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1. This is an obvious prediction, but I want to get it on record. The GOP just released Trump from any accountability for trying to cheat in the upcoming election. That's one sign of many that they are going to try to rig the election, in a range of illegal & semi-legal ways.
2. Now, what do we know about the reactionary mind? When it is contemplating or planning some offense, it must convince itself that its opponents are *already doing* whatever the offense is -- so that it has "no choice" but to do it to. Projection. Predictable as clockwork.
3. Put 1 & 2 together & you get my prediction: starting pretty soon, conservatives are going to start accusing Dems of cheating & election fraud. They might find some half- or quasi-truth to hang it on, but that's not necessary. The bubble can just invent stuff these days.
4. They are going to start these accusations early & aggressively, which offers two advantages. First, when Dems start pointing out *actual* examples of cheating & election fraud, cons will say they're just doing it in response, trying to wriggle out of something.
5. And more importantly, putting accusations in the air early means that when their own cheating & fraud are pointed out, the media will cover it as a "both sides are accusing each other of cheating, isn't partisanship terrible" story.
6. Remember, their case doesn't need to be plausible, any more than Trump's Ukraine defense was plausible. They won't mind looking silly or being "fact-checked" by the MSM. They just need to keep both-sides chaff in the air long enough for them to get away with it.
7. They don't care if, months or years later, people look back and conclude, "oh, yeah, they were cheating." I mean, it's pretty obvious by now that they stole the 2000 presidential election, but what do they care? They got the power when it mattered.
8. And if they do win in 2020, they can spend the next 4 years dismantling whatever checks remain on their cheating, so that there will be no more embarrassing revelations. This is likely the last election in which institutions have any power to restrain them.
9. This election has existential stakes for the current configuration of conservatism. Their demographic is shrinking & their hold on power requires increasingly anti-democratic measures. They will do *anything* to win this one -- more than Dems are prepared for, I suspect.
10. Anyway, there you have it: watch for a growing wave of stories from the RW swamp that Dems are cheating. It will rise to a crescendo as the election approaches. Dems will be caught flat-footed, the media will fall for it, & it'll probably work. Sigh. </fin>
11. Y'all, I'm going to use this thread to gather examples of what I talked about above, namely, conservatives filling the air with false accusations of election rigging in order to obscure their own election fuckery. Send more if you see them. washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/…
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