That is the crisis.
My working assumption is that the political project Trump and MAGA are building increasingly resembles an autocratic oligarchy: the boss holds power, the billionaires get their cut, and elections are fine as long as the approved people win. That does not mean every Republican voter signed up for that prospectus. A lot of them probably just wanted cheaper eggs. But at some point you have to look at what the people running the movement are actually trying to do.
Historian Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny, has warned that Trump could use war or some other emergency to undermine elections and move toward dictatorship. The useful part of Snyder’s argument is not that he has a crystal ball. It is that if you can imagine the move before somebody makes it, you are a lot harder to surprise.
And surprise is a gift we should stop handing this bastard.⁴
Heather Cox Richardson put Luttig’s warning at the center of her September 12 Letters from an American, connecting it with pressure on election officials and attempts to restrict mail voting. More important, she emphasized Luttig’s demand that Republicans say now whether they would honor the results.
Good.
Ask them.
Every one of them.
If Democrats win enough House seats, will you seat them?
Not “Do you support election integrity?” Not “Do you believe every legal vote should count?” We have heard enough mush to last several lifetimes.
Will you seat the lawful winners if your party loses?
That is the question.⁵
There is also a broader authoritarian current here that I think we would be idiots to ignore. Strongman movements always attract some people who actually like the strongman part. They like hierarchy. They like somebody being in charge. They like the idea that some people ought to have more say than others.
No, that does not describe every Trump voter. Obviously.
But when a movement keeps producing people who are comfortable deciding whose votes count, whose rights count and whose election victories count, maybe we should stop acting shocked every time somebody suggests the next step.⁶
Enough with the idea that another stern editorial, another outraged cable-news panel or another retired senator saying “this is not who we are” is going to shame anybody into constitutional behavior.
We cannot know whether anyone will actually attempt a takeover, much less whether it would succeed. Courts can stop it. Election officials can stop it. Members of Congress can refuse to go along. The public can make the political price too high.
All true.
But “surely somebody will stop them” is a hell of a lousy citizenship plan.
So prepare.
Check your registration. Know the rules in your state. Vote. Help somebody else vote. Work the polls if you can.⁷
Then keep watching after Election Day.
Most of us are conditioned to think the election ends when CNN colors in enough states and somebody gives a concession speech. It doesn’t. Votes still have to be counted, challenged, certified and accepted. Congress still has to seat the people we elected.