Thread by @NGrossman81

This is so naive, and, whether deliberately or not, functions as an apology for Jan. 6.
The US couldn't nuke al Qaeda and rightfully didn't try. It doesn't have a capital city; a lot of it is on the internet. And the US surely isn't going to use F-22s against domestic extremists.

Throughout history, revolutionaries that seize the seat of national power (Russian, Iranian, etc.) were a lot weaker than the government. Didn't matter. By replacing leadership, they captured state capabilities.
More importantly for the current situation in the US...

Democratic backsliding in which elected leaders dismantle rule-of-law and checks-and-balances from within (eg Turkey, Hungary, Poland) isn't military. It involves leaders putting their thumb on the scale, tilting the rules in their favor, and holding onto/accumulating power.

Before Trump, no US president tried to stay in power despite losing reelection (or hitting legal term limits) by lying about election results, trying to get officials to manipulate the rules, and eventually inciting violence against the federal government.
That's really serious.

US didn't "easily defeat" al Qaeda. In fact, the US hasn't defeated al Qaeda at all.
And while al Qaeda could never overthrow US Constitutional democracy, a movement uniting domestic extremists and anti-democracy US leaders could.
Some are currently working to make it more likely

Yes, the existential threat—not to the existence of a country called "America," but to America as a Constitutional democracy—is the movement that accepts, or outright advocates, ignoring US election law and overturning the will of voters to get/hold power.

https://twitter.com/GehringTed/status/1397602752910348296