US Republican Fascist Coup Thread, 2021 edition (Ongoing)

[Elfdart]

Presumably inviting them in also helps dilute the influence of the Sanders side of the party.

Which is the main reason they want Cheney, Schmidt and the others in the tent: to crowd out the dirty hippies/Bernie Bros whom they blame for their own bullfuckery.

I'm guessing that if the Dems shit the bed in 2022, the new scapegoat will be Jimmy Dore and other leftie YouTubers and Twitterers.

[Knife]

Oh I understand that problem. But it does not change the fact that voting block is out there. Since current situation between GOP/Dem or Red/Blue or what every you wanna label it is pretty thin 52/48 or 55/45 ish...

So I guess it depends on what your goal is. You can slowly build a movement of making the Dems more left/liberal/progressive/whatever, as an side I'm on board with this, or you can give shade to some less repugnant GOPers to give an option for the right between Trumpism fascism or less repugnant conservative ideologies like neo conservatives or Regan conservatives, etc...

You can do both, for example, but one is a long term goal, the other is shorter. If the goal is to blunt the effects of TeaBagger/Trumpy fascist right, then giving and supporting an alternative for righties makes more sense than letting them fight each other and hope a more sane side of the GOPers wins.

[Mr Bean]

Here's the thing Knife
The Trump years of 2016-2020 featured a massive amount of law breaking, rule breaking and removal of safeguards built into our system to prevent things from falling apart.

Our current President Joe Biden has looked at all of that terrible behavior and decided it's not in his (political) best interests to really spend all that much energy on it. It's why there is no effort or willingness to look at all of the Trump pardons that were clear efforts to help cover up his wrong doing in office. Hell the Justice department is still not interested in interview Trump under oath because President Biden picked a guy who was recommended by paragon of liberalism Senator Mitch McConnell. And if there's one thing the Republican party is good at doing it's setting the new normal and getting everyone to accept it.

The issue is at the moment the building is on fire and one third of the Democratic party wants to call the fire department, another third wants to ask the Republicans to call the fire department and the last third insists they just need to turn the air conditioning up. More and more it looks like Democratic loses in 2022 and losing the White House in 2024 and then we don't know what but it won't be pretty.

[Knife]

Oh, I get that. But that wasn't the question I responded to. What I responded to was to stop Fascism in the GOP. If you wanna do that, you have to make an alternative for the fuckers. I don't think the Dems should become that, but to nurture it? Sure.

[Mr Bean]

Oh, I get that. But that wasn't the question I responded to. What I responded to was to stop Fascism in the GOP. If you wanna do that, you have to make an alternative for the fuckers. I don't think the Dems should become that, but to nurture it? Sure.

Fair, but I counter with the Democratic party is so divided itself about the issue (Despite it's existence being on the line) that any out reach will be fragmented. Worse in our current Us VS Them Red Team VS Blue team, if you give support to the "more sane" side of the GOP they become a target that quickly gets primaries and they decided to quickly retire. Those that don't instead run right into the arms of the crazies as a self defense mechanism to not lose their seat. The only place the kind of outreach your talking about works I believe is the level at which is to unimportant for Fox News to care about aka the very local level.

[Gandalf]

Oh, I get that. But that wasn't the question I responded to. What I responded to was to stop Fascism in the GOP. If you wanna do that, you have to make an alternative for the fuckers. I don't think the Dems should become that, but to nurture it? Sure.

Fair, but I counter with the Democratic party is so divided itself about the issue (Despite it's existence being on the line) that any out reach will be fragmented. Worse in our current Us VS Them Red Team VS Blue team, if you give support to the "more sane" side of the GOP they become a target that quickly gets primaries and they decided to quickly retire. Those that don't instead run right into the arms of the crazies as a self defense mechanism to not lose their seat. The only place the kind of outreach your talking about works I believe is the level at which is to unimportant for Fox News to care about aka the very local level.

Bringing GOP "moderates" in also grants legitimacy to them. Assuming that someone like Kasich is what the Dems want, it means endorsing the theocratic concepts he brings along. Now his political beliefs are in the party, with some level of weight. There goes outreach to anyone who doesn't like his Gilead shaped vision for the country. This outcome will vary depending on what flavour of Rapeublican they try to entice.

I would think that the best way to get fascism out of the GOP is to let them run the course with it, and see where it gets them set against a Democratic party that actually tries to do stuff.

[Ralin]

I would think that the best way to get fascism out of the GOP is to let them run the course with it, and see where it gets them set against a Democratic party that actually tries to do stuff.

And when the Democrats fail to do stuff because something like 20-30 percent of the population is dead set against them and one of the two major parties has to cater to that segment to keep getting elected?

[Tribble]

So as the year draws to a close, what have the Republicans been up to?

Have they decided to turn over a new leaf, recognizing the danger of their extremism and switching gears to broaden their base?

Or is “Fuck Democracy, fuck the Democrats, Heil mein Fuhrer!” their future?

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s the ladder:

Democracy Crisis in the Making Report Update: 2021 Year-End Numbers
ELECTION PROTECTION

This report is a partnership between States United, Law Forward and Protect Democracy.

As one of the most challenging years in modern American history draws to a close, the emerging threat posed by efforts to subvert free and fair election administration has come into sharper focus. To put it simply, the future of fair, professional, and nonpartisan elections is on the line and the erosion of public trust in our democracy is deeply concerning.
In our first report, A Democracy Crisis in the Making: How State Legislatures are Politicizing, Criminalizing, and Interfering with Election Administration, released in April of this year, we identified 148 bills of concern in 36 states. At that time, when the full scope of the trend was still unknown, only three had been enacted into law in three states. As of December 15, 2021, there have been at least 262 bills introduced in 41 states that would interfere with election administration — and 32 of these bills have become law across 17 states.[1]
The number of proposed bills that fall into the categories we have identified as promoting election sabotage has continued to grow and the number of bills enacted into law has also increased, despite the fact that most state legislatures went out of session mid-year. Additionally, the variety of ways that state legislatures now endeavor to undermine independent election administration is evolving.
Our first report focused on efforts to sabotage or subvert elections in this country and ultimately to take power away from the American people.[2] We identified and analyzed a dangerous trend underway in state legislatures: many were taking up proposals that would politicize, criminalize, and interfere in election administration.[3] Then, in June, we released an update, warning that “the commitment of many state legislatures to attacking the foundations of our democracy appears to have deepened.”

Today, election subversion concerns are not limited to bills introduced or enacted into law. The nature of the threat has metastasized beyond proposing or passing bills. As we look toward 2022, we anticipate the anti-democratic strategy will consist of four key pillars: (i) changing the rules to make it easier to undermine the will of the voters; (ii) changing the people who defend our democratic system by sidelining, replacing, or attacking professional election officials; (iii) promoting controversial constitutional theories about our elections to justify partisan takeovers; and (iv) eroding public confidence and trust in elections.[4] These four pillars are the foundation for election sabotage, contrary to the will of the voters.
We have already seen elements of this strategy at play in 2021. And in the coming year, which will feature heated election battles for control of the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, state legislatures, and state and local positions up and down the ballot, it is likely that the use of this anti-democratic strategy will accelerate.

Changing the Rules: When we first identified the trend, we warned that many of the proposals would make “substantial changes that, if enacted, could make elections unworkable, render results far more difficult to finalize, and in the worst-case scenario, allow state legislatures to substitute their preferred candidates for those chosen by the voters.”
In the last six months of this year, state legislatures have continued pursuing their efforts to micromanage election administration, criminalize human error, and seize control of election administration.
For example, in Pennsylvania, a wide-ranging measure to rewrite the state’s election law, which included election subversion provisions, was vetoed by the governor in late June.[5] Undeterred, the legislature launched a sweeping, ad hoc, and standardless audit of the 2020 election, which, among other things, attempted to subpoena the private information of more than nine million registered voters for analysis by a firm with no experience in election law or data analytics.[6] The legislature then initiated an effort to bypass the governor’s veto via a constitutional amendment. Most alarmingly, a version of the proposed constitutional amendment, currently working its way through the legislature, would allow the legislature to unilaterally scuttle any election regulations issued by the state’s chief elections officer (as well as other executive branch agencies) and would also create a permanent audit system subject to the legislature’s rules.[7]
In Wisconsin, where the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission is being swarmed with a third-party investigation into the 2020 election, litigation, flawed reviews, and criminal inquiries,[8] the state Senate passed a resolution in early November “castigating” the Commission “for ignoring statutory requirements, for sidestepping the administrative rulemaking process, and for not following both the letter and intent of state statute.”[9] But the state legislature has done more than that; it has allocated more than $700,000 to a special counsel, who has indicated he is not familiar with election law, to conduct a free-wheeling investigation of the 2020 election. In addition, the legislature has launched ongoing hearings into the findings of a separate review concluded by its Legislative Audit Bureau earlier this fall. Finally, in late November, legislators introduced a measure that would allow the imprisonment, for up to three and half years, of members of the Elections Commission or its staff if they willfully neglect to engage in a particular version of voter registration list maintenance (the law establishing the Commission was drafted by a Republican legislature and signed into law by then-Governor Scott Walker in 2015).
Changing the People: Our democracy depends on the hard work and commitment of hundreds of thousands of people, from the precinct-level election judges who open polling places at dawn, to the county boards that canvass and report results, to secretaries of state who certify elections. They form a chain that makes our democratic elections work, and this year, we have seen concerted efforts to weaken every link in the chain.
A States United analysis of precinct-level candidates for election judge and inspector in two Pennsylvania counties raised alarm bells when we uncovered a cluster of election deniers who had won their races. Our investigation revealed concerted efforts to recruit hyper-partisan election skeptics and conspiracy theorists at a precinct level, raising the prospect that voters may encounter hostility or intimidation at the polls from the very election officials whose job traditionally has been to smooth the road for democratic participation.[10]
Other links in the chain are also under assault. For example, in Michigan, in eight of the eleven largest counties in the state, county Republican parties have systematically replaced their appointees to county canvassing boards with election deniers who embrace conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election.[11] In Pennsylvania, the state legislature threatened to impeach the members of two county election commissions who voted to count timely received mail-in or absentee ballots that lacked
a date handwritten by the voter.[12] One of the threatened boards proceeded with counting the ballots, and litigation is ongoing regarding the validity of those votes.[13]
At the Secretary of State level, a number of candidates running in 2022 are campaigning on radical positions that would undercut independent election administration. Indeed, former President Donald Trump has endorsed three candidates for Secretary of State who contend that he won the 2020 presidential election: Mark Finchem in Arizona, Jody Hice in Georgia, and Kristina Karamo in Michigan. Endorsing in primaries and interfering with down-ballot races is uncommon behavior by a former president, particularly one potentially planning to run for office again.[14] As The Washington Post reported, “there are a number of viable Republican candidates in states that could decide the next presidential election who question whether Trump actually lost in 2020. And they are proposing big changes to how elections are run.”[15]
Finally, across the board, election administrators have been subject to unprecedented assault and violent threats. According to a survey by the Brennan Center for Justice, “one in three election officials feel unsafe because of their job, and nearly one in five listed threats to their lives as a job-related concern.”[16]
This environment contributes to the trend of election officials quitting in droves.[17]
Promoting Controversial Constitutional Theories: In recent years, a small group of conservative legal scholars have begun promoting what they call the “independent state legislature doctrine.” According to them, state legislatures have the sole and unilateral authority to set election rules under the U.S. Constitution. Under this controversial theory, their authority is immune from court review and action from a governor or attorney general.[18]
Fortified by this novel theory, legislators in several states are increasingly bold in arguing that they can change election outcomes. In Wisconsin, one of the state’s sitting U.S. Senators proposed that the legislature seize control of elections. “There’s no mention of the governor in the Constitution” with regard to elections, Senator Ron Johnson told a Milwaukee newspaper. “It says state legislatures, and so if I were running the joint — and I’m not — I would come out and I would just say, ‘We’re reclaiming our authority. Don’t listen to WEC anymore. Their guidances are null and void.’”[19]
Detailing the growing embrace of this theory and explaining its faults is beyond the scope of this update and will be the subject of forthcoming research and reports.
Undermining Confidence: More than a year after the 2020 election, while a majority of Americans trust the 2020 election results, a substantial portion of the American population still believes that the election was stolen. Seventy-three percent of Republicans believe that President Joe Biden was not the rightful winner of the election. And looking forward to 2022, while 80 percent of Democrats believe next year’s midterm election will be fair, only 42 percent of Republicans feel it will be fair.[20] Worse yet, 39 percent of people who think that the 2020 election was stolen believe that violence may be justified to “save our country.”[21]
This breakdown in public confidence in our elections is alarming. And it is clearly one of the intended results of the election sabotage movement. An electorate that has lost faith in how we run our elections is more likely to support, or even encourage, nakedly overturning the will of the people.[22]
As 2021 draws to an end, we are faced with a sobering reality. The election subversion trend shows no signs of slowing down or being stemmed. Indeed, it has gained new adherents and has expanded in ways we could not have predicted. In many states, the anti-democratic movement is coming perilously close to unravelling a century’s worth of progress to create professional and fair election systems that accurately count people’s votes and respect the will of the people.
While many damaging proposals and efforts were beaten back in 2021 and pro-democracy officials from both parties continue to use every tool available to fight for free and fair elections, we again renew our warning ahead of 2022: we have a democracy crisis is in the making.

https://statesuniteddemocracy.org/resources/decupdate/


Basically the GOPs strategy is:

1. We’re going to pass laws to stop democrats from voting, everything g from voter purges, strict ID, eliminating early voting / mail voting, eliminating drop boxes, and just flat out intimidation and violence if a known Democrat and/or minority shows up to vote.

2.If that fails, we’re going to pass laws to stop democrat votes from being counted - up into and including replacing all election officials with partisans and threatening to jail/kill anyone who certifies a democrat win

3.If that fails, we’re going to pass laws to let us choose the winner regardless of the vote count

4. And if that fails, we are preparing our base to violently overthrow the election results. We’ve already convinced 39% that it may be necessary, just need a little more work.

“Heil Trump!”

[Zwinmar]

I am seriously worried about what happens when the right has full power again, and they will. Democrats as a whole lack the balls to do what is necessary preferring to stick to ideals that alienate a good portion of the voting populace and when they do win they promptly sit their corrupt asses on their laurels. Yes I'm speaking generally here and that doesn't not apply to everyone.

I fear that, at best, it will be like the Kosovo war writ large in this country and will only get worse.

[Tribble]

I am seriously worried about what happens when the right has full power again, and they will. Democrats as a whole lack the balls to do what is necessary preferring to stick to ideals that alienate a good portion of the voting populace and when they do win they promptly sit their corrupt asses on their laurels. Yes I'm speaking generally here and that doesn't not apply to everyone.

I fear that, at best, it will be like the Kosovo war writ large in this country and will only get worse.

Or perhaps the Democrats are gradually purged from all offices without too much of a fuss (after all while there was plenty of violence during Hitler's rise to power it did not include full scale civil war).

Either way, odds are looking less and less that they are going to survive the purges (nor will "moderate" republicans like Liz Cheney, whose only crime was acknowledging that Democrats won the election). Democrats are too unmotivated, disorganized and/or distracted enough to do anything. When they are not being actively sabotaged by elements of their party (like Manchin).

Of course a big party of the problem is that they are trying to remain moderate and maintain basic things like "you have the right to vote". Kinda impossible to maintain that when the other party is openly aiming for a fascist takeover.

[Elfdart]

At this rate, the Republicans won't have to rig the vote. Dems often stay home in mid-term elections, and many (especially the younger voters and Black voters) are at best demoralized at the Democratic Party and at worst are looking for some payback, so even if they pass a new Voting Rights Act that has some teeth in it (and the Ku Klux Kourt doesn't strike it down immediately), their voters could stay home in droves anyway.

Just think of what a kick in the balls it must be for the elderly black voters in Georgia, who had to jump through ridiculous hoops to vote in the first place (see below), risk getting a lethal disease at the polls from MAGA morons hell bent on spreading Covid-19, and then have to go through it all over again a few weeks later for the run-off elections that gave Dems a majority in the Senate...

...to watch a Dixiecrat like Maserati Manchin spend the better part of a year jerking everyone around until finally saying that he won't vote for Biden's second bill on the grounds that it might encourage the coloreds and the poor to buy crack. And the DNC has the gall to ask these same voters to run a gauntlet of new paperwork, voter purges and armed poll-watchers for this kind of chickenshit?

[Broomstick]

Yes, it's galling, but if the non-Republican voters DON'T run the gauntlet the fascists win.

I get that the far left and the radicals wanted more, but by rejecting the good mediocre in pursuit of the perfect they going to loose.

I'm hoping the Republicans self-destruct because at this point it might be the only way to save what democracy we have left. Sure, covid is going take out some of the nutters, but most will survive and infection and feel vindicated that they didn't get the vaccine. Meanwhile, a lot of Republicans will hold their noses as the cultists run rampant over the rights of others and dismantle various institutions so long as it doesn't affect them personally.

[Gandalf]

Yes, it's galling, but if the non-Republican voters DON'T run the gauntlet the fascists win.

Now they're just winning more slowly.

It's interesting reading the discourse around the cancellation of student debt. Apparently Biden can executive order a lot of it away, but isn't doing it for some reason. It would ease the lives of millions, and put more into the economy.

He talked about it a lot in the campaign, so surely there's a plan somewhere?

[bilateralrope]

Yes, it's galling, but if the non-Republican voters DON'T run the gauntlet the fascists win.

Now they're just winning more slowly.

It's interesting reading the discourse around the cancellation of student debt. Apparently Biden can executive order a lot of it away, but isn't doing it for some reason. It would ease the lives of millions, and put more into the economy.

He talked about it a lot in the campaign, so surely there's a plan somewhere?

I've seen two theories about why he's waiting:
- His lawyers are still going over the relevant laws to make sure he has that much power.
- He's going to do it close to the 2022 elections to help democrats there.

[Ralin]

I've seen two theories about why he's waiting:
- His lawyers are still going over the relevant laws to make sure he has that much power.
- He's going to do it close to the 2022 elections to help democrats there.

Or three, he doesn't really have any intention of going through with it. He did, after all, back the legislation that ensured student loan debt doesn't discharge in bankruptcy.

[Gandalf]

I've seen two theories about why he's waiting:
- His lawyers are still going over the relevant laws to make sure he has that much power.

Which is pretty horrible if true, considering he campaigned on this issue.

- He's going to do it close to the 2022 elections to help democrats there.

And in the meantime give everyone less financial security. Debt eradication now would give ample time for economic flow on effects to help the economy.

I think that he's just really keen on chasing some mythical pre-2016 status quo and not doing shit to possibly upset anyone. It's like Obama and war crimes, campaigning for transparency and then backing down really quickly.

[bilateralrope]

Which is pretty horrible if true, considering he campaigned on this issue.

Wouldn't that depend on how bad a court reversing his order would be ?

Which sounds like it could be bad for people who hear about the order, but not the court reversing it. So they miss payments they didn't think they had to make.
Or loan companies who treat any payments that weren't made between the order and the court reversal as missed payments.

[Tribble]

Which is pretty horrible if true, considering he campaigned on this issue.

Wouldn't that depend on how bad a court reversing his order would be ?

Which sounds like it could be bad for people who hear about the order, but not the court reversing it. So they miss payments they didn't think they had to make.
Or loan companies who treat any payments that weren't made between the order and the court reversal as missed payments.

Even assuming Biden manages to pull it off at the most strategic time possible… what changes?

Republicans will still be doing all of the above to purge unbelievers and permanently keep Democrats out of office.

I guess it could be the last decent act of the last elected Democrat president, before the Republican takeover?

[Broomstick]

Part of the problem is that there is a branch of the Republican party that plotted this sort of take over decades ago. Recruiting people in high school in "Young Republicans" clubs, shepherding young people as candidates, working together, suppressing dissent in their own rank, making strategic moves and alliances...

The non-Republicans - Democrats, smaller parties, un-alligned - are years and years behind countering these measures.

It's not looking good.

[Zaune]

Part of the problem is that there is a branch of the Republican party that plotted this sort of take over decades ago. Recruiting people in high school in "Young Republicans" clubs, shepherding young people as candidates, working together, suppressing dissent in their own rank, making strategic moves and alliances...

The non-Republicans - Democrats, smaller parties, un-alligned - are years and years behind countering these measures.

It's not looking good.

How would the Democrats even go about countering such a takeover without resorting to the kind of measures that the plotters would use for their own propaganda? Much as I would like to see anyone involved in "voter suppression" in the former Confederacy arrested on charges of sedition, I can all too easily picture that kicking off the kind of crisis that ends with bits of the Army taking sides.

And the worst part is, that might still be less terrible than the consequences of not doing it.

[Broomstick]

Damn if I know how to fix this clusterfuck.

Mostly, I'm trying to figure out to survive if the shit hits the fan since, between covid and my age emigrating elsewhere is not an option. (Unless someone on SD.net wants to sponsor me, if that's an option.)

[Zaune]

I exactly know how you feel, and I wish I had any good ideas of my own. I just hope my little brother has the sense to get himself and his family out if and when the wheels come off, he's at least as much of a left-winger as me and much worse at knowing when to shut up.

[Ralin]

(Unless someone on SD.net wants to sponsor me, if that's an option.)

If you're under I think 65 ESL work is an option. Won't give you permanent residence though. At least not in China. But you'd probably be safer from covid than most anywhere else

[Tribble]

Damn if I know how to fix this clusterfuck.

Mostly, I'm trying to figure out to survive if the shit hits the fan since, between covid and my age emigrating elsewhere is not an option. (Unless someone on SD.net wants to sponsor me, if that's an option.)

Unfortunately we’re not much better up here.

There are plenty of conservatives in Canada who would love to get their own purge going and rid of all their undesired groups. Many would definitely follow the US example if given the opportunity.

Even if they don’t succeed by themselves there’s another problem; namely, that we share a border with the US. And that we don’t have any military deterrent. If and when Republicans succeed in their fascist takeover that doesn’t bode well for us. In fact we’re just the sort of target fascist regimes love to swoop in and conquer. Hell I doubt they’d even have to invade; the immense pressure they could bring to bear and support they could give to our fascists would likely be more than enough.

[Broomstick]

The other problem with the US/Canadian border is that in many ways it's not even there - Canada could wind up with a lot of Americans sneaking over the border, or trying to. The Canadians are outnumbered 10:1, more or less. Get enough US leftists heading north and things could get... uncomfortable.

There's also the issue that the terrain/climate along the northern US border can be just as deadly as the desserts along the southern one, just for different reasons.

Really, I've thought about this way too much.