Thread by @MPaarlberg

Why are Senate Republicans undertaking a quixotic mission to block Biden’s election? There could be lessons from Mexico...🧵

In 2006, left candidate Andrés Manuel López Obrador of the PRD narrowly lost to right candidate Felipe Calderón of the PAN by less than 1 percentage point. AMLO cried foul, which was not a crazy thing given a precedent of rigged elections in Mexico

For a long time AMLO refused to recognize the official election results. He declared himself the winner, set up a shadow cabinet, and held meetings as the legitimate president.

This split his party. PRD officials couldn’t recognize Calderón as president or interact with his cabinet. Certain officials became designated go betweens but most had to choose between loyalty to AMLO or working with the de facto government.

One would think this would have ended badly for AMLO. But today, AMLO is president and his old party is a shell of its former self, largely replaced as the party of the left by AMLO’s own party, Morena.

So if Trump is forcing senators to choose between him and party institutions, it isn’t so crazy that some are choosing him, since it isn’t necessarily clear that the GOP as we know it will come out on top.