1/ This is going to be a dark thread. Let’s examine where I think we are at with this #attemptedCoup.

To those that say it’ll never succeed, I agree. But you’re missing the point. The damage he will do in the attempt will be mind-boggling.

2/ You think he’s damaged our democracy already? That’s barely an appetizer. Here’s what I think is coming next. First of all about the military staying out of it, yes I agree - for the most part.

3/ I have never served (and a sincere thank you to those that have) but I don’t have to be a military expert to observe the following, I think this is just human nature.

4/ Vets tell me that active service members swore an oath only to the constitution and will not follow an unlawful order. I of course believe that. But it ignores a couple of things. First of all it’s rarely tested.

5/ It’s about to be tested by Trump like never before and at a scale that’s unimaginable. I doubt any service members are going to *knowingly* follow an unlawful order, but that ignores confusion and that it’s human nature to make mistakes.

6/ It also ignores that it would only take a few high-ranking commanders to believe (even mistakenly) that the orders are in fact lawful. By definition, chain of command will mean that some or many of those below them will follow the orders even if they happen to be unlawful.

7/ Because anything that Trump attempts will be in a fog of chaos and confusion. Like our other institutions I think it will mostly hold. But I expect there will be cracks here and there.

8/ So yes absolutely true he’s not going to successfully stage a coup with the support of the military. But that kind of misses the point. He will do enormous damage and create unfathomable confusion. And that’s all it takes.

9/ These cracks spread - a few mistakes, a few intentional acts of violence from Erik Prince’s people, or ICE, or law-enforcement (who tends to side more with Trump) and suddenly we have civil unrest. It wouldn’t take much to stoke that.

10/ Yes of course we joke about his cult, call them meal team six, and comfort ourselves knowing that most of them are all talk. And it’s true. But it won’t take many to stoke civil unrest.

11/ And then you add into the mix some small degree of confusion regarding the military and lawful vs unlawful orders. Or a tiny handful of top brass supporting Trump. Suddenly we have a mess. Enough of a mess for him to legally and rightfully invoke martial law.

12/ So let’s say that happens, it’s awful but it won’t last, right? We go through a rough patch, it’s tragic, but eventually we sort it out.

13/ Or this doesn’t happen at all, sure maybe there are some small sparks of civil unrest but no martial law and we limp our way to the inauguration and beyond. We are out of the woods at that point right? Nope.

14/ Because even worse than all of that is the fact that Trump still has a massive cult and the seditious GOP that is simply not going to change.

15/ Even assuming our democracy gets through January 6 and January 20, perhaps a little bruised and battered but intact, these seditious bastards are not going to give up. Do not lull yourself into a false sense of security that after the inauguration they will change.

16/ This is now who they are. They are anti-democratic. Period. And they have a cult behind them. They will continue to rip at the fabric of democracy until it’s shredded. I honestly don’t see how we can stop them anytime soon.

17/ I think we will, but this is going to be quite a long battle. This this doesn’t even begin to touch on what’s happening with Russia, which is straight out war. And the GOP is completely beholden to them.

18/ I would highly suggest reading this long thread to understand more about what’s happening with the hack, Russia, and the GOP.

19/ https://twitter.com/heidi_cuda/status/1152989738346807296?s=21 But no matter how they got here, whether it was formal, intentional, or it’s just where they ended up, the GOP is now completely beholden to Russia and actively trying to destroy democracy.


20/ So yes it’s true, I do not think Trump will be successful in pulling off a coup. But our institutions have barely held up so far. And he’s going to shred them even more than we’ve already seen. I think we will survive this but the democracy that we know will be in tatters.

21/ I do think we will rebuild our democracy but I expect it’s going to take an entire generation. I don’t even know how to address the fact that one party is now completely anti-democratic. I think we will figure it out. Eventually.

22/ But before that dawn, we have a long period of darkness ahead of us.

I feel this is a little bit like the pandemic. We have a new normal. Even after the vaccine. The same thing is happening politically. We have a new normal - fighting the anti-democratic GOP. Buckle in, we have a long fight ahead of us, but we have to do it.