A lot to think about here. A few questions for you. How much can the soft coup continue to progress / happen if someone like Trump isn't elected president? The Axios article that you specifically highlight seems most relevant if Trump or DeSantis or someone like that wins, in which case anyone else winning negates that risk in the short term - non-MAGA republican or democrat. Second, what do you envision a non-MAGA republican president doing to destroy this effort towards a soft coup / authoritarianism if they were in power, since as you highlight the things the MAGA people are doing are legal?
I hear what you're saying about the benefit of having a republican stomp this out because it seems less partisan, but as you've highlighted before, MAGA republicans aren't really normal republicans, and anyone associated with the establishment is seen with suspicion / not really seen as part of their party. Is Liz Cheney really seen as one of their team to them in a way that is much different than a democrat? Or do you mean that it would be optically better for moderate voters to have a republican do this? Outside of that benefit - the optics of making it look less partisan - is there a reason a democrat couldn't do what you're picturing? It seems like there are some democrats who are fighting fire with fire (Newsom for example, though I'm not necessarily advocating for him).
I think the idea of trying to prevent illegal authoritarianism by stealing an election is a little hard for me to wrap my head around - it seems like that kind of validates their approach / makes it seem like that's just how politics works and normalizes the destruction of democracy on both sides. I like what you've said before about giving people / showing people an alternative path that is actually democratic. I think that Lincoln gives us an example where coup's can be handled with the "good guys" sticking to legal means (including legal force). The trouble is just if the other side is in Lincoln's seat. Seems like the key thing is not having Trump or someone like him with the presidency. And it seems to me that non-MAGA republicans are having an even harder time getting elected than democrats, so I'm not quite as sold that they're the way to go.
1. The AXIOS article speaks to how the “America First” movement has moved well beyond Trump and has a life and momentum of its own. The groundwork for what we’ve seen in the “takeover” of so many red states was laid in a similar fashion starting at least two decades ago. The Schedule F and other planning to take over the federal governing apparatus represents the development of a blueprint that can be implemented pretty quickly by a Trump or DeSantis, or slow-walked over a number of election cycles and SCOTUS rulings cycles.
2. The non-MAGA republicans are clearly a minority in the party. Many of them have actually left the party. But Cheney and Kinzinger, just two of them, for example, are having an outsized influence on pushing back against the authoritarians because they understand and have access to the highest levels of investigation and influence. And they are not alone by any means.
The bipartisan bill being developed to update the electoral count act would be a great help if it can get through the Senate. It would foreclose a number of the strategies being planned for the states or the Congress to circumvent the will of voters. But it would not foreclose the “Schedule F” approach to a wholesale purge of the civil service, DOJ, etc. Electing a “muscular” pro-democracy Republican could, in my estimation, provide the leadership needed to show tens of millions of Republican voters who are just going along with the crowd, that there are better solutions for their concerns and grievances within the Republican tradition. And I think they are going to have to be brought to that step-wise, which will not happen easily if it is being led by a Dem president and Liberals that they won’t trust, etc.
3. The point of the question about whether we would be willing to “steal” an election if it were the only way to save democracy is meant simply to get us to think about how far we are willing to go to preserve democracy. I’m not advocating for stealing an election, but on some level, in “existential” struggles, norms will and must be questioned and the question is what norms are we willing to break with, if only temporarily, in order to preserve our liberties?
4. We are at a point where all of us who want to preserve and strengthen our democratic institutions and values need to ally. If we have any chance of winning the key elections coming up, and getting further chances to stave-off the capacity of the authoritarians to begin carrying out their plans, we are going to have to muster a super-majority coalition of voters. I believe that a key to that is being openly willing not just to work with allies like Cheney/Kinzinger and the many never-Trump Republicans, but to embrace them, to follow their leads if they are best positioned to help get us back on a democratic flight path. In many ways, the Jan 6th committee is modeling this all for us.
This, to me, is one of the biggest take-always from this committee that is being missed by the commentariat. The committee is not simply exposing all of the criminality and sedition, etc. It’s showing us how to collaboratively, courageously, and nobly defend democracy.
Hope these are helpful responses. Happy to continue the dialogue!
A lot to think about here. A few questions for you. How much can the soft coup continue to progress / happen if someone like Trump isn't elected president? The Axios article that you specifically highlight seems most relevant if Trump or DeSantis or someone like that wins, in which case anyone else winning negates that risk in the short term - non-MAGA republican or democrat. Second, what do you envision a non-MAGA republican president doing to destroy this effort towards a soft coup / authoritarianism if they were in power, since as you highlight the things the MAGA people are doing are legal?
I hear what you're saying about the benefit of having a republican stomp this out because it seems less partisan, but as you've highlighted before, MAGA republicans aren't really normal republicans, and anyone associated with the establishment is seen with suspicion / not really seen as part of their party. Is Liz Cheney really seen as one of their team to them in a way that is much different than a democrat? Or do you mean that it would be optically better for moderate voters to have a republican do this? Outside of that benefit - the optics of making it look less partisan - is there a reason a democrat couldn't do what you're picturing? It seems like there are some democrats who are fighting fire with fire (Newsom for example, though I'm not necessarily advocating for him).
I think the idea of trying to prevent illegal authoritarianism by stealing an election is a little hard for me to wrap my head around - it seems like that kind of validates their approach / makes it seem like that's just how politics works and normalizes the destruction of democracy on both sides. I like what you've said before about giving people / showing people an alternative path that is actually democratic. I think that Lincoln gives us an example where coup's can be handled with the "good guys" sticking to legal means (including legal force). The trouble is just if the other side is in Lincoln's seat. Seems like the key thing is not having Trump or someone like him with the presidency. And it seems to me that non-MAGA republicans are having an even harder time getting elected than democrats, so I'm not quite as sold that they're the way to go.
Tess, Thanks for your comments and questions!
1. The AXIOS article speaks to how the “America First” movement has moved well beyond Trump and has a life and momentum of its own. The groundwork for what we’ve seen in the “takeover” of so many red states was laid in a similar fashion starting at least two decades ago. The Schedule F and other planning to take over the federal governing apparatus represents the development of a blueprint that can be implemented pretty quickly by a Trump or DeSantis, or slow-walked over a number of election cycles and SCOTUS rulings cycles.
2. The non-MAGA republicans are clearly a minority in the party. Many of them have actually left the party. But Cheney and Kinzinger, just two of them, for example, are having an outsized influence on pushing back against the authoritarians because they understand and have access to the highest levels of investigation and influence. And they are not alone by any means.
The bipartisan bill being developed to update the electoral count act would be a great help if it can get through the Senate. It would foreclose a number of the strategies being planned for the states or the Congress to circumvent the will of voters. But it would not foreclose the “Schedule F” approach to a wholesale purge of the civil service, DOJ, etc. Electing a “muscular” pro-democracy Republican could, in my estimation, provide the leadership needed to show tens of millions of Republican voters who are just going along with the crowd, that there are better solutions for their concerns and grievances within the Republican tradition. And I think they are going to have to be brought to that step-wise, which will not happen easily if it is being led by a Dem president and Liberals that they won’t trust, etc.
3. The point of the question about whether we would be willing to “steal” an election if it were the only way to save democracy is meant simply to get us to think about how far we are willing to go to preserve democracy. I’m not advocating for stealing an election, but on some level, in “existential” struggles, norms will and must be questioned and the question is what norms are we willing to break with, if only temporarily, in order to preserve our liberties?
4. We are at a point where all of us who want to preserve and strengthen our democratic institutions and values need to ally. If we have any chance of winning the key elections coming up, and getting further chances to stave-off the capacity of the authoritarians to begin carrying out their plans, we are going to have to muster a super-majority coalition of voters. I believe that a key to that is being openly willing not just to work with allies like Cheney/Kinzinger and the many never-Trump Republicans, but to embrace them, to follow their leads if they are best positioned to help get us back on a democratic flight path. In many ways, the Jan 6th committee is modeling this all for us.
This, to me, is one of the biggest take-always from this committee that is being missed by the commentariat. The committee is not simply exposing all of the criminality and sedition, etc. It’s showing us how to collaboratively, courageously, and nobly defend democracy.
Hope these are helpful responses. Happy to continue the dialogue!