It’s Not Like Stealing A Refrigerator

I'm glad people are gaming out how Trump might try to steal election.

I think it is a category error to assume he'll do lawfare then violence this time around, though. The immunity brief makes it clear even 2020 moved in tandem. "Make them riot." But violence may start earlier.

— emptywheel (common blue damselfly) (@emptywheel) October 22, 2024

And focus where? And how?

ECRA takes care of the post-election “lawfare.” (No more 60 cases in 60 courts.) And where does Trump gather the crowd? He can’t do it in D.C. again; he won’t get the permits. So, at MAL? Bedminster? Trump Tower?

I’m old enough to remember the violence of the Covid shutdown, when armed groups took to city streets in …tens. And then fives, and then…nobody.

There were bigger protests over George Floyd. Trump could only organize J6 because he could command the parks in D.C. He can’t do that anymore.

So where does he tell the group to meet?

Even the truck rallies fizzled out after Covid. It may sound like a good idea, but real violence aimed at changing the election, or even protesting it? Not even a Brooks Brothers riot redux.

And besides, Trump didn’t steal the election last time. Not even close. His yahoos trashed the Capitol and disrupted an official proceeding; the ones who didn’t flat out commit sedition. Remember how rare that charge was, before J6? They didn’t even postpone the certification; just delayed it a few hours.

A legitimate criminal action by Trump. But not even the Constitutional crisis they’re always warning us about.