Actually, we do know what will happen tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day, and onward. Here is your road map:
1) If the Republicans win, high turnout and established procedures say that there is election integrity. If not, the fix was in.
2) If the Republicans win, there will be a need for Congressional investigations -- lots of 'em. If not, they are unnecessarily divisive and are used as personal vendettas against Donald Trump and his supporters.
3) If the Republicans win, it is proof that polls are a reliable, accurate barometer of the public will. If not, they are worthless, pointless exercises that try to create a desired outcome.
4) If the Republicans win, the right-wing media did us a valuable service in getting out the message that voters needed to hear. If not, the left-wing media are mind-controlling scum who are traitors to America.
And, above all,
5) If the Republicans win, we should accept the results, move forward in unison, and put hyperpartisan bickering and fighting aside in favor of the greater good. If not, it is time to march, take up weapons, and set things right.
What could go wrong when upward of half the country decides that no rules apply to them that they choose not to observe, and no result is acceptable unless it is what they seek? Good luck getting them out of office once they are in, and have the tools to solidify their presence for a long time to come. We have been warned. Tonight will give us a better idea of how many people actually are listening.
You are so right about once they are in office, removing them is nigh impossible. Hopefully this election sends a clear message that what republicans are selling is poison for the country.
I would only quibble that "upward of half the country" - it might be true that more people will vote for the GOP than the Democrats, but I think there are a lot of GOP voters who will end up with buyer's remorse when the chaos ensues. I keep thinking back to the massive protests against child separation - a lot of people can live with some things because the stock market soars, but once outright violence and chaos ensues from the right, I think they rethink the trade-off.
They'll just insist any violence is all the work of Antifa and BLM. Did you hear there was a BLM flag near where DePape lived? Don't worry, you'll keep hearing it. No matter how bad things get under Trumpist rule (I refuse to call it Republican), the scapegoats have already been marked out. If things get worse, the call to arms to go after the scapegoats will just get louder. That's the whole purpose of scapegoats in a fascist system.
Just take a look at Russia for the playbook. Violence and chaos means Putin hasn't gone after same sex marriage hard enough, not that his invasion plans were crappy because leadership there is used to lying about everything, including the state of the military. Trump noticed which people in the US were lying to themselves about the state of the world and found a bigger lie, birtherism. Now he's got an even bigger lie, elections are rigged. The only Trump fans are people who like to listen to his lies. If we get chaos, Trump will assure us that only he can fix it. History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes.
I keep returning to that a scenario in which Rs win this election and engage in predictable over reach, things fall apart in time for a different outcome in 2024. The wild card of course is the entrenchment of devious vote tallying as a result of this 2022 election, that could nullify true winners in 2024.
I'm with you. There's a part of me that feels that a GOP victory is what may lead to the total implosion needed to break the GOP fever. I just hope our country can survive it.
Maybe the pain can be limited to economic pain (without bloodshed) - thatтАЩs the kind that Rs are most susceptible to, as a motivating force. ItтАЩs easy to imagine economic chaos causing the stock market to tank - a metric they seem to care about even though itтАЩs mostly held by the upper echelon.
The problem is that economic pain tends to make people look more favorably at authoritarians, as they claim to offer 'solutions' (that won't work, but are easier to understand), including blaming Evil Others for the economic problems.
I opt to include in the (admittedly loose) calculation a large number of non-MAGA voters who know full well what MAGA wants, and the lengths that they will go to in order to achieve it (as shown by January 6), but turn a blind eye toward that out of selective personal ideology ("border security and anti-crime sound good to me too"), indifference to the full consequences of the outcome, or ... hey, the price of gas and groceries temporarily has spiked and our investment portfolios are down -- gotta do something, and soon.
I fully agree that there will be buyer's remorse after the fact, that people will get fatigued with investigations run amok, the exhausting grievance-based anger legitimized, and empty GOP talking points when Congress flips and by and large nothing significant changes in their personal lives. Not sure if it will come to much outright violence, but the threat of it alone should be enough to give people significant pause. Of course that is no less true before the elections. Funny how people so often choose not to see what is hiding in plain sight.
I don't even think more people will vote for the GOP. They haven't won the popular vote in years. The problem is the people who will vote for Dems are concentrated in cities and highly populous states, while the GOP voters are spread out. Add in a bit of gerrymandering, and a rural-biased Senate, and you no longer need to win the majority to take and keep power.
Actually, we do know what will happen tonight, and tomorrow, and the next day, and onward. Here is your road map:
1) If the Republicans win, high turnout and established procedures say that there is election integrity. If not, the fix was in.
2) If the Republicans win, there will be a need for Congressional investigations -- lots of 'em. If not, they are unnecessarily divisive and are used as personal vendettas against Donald Trump and his supporters.
3) If the Republicans win, it is proof that polls are a reliable, accurate barometer of the public will. If not, they are worthless, pointless exercises that try to create a desired outcome.
4) If the Republicans win, the right-wing media did us a valuable service in getting out the message that voters needed to hear. If not, the left-wing media are mind-controlling scum who are traitors to America.
And, above all,
5) If the Republicans win, we should accept the results, move forward in unison, and put hyperpartisan bickering and fighting aside in favor of the greater good. If not, it is time to march, take up weapons, and set things right.
What could go wrong when upward of half the country decides that no rules apply to them that they choose not to observe, and no result is acceptable unless it is what they seek? Good luck getting them out of office once they are in, and have the tools to solidify their presence for a long time to come. We have been warned. Tonight will give us a better idea of how many people actually are listening.
You forgot that Biden must immediately announce that he will not run again.
Even though no such calls were made about Trump after Dems won 40 seats in 2018.
You are so right about once they are in office, removing them is nigh impossible. Hopefully this election sends a clear message that what republicans are selling is poison for the country.
I would only quibble that "upward of half the country" - it might be true that more people will vote for the GOP than the Democrats, but I think there are a lot of GOP voters who will end up with buyer's remorse when the chaos ensues. I keep thinking back to the massive protests against child separation - a lot of people can live with some things because the stock market soars, but once outright violence and chaos ensues from the right, I think they rethink the trade-off.
Overall, more people will not vote for the GoP. However, more people in the right places will vote for the GoP.
In American elections, geography gets a vote too.
They'll just insist any violence is all the work of Antifa and BLM. Did you hear there was a BLM flag near where DePape lived? Don't worry, you'll keep hearing it. No matter how bad things get under Trumpist rule (I refuse to call it Republican), the scapegoats have already been marked out. If things get worse, the call to arms to go after the scapegoats will just get louder. That's the whole purpose of scapegoats in a fascist system.
Just take a look at Russia for the playbook. Violence and chaos means Putin hasn't gone after same sex marriage hard enough, not that his invasion plans were crappy because leadership there is used to lying about everything, including the state of the military. Trump noticed which people in the US were lying to themselves about the state of the world and found a bigger lie, birtherism. Now he's got an even bigger lie, elections are rigged. The only Trump fans are people who like to listen to his lies. If we get chaos, Trump will assure us that only he can fix it. History doesn't repeat, but it often rhymes.
I keep returning to that a scenario in which Rs win this election and engage in predictable over reach, things fall apart in time for a different outcome in 2024. The wild card of course is the entrenchment of devious vote tallying as a result of this 2022 election, that could nullify true winners in 2024.
I'm with you. There's a part of me that feels that a GOP victory is what may lead to the total implosion needed to break the GOP fever. I just hope our country can survive it.
Maybe the pain can be limited to economic pain (without bloodshed) - thatтАЩs the kind that Rs are most susceptible to, as a motivating force. ItтАЩs easy to imagine economic chaos causing the stock market to tank - a metric they seem to care about even though itтАЩs mostly held by the upper echelon.
The problem is that economic pain tends to make people look more favorably at authoritarians, as they claim to offer 'solutions' (that won't work, but are easier to understand), including blaming Evil Others for the economic problems.
YouтАЩre right. That is the historic formula. ItтАЩs so counter-intuitive I often forget it.
I need to imagine a different scenario for a return to sanity!
I opt to include in the (admittedly loose) calculation a large number of non-MAGA voters who know full well what MAGA wants, and the lengths that they will go to in order to achieve it (as shown by January 6), but turn a blind eye toward that out of selective personal ideology ("border security and anti-crime sound good to me too"), indifference to the full consequences of the outcome, or ... hey, the price of gas and groceries temporarily has spiked and our investment portfolios are down -- gotta do something, and soon.
I fully agree that there will be buyer's remorse after the fact, that people will get fatigued with investigations run amok, the exhausting grievance-based anger legitimized, and empty GOP talking points when Congress flips and by and large nothing significant changes in their personal lives. Not sure if it will come to much outright violence, but the threat of it alone should be enough to give people significant pause. Of course that is no less true before the elections. Funny how people so often choose not to see what is hiding in plain sight.
I don't even think more people will vote for the GOP. They haven't won the popular vote in years. The problem is the people who will vote for Dems are concentrated in cities and highly populous states, while the GOP voters are spread out. Add in a bit of gerrymandering, and a rural-biased Senate, and you no longer need to win the majority to take and keep power.