Trump's Plan to Seize Power (one of them, at least)

President Trump's campaign is reportedly in discussion with state and national Republicans to "bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority."
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Trump has been clumsily telegraphing this plot for months — not generally the smartest way to overthrow a government, which is best done in secret. It would unfold like this: The election result is closer than expected, and the ultimate winner remains unknown on election night, with millions of mail-in ballots to be counted in the decisive swing states. Trump declares victory when the (incomplete) election night count favors him, and then launches legal maneuvering to force states to stop counting mail-in ballots, papered over with some feeble pretext about the fraud the president himself keeps encouraging his own supporters to commit. Thanks to post-2010 gerrymandering, Republicans control both houses of the state legislature in nearly every contested state, and the president would presumably direct them to pass laws certifying Trump's slate of electors, even if updated counts show Democratic candidate Joe Biden ahead. Et voila, a second Trump term.

The Republicans are hoping that their efforts at voter suppression will pay off and that they don't have to so nakedly seize power. Trump may end up telling his armed militias to go into the streets.

But make no mistake: The Republicans will try this, some of this and all of this if they can. The GOP has no loyalty to the Constitution, to due process, to democracy. All they care about is power and if it means that they have to destroy this country to do it, they will.

America is not defined by its borders. It is not defined by the colors of the skins of the inhabitants. It is defined by the rule of law, by a written constitution and by an agreement to adhere to it.

But the Republicans are signaling that they are willing to rip all that up in order to seize and keep power. In that regard, they seek to transform the country into an English-language version of Putin's Russia (and a country that will, for all intents and purposes, be a Russian vassal).

The British, the Spanish, the Germans, the Japanese and the Soviet Union were not able to defeat us. We stood tall for freedom and the rule of law, however imperfectly it was administered. Yet right now, there are at least 35% of the population that will willingly scrap that if their party can keep power.

The best way to stop these wannabee fascists is to turn out on November 3rd, in droves. If you can vote early, do that.

Vote as though our democracy depends on it. Because now, more than ever before, it does.