him to commit it again.)
6. You could say, as Edward Foley did in the Post, that democracy dies when “the losing party won’t accept defeat.” You could also say, with more accuracy and more urgency, that the losing party is killing something it no longer controls. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/11/19/if-losing-party-wont-accept-defeat-democracy-is-dead/
7. The Republicans now have a taste for *coup d’etat*. Every serious citizen is right to expect them to try again.
8. They must first get through this period, which will probably determine which future road the Republicans take. If Trump gets out of the way, they can move forward with preparations to sandbag Biden with their reputations for love of country and loyalty to the republic intact.
9. If the president doesn’t get out of the way, however, those preparations could, and should, unfold under a cloud of suspicion. Most people still don’t fully appreciate the depths of Trump’s sedition or the GOP’s complicity in it.
10. The more Trump stays put, though, the more the press corps is going to raise public awareness.
11. Each day sees word-choice getting more forceful and strident. The Post: “Trump uses power of presidency to try to overturn the election and stay in office.” Here’s the AP’s tweeted nut graf:
https://twitter.com/froomkin/status/1329500295186018304?s=20
These are going to hurt.
https://twitter.com/froomkin/status/1329500295186018304?s=20
These are going to hurt.
12. Stuart Stevens, a former GOP strategist, said: https://twitter.com/stuartpstevens/status/1329563377757249542?s=20
13. Bloomberg’s Jonathan Bernstein said:
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-19/senate-republicans-stop-trump-s-vote-antics-now?sref=urpXDkpn
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2020-11-19/senate-republicans-stop-trump-s-vote-antics-now?sref=urpXDkpn
14. Larry Sabato, a nonpartisan pollster, said:
https://twitter.com/LarrySabato/status/1329564473846362114?s=20
(Fact: The Pentagon has made clear there is no plan to get involved.)
https://twitter.com/LarrySabato/status/1329564473846362114?s=20
(Fact: The Pentagon has made clear there is no plan to get involved.)
15. Importantly, the above are not marginal. Indeed, these are white men whose privilege, influence and status would probably insulate them from any fascist takeover. Yet here they are, rightly screaming from the ramparts.
16. It’s not hard to imagine the press corps amplifying screams like theirs. The last thing the GOP wants is for them to be so loud they play in Peoria.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Will_it_play_in_Peoria%3F
17. If most Americans start seeing the Republicans through the lens of betrayal, if they start seeing the party as a separatist movement (that’s what it is), even the milquetoastiest of Democrats, like Joe Manchin, will be forced to go to the wall. https://stoehr.substack.com/p/the-gop-separatist-movement
18. Then there are “moderates” like Mitt Romney. The Utah senator and former Republican presidential nominee understands his fellow Republicans are playing with fire.
19. If the Republicans don’t hustle the president out the door, and soon, he’s going to enmesh the party in a fight with patriotism—a fight Romney knows it cannot win. Bear in mind, he tacitly compared Trump to Richard Nixon in last night’s statement: https://twitter.com/MittRomney/status/1329629701447573504?s=20
20. If Trump were more of a team player, he’d recognize he’s put the Republicans in a good place. Millions already doubt Biden won. The GOP Senate can proceed w/ sabotaging his admin under the guise of God & country but also in the spirit of exacting revenge for Trump done wrong.
21. But Trump isn’t a team player. He’s demanding state lawmakers humiliate themselves in his name, and so far, they are obliging. He’s reaching for loonier and loonier conspiracy theories, anything to prevent leaving office.
22. The Republicans meanwhile remain idle. If they allow Trump to pit the party against patriotism, watch out.
Full article (no need to threadroll): https://stoehr.substack.com/p/trump-pits-gop-against-patriotism
Full article (no need to threadroll): https://stoehr.substack.com/p/trump-pits-gop-against-patriotism
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