Finally, an appreciation of the complexity of the multiple levels of government involved in a national election:So what was Trump's plan after seizing the voting machines?https://t.co/siLQJMpJ0b
— Raw Story (@RawStory) February 4, 2022
First there would be the coverage of what could only be described as raids on state and county election offices and storage facilities. Those images would fill the news for days. Then there would doubtlessly be a battle, as happened months later in Arizona, over whether the news media would be allowed into whatever enormous facility had been rented for the purpose of storing the voting machines, at least initially, and then "analyzing and assessing" the vote, as was called for in the proposed executive order. There would be multiple jurisdictions of authority involved, all the way from county voting commissioners through the secretaries of state to the governors of those states, representatives of both parties and of the Trump and Biden campaigns, all the way to law enforcement officials from each state, probably including the attorneys general and state police commanders…
But before that first there would have to be the cooperation of some government agency. That would be the real “first.” But Trump couldn’t achieve that. The real news this week (Truscott is right, we’ve known for months what Trump tried to do. What we didn’t know was how far he went.) is how many agencies Trump tried to use to seize the voting machines and “prove” there was fraud.
I disagree with Truscott; I don’t think Trump was clever enough to think chaos would win the day. Chaos just serves Trump by allowing him to escape responsibility. No, Trump thought the truth was out there, and he’d find it in those machines. Of course that “truth” would not be visible. It would be a matter of analysis, of a “report,” of allegations. The Mike Lindell school of “proof,” in other words. After all, Trump still says there was fraud, and still acts like his word is enough to establish that as fact.
But back to the complexity. Truscott understands the complexity of the layers of government involved in the election, but he thinks that plays to Trump’s advantage. And yet, why did it never come to that? Because of the complexity of government. Consider the scenario Truscott imagines: soldiers seizing machines across the country. On what authority? An E.O.? The DOD would send soldiers into the states on that authority? The Joint Chiefs of Staff would acquiesce, when we know one of them (at least) was publicly worried about Trump exceeding his authority? Seems to me we were a long way off from chaos on late 2020, or even early 2021. Certainly further away than Trump wanted us to be.
Yes, Trump wanted chaos. It’s all he understands. He thinks it works to his advantage. But there’s literally too much government for one man to introduce chaos into it. It’s not just the complexity, however; it’s the integrity. Trump imagines there are many people like him. Fortunately, very few of them are in government; and even fewer, now that Trump isn’t in government. Nor should he ever be again.
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