The courts aren't going to install a dictator (which is what ignoring the vote would do).
Lawsuits require evidence.
Moreover, federal judges with lifetime appointments have no motive to install a dictator and (effectively) give up all their own power to a vindictive person.
People are asking about the military. The military is not going to install Trump as a dictator. Soldiers and generals would have to obey illegal orders and circumvent the Constitution. Not. Going. To. Happen.
This country is too big.
That said, Trump is up to something.
He's figuring out how to line his own pockets and cover his tracks.
He's figuring out how to maneuver the levers of government for his personal enrichment while he controls them.
He's figuring out how to consolidate influence (collect favors, perhaps) to remain relevant.
He's also totally paranoid about people finding out anything at all about him. That's what all those NDAs were about.
He doesn't want anyone to be able to piece together what happened while he was in office.
He will never stop saying he was the rightful winner of the election.
The real danger isn't a military coup.
The real danger is a successful disinformation campaign.
If enough people believe the election was stolen from him due to fraud, he can remain a powerful force on the far right-wing.
Destroying democracy by means of a military coup is doing things the hard way.
Destroying democracy by destroying the truth is much easier, and more effective.
Holding someone at gunpoint is harder than controlling them by controlling their minds.
Holding millions of people at gunpoint is almost impossible, particularly spread over a continent.
But controlling millions of people by obliterating the truth is doable. Orwell, Hannah Arendt, and others taught us. Think how much easier Orwellian tactics are with the Internet.
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The first attempt was to “get rid of the ballots,” which Trump did with a series of groan-inducing frivolous lawsuits that should have embarrassed every lawyer who brought them. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…
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Now that it’s clear that these lawsuits will fail, Trump (reportedly) turns his attention to the electoral college.
At first, the Fox-GOP partnership was a boon to GOP candidates, but what the authors call “outsourcing voter mobilization” has drawbacks. Eventually, FOX exerted control over GOP officials . . .
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They were forced to cater to Fox’s demands, which forced GOP officials to adopt more extreme policies.
Now it appears that Trump has taken over from Fox.
Trump controls the GOP voters. That's where he gets his power.
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The fear is also explained by Richard Hofstader, who wrote the classic work⤵️
Hofstadter reviewed American politics from before the founding of the nation through McCarthyism. He noticed a pattern among an impassioned minority on the fringes of the political spectrum.
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He called their behavior the “paranoid style” in politics.
Those embracing the paranoid style of politics believe that unseen satanic forces are trying to destroy something larger in which they belong.
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On his way out the door, Trump will still be insisting that the election was rigged and the Democrats stole it through massive fraud involving absentee ballots ⤵️