People keep asking whether Trump and the Republicans attempt to steal the election is legitimate, if it's a coup, if it's a fundraising scheme, if it's posturing, if it's actually all that dangerous.

The answer is yes. All of these things and so much more.

1/
The first thing we have to establish is that Trump is erratic. He flails and rages. But that flailing and raging, paired with his shamelessness, exposes weaknesses in our system.

When Trump finds a weakness, he exploits it until he breaks through.

2/
Right now Trump is defeated. He has no legitimate means of winning this election and so he's throwing everything at it in hopes something will stick. At times, it's laughable, but all he needs is ONE THING to work.

3/
And yes, Trump is using this crisis as a means of fundraising. Sending out alarming emails and messages raises money from angry supporters desperate for hope, but it also continues to establish an escalating crisis.

It does multiple things at once.

4/
Trump is a gambler playing multiple hands. He's a terrible gambler, but his entire life he's just trying so many angles at so many times that he waits until he finds something that even halfway works.

This? Right now? This is multiple hands of badly played poker.

5/
So what are the possible outcomes?

Trump loses but saves face.

Trump loses but raises money.

Trump manages to break through, subvert democracy, and steals the election.

These are all "wins" for him even if it means radicalizing people and a coup.

6/
This is how Trump sees the world. He's not worried about inspiring violence, destroying democracy, hurting the nation or anyone in it.

He's looking for his best possible outcome and doesn't care what he does in the process.

It's a COUP AND A SCAM. Both things at once.

7/
Meanwhile, and this is important, the Republicans are playing their own games.

Some are true believers, nuts who believe the election was stolen. But most understand Trump lost and are playing their own game.

We have to understand why they're doing it.

8/
People like McConnell and Graham are giving voice to Trump for multiple reasons. They need to keep Trumpists active in the GOP, they need to win the special elections in GA, the controversy creates passion, and it leads to fundraising.

But...they're also fine with a coup.

9/
If Trump manages to break through and actually steals the election, the Republicans would be fine with it. That would mean power, and that's their only concern.

This willingness to harness a fascist strongman is why they cannot be trusted with power.

10/
As I mentioned in my article this morning, Fox News is now vying to keep its audience as Trumpists reject it for actually reporting Biden's win.

They'll cover these conspiracy theories to keep viewers loyal if at all possible.

11/

thedailybeast.com/fox-news-creat…
The whole point is this: Trump and the GOP are playing a dangerous game. The coup might not work, but they see an advantage at flirting with a coup.

The coup might work and they see an advantage with grasping power for themselves.

It's a win-win for them while we lose.

12/
I don't think Trump or the GOP truly believe they're going to manage to overturn the election, but peddling these conspiracy theories help them regardless.

But the frightening thing? If it does work and they carry out a coup? They're more than happy to accept that.

13/
This has been theater from the very beginning. Trump played an authoritarian on TV until he BECAME ONE.

You play the role until you are the role. In this case, they're posturing for power and profit until they gain power and profit, one way or another.

14/
Again, this doesn't mean the coup will work. It's haphazard, lazy, and stupid.

But...it COULD work. That's the danger here we have to take seriously.

Not to mention the fact that these people are more than willing to endanger lives and threaten democracy.

15/
If the coup works, we're in a whole world of trouble.

If it doesn't, Trump and the GOP have turned the temperature up, radicalized numbers of supporters, and possibly inspired terroristic acts by their supporters.

It's unconscionable and dangerous on a whole other level.

16/
People are going to tell you there's nothing to worry about. That's absolutely wrong and irresponsible.

You can recognize there's no legal ground here while understanding these people are bad faith actors who rage until they find weakness in the law and systems.

17/
This thing isn't a joke. Trump and the GOP are playing a game, but there's nothing funny about it. We're all in incredible danger right now and pretending like it isn't dangerous, win or lose, only empowers and enables them to continue destroying democracy.

18/18

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More from @JYSexton

12 Nov
All right.

We need to talk about Donald Trump, this bad-faith, haphazard coup, and how professional wrestling explains what's going on and why this grift could become incredibly dangerous.

1/
I wrote a thread the other day about how this coup is both legitimate and a total grift, but something people need to realize is that we're watching the rhetorical strategies of professional wrestling play out in politics and our country.

Here's an explanation.

2/
Professional wrestling is an industry of grift. It's about open and closed system of power and knowledge. It is divided between "smarts," people who understand the grift and "marks," people who are being manipulated.

Right now, this coup is about the same systems.

3/
Read 17 tweets
11 Nov
The most insidious invention of Trumpism was to move orthodoxy from the Republican Party to unceasing support for Trump, meaning anyone who stepped out of line or didn’t support his reality instantly became a heretic.
It’s a matter of a cult gaining control of the main religion and then dictating how even people on the periphery behave. Now we’re seeing it even play out in who has faith in election fraud even though there’s literally no evidence.
And that’s what it is. Faith in spite of evidence. There’s no fraud and yet there’s no amount of proof that could convince them otherwise. It’s a matter of religious conviction what Trumpists feel. That’s why I keep trying to explain this is actually a full blown cult.
Read 4 tweets
9 Nov
The Four Seasons Landscaping debacle is a perfect encapsulation of just how haphazard, sloppy, and ultimately stupid the Trump operation has been from the very beginning.

The only reason they've succeeded at anything is rampant racism, greed, and misplaced trust in our systems.
That Trump and his cronies would mishandle a moment like that to such a buffoonish degree is laughable, but it should also remind us that if they were the least bit more competent or disciplined that we would be in a completely different spot.
Trump capitalized on existing white supremacist, fascistic strains in this country and showed a willingness to act in bad faith and steamroll democratic institutions would largely go unchecked.

We need to understand that groundwork has been laid and someone else can pick it up.
Read 6 tweets
5 Nov
Before Trump speaks, I want to be very, very clear about something. Everyone needs to get this.

We're in the middle of a fascist coup. It may not work, but that's what's happening and we can't let the tally-jockeying obscure that fact.

1/
Obviously this is a moment where we're dealing with shifting numbers, but the Right's attacks on polling places, threats against officials, and intimidation of the public at-large can't just be dismissed.

This is a fascist movement.

Fascist.

2/
If you have watched even a shred of Right Wing media in the past couple of days, it is fully unhinged, conspiratorial paranoia and is discussing killing people, executing opponents, undermining voting altogether, and using the power apparatus of the government.

3/
Read 12 tweets
4 Nov
Joe Biden is winning the election and Donald Trump is trying to pull a literal coup.

Let's talk about where we are, what we know, and separate the things we shouldn't be worried about from the things we absolutely should be worried about.

1/
First and foremost, this election has largely played out as some of us expected it to. There hasn't been some cataclysmic loss. Biden made in-roads, including in Arizona. We're still looking at a possible 300+ electoral college victory if votes are counted.

2/
Last night felt AWFUL for a variety of reasons. Lingering trauma from 2016. A desire to watch the country reject Trump in a major way. The bizarre feeling of watching the race not get called on Election Night as the networks have trained us to expect.

But that was a feeling.

3/
Read 22 tweets
4 Nov
Biden will probably win Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania, but the TV trained us to believe politics are a TV show and the TV President was in the lead when the show signed off.

Politics as spectacle will be our undoing if we don’t reject it in totality.
I hate to say it, but everything so far has happened pretty much as expected, including Trump attempting a coup, which a lot of us told you he would do.

The problem is this circus, the TV show around the process. Put a lid on it, announce a result when there are results.
Yes, Americans still support Trump. Nobody should’ve expected a Reagan-like landslide. Defeating Trump is only the beginning of a much, much larger fight. But sitting here looking at results like you’re watching a football game only feeds into Trump’s narrative.
Read 5 tweets

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