Thread by @ThePlumLineGS, Here's a very worrisome sign:Alexander Keyssar, who is perhaps the leading historian [...]

Here's a very worrisome sign:

Alexander Keyssar, who is perhaps the leading historian of US democracy, is deeply alarmed by what he's seeing.

He told me that the last month of events raise "deeply disturbing" implications for our democratic future. 1/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/04/alexander-keyssar-historian-trump-call-electoral-college/

Trump's corrupt pressure on Georgia election officials hints at an alarming future.

Trump's appalling effort to blackmail the Georgia Sec of State into rigging the outcome for him sheds new light on what we're going to see on Jan 6th.

Importantly, dozens of Republicans will still object to Biden's electors -- even after this. 2/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/04/alexander-keyssar-historian-trump-call-electoral-college/

Trump's corrupt pressure on Georgia election officials hints at an alarming future.

You'd think after Trump's extraordinary display of lawlessness, some Republicans objecting to Biden electors might refrain.

You'd think they might want to avoid this taint or send a clear sign that this was intolerable.

They will proceed anyway. 3/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/04/alexander-keyssar-historian-trump-call-electoral-college/

Time to get real. A future GOP-controlled Senate and House might take the plunge and invalidate a victorious Dem's electors.

Alexander Keyssar tells me this is "very worrisome."

“It’s become a lot easier to envision that in the last month," he says. 4/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/04/alexander-keyssar-historian-trump-call-electoral-college/

Let's be clear on what Trump did:

Trump called for the Georgia Sec of State to "find" 11,000 votes *after* Raffensperger debunked the fraud claims and made it clear that doing this would overturn the *legitimate* outcome. 5/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/04/alexander-keyssar-historian-trump-call-electoral-college/

It's important to underscore that the justification for objecting to Biden's electors is *every bit as baseless* as the justification Trump offered for pressuring Raffensberger to outright steal the election on his behalf. 6/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/04/alexander-keyssar-historian-trump-call-electoral-college/

If Dems win the Senate, they must consider trying to amend the Electoral Count Act.

But in the end, the problem is this: It's really hard to build legislative safeguards against such naked bad faith.

Keyssar was fascinating on both these topics. 7/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/01/04/alexander-keyssar-historian-trump-call-electoral-college/

Trump's corrupt pressure on Georgia election officials hints at an alarming future.

Here's what you're "looking forward" to, @RepJeffries: The increasing likelihood of a stolen election in the future. If you don't believe me, listen to leading US historian Alex Keyssar, quoted in the thread above. https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1346120512603377664

https://twitter.com/ericawerner/status/1346120512603377664

Here are some good suggestions from @rickhasen on how we might undertake reforms to prevent this looming disaster from happening, with sobering truths about the difficulties this entails: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/01/we-cant-let-our-elections-be-vulnerable-again/617542/

No law can stop reckless people from trying to thwart the popular will, but we should still address the obvious weak spots in our system.

You can follow @ThePlumLineGS.

Tip: mention @twtextapp on a Twitter thread with the keyword “unroll” to get a link to it.

Latest Threads Unrolled: