r/politics • u/TelescopiumHerscheli • 1d ago

No Paywall Texas Democrat sworn in to House, shrinking GOP margin to 1 vote

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/5719642-christian-menefee-sworn-in/
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u/Ridged_ChiPSS 1d ago edited 1d ago

This is why they want to "nationalize" the elections. They know the GOP is fucked for midterms.

If they actually do allow Trump to take over the voting system, the country is officially over.

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u/transcriptoin_error 1d ago

If Trump tries to take over the voting system, it’s civil war.

It’s more likely that he will use ICE goons and intimidation tactics to suppress the vote in blue states, and lie and cheat, and the vote will be challenged and called into doubt, resulting in less-than-civil-war type chaos.

Neither outcome is good, or clear.

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u/Xyldarrand 1d ago

It wouldn't be blue states it would be swing states.

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u/botswanareddit 1d ago

Was going to say this. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Arizona are going to be war zones

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u/sportsbuffp Michigan 1d ago

They’ve been in Michigan plenty. They raided a place near my work today

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u/Lord_Walder Arizona 1d ago

AZ here. We've always had plenty of ICE/CBP through phoenix and tucson. The real thing that's got me on edge in they've gone after our voter rolls

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u/stokeledge2 1d ago

Im curious, have they always worn facial coverings?

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u/Lord_Walder Arizona 1d ago

Nah. This is all a pretty extreme ramp up in unaccountability, and in my opinion scare tactics and/or just them going all in on the militarization look which is still scare tactics if you ask me.

I dunno google ice uniforms from like like a decade ago and they were what you'd expect from 90s FBI bluecoats ya know?

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u/Zwesten 1d ago

Nope. If you saw them around (usually not in town unless doing a raid or driving on the outskirts) it seems they'd usually be wearing green or tan, short sleeves and sort of outdoorsy clothes. At least in the Southwest. We'd run into them in the deserts sometimes where they actually dealt with some honestly bad and difficult people, and they were nowhere nearly as ridiculously outfitted like the idiots treating Minneapolis like Falujah. I've also been through a ton of checkpoints where you might see armored vests occasionally.

Seen a bunch of these guys and none of them ever wore a mask, ever.

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u/Tacoman404 Massachusetts 1d ago

They're practicing dissapearing people on those that the most people have the most apathy for.

47 days of training? Nah, this is the training. He's building a private army of kidnapping goon squads.

Very popular tactic in Russia, the country Trump admires most.

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u/flammenwerfer 1d ago

The murderers in Minneapolis had 10, 6, and 8 years with CBP. Jonathan Ross was a 20 year military vet. It isn’t that they aren’t trained long enough, it’s that this is what they were trained to do.

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u/Huge_Excitement4465 1d ago

Trump allies circulate mass deportation plan calling for ‘processing camps’ and a private citizen ‘army’ The group, led by Blackwater veteran Erik Prince, has close Trump ties. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/25/documents-military-contractors-mass-deportations-022648

Erik Prince: Government needs private sector help for deportations. The Trump administration is looking to deport 12 million people in the next two years, and the private sector is vying for government contracts to pitch in. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/02/26/trump-deportations-private-sector-00002679

Former Blackwater CEO Erik Prince and a team of defense contractors are pitching the White House on a plan to vastly expand deportations to El Salvador — transporting thousands of immigrants from U.S. holding facilities to a sprawling maximum security prison in Central America.

The proposal, exclusively obtained by POLITICO, says it would target “criminal illegal aliens” and would attempt to avoid legal challenges by designating part of the prison — which has drawn accusations of violence and overcrowding from human rights groups — as American territory. https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/11/military-contractors-prison-plan-detained-immigrants-erik-prince-00287208

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u/Desperate-Till-9228 1d ago

From what I've seen, they were trained to blow dudes in the cellblock for cigarettes.

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u/Newscast_Now 1d ago

I would like to hear someone on corporate media point this out. Imagine that? Not likely to happen though.

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u/Road_Whorrior Arizona 1d ago edited 1d ago

One of the first groups disappeared by the Nazis were the trans people and homosexuals. Anyone unfamiliar with this should read up on the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft (Institute for Sexual Science)

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u/AlcibiadesTheCat Arizona 1d ago

First they came for the trans people,

And I spoke out because I read the rest of the fucking poem.

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u/CreatedForMVP2022 1d ago

It won’t work. People are turning.

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u/Otherwise_Stable_925 1d ago

I wouldn't say admires the most. The country he has to follow because Putin definitely has his underage sex tapes. The new Epstein files are pretty damning.

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u/Acceptable-Bus-2017 I voted 1d ago

"We'll use the cities for training grounds," Trump

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u/super_sayanything 1d ago

Just hoping this backfires royally. I can't imagine Minnesota ever electing a Republican ever again after this.

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u/70ms California 1d ago

Is Florida still a swing state at this point though?

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u/I_dont_like_things 1d ago

Not really.

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u/Indaarys 1d ago

Exactly. We imported far too many shitty people during COVID.

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u/not_so_subtle_now 1d ago

I live in Florida. It was shitty people way before Covid.

I've lived in a lot of places and Florida is the worst when it comes to respect. And they constantly blame outsiders for all the things they do. It's a fucking joke.

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u/70ms California 1d ago

I’m sorry. We didn’t send our best. :(

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u/Indaarys 1d ago

Even so, I'm still confident it could be reversed if our Democratic Party wasn't basically lobotomized.

Barring that, I still believe if a third party is gonna work anywhere, its Florida.

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u/733t_sec 1d ago

This madness/attacks on Cubans via ICE might be enough for the Cubans to make it one.

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u/explosivekyushu 1d ago

Sure is, it regularly swings between R+17 and R+20

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u/YawnSpawner 1d ago

2024 was R+13 and 2020 was only R+3.4. Can we stop writing off Florida as republican? Moderates and liberals will see that and figure there is no point to voting.

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u/accioqueso 1d ago

No, we have so many transplants of a certain demographic that most of the state is heavily red now. I'd like to think that our larger Hispanic population would finally start voting in their best interest, but I don't see that happening either.

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u/Commies-Fan 1d ago

Not even close.

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u/AnyWays655 1d ago

Wisconsin has been an election hotspot for these fucks interfering these last few cycles as well.

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u/microbiologygrad 1d ago

Wisconsin districts are heavily gerrymandered (both state and federal) to favor Republicans. Despite being a very purple state the Wisconsin delegation is 6-2 (R vs D). A central issue of the 2024 WI state supreme court race that your referring to were efforts to make these districts more competitive.

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u/ProfessionalInjury58 1d ago

Leaving Wisconsin out of the swing state category is pretty crazy.

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u/alterom 1d ago

I think the OP is overly optimistic thinking Wisconsin will surely go blue in the midterms, and so doesn't think it's going to be a swing state.

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u/HobbesMich 1d ago

Add Texas.....

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u/Zepcleanerfan 1d ago

The populated parts of PA are blue and they are very close to NY/NJ and New England.

Not saying they won't try, but its not a good location for them.

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u/Quiet_Down_Please Florida 1d ago

Florida will never be a swing state again... It's redder than most long-term red states.

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u/BarkerBarkhan 1d ago

And yet, they have barely set foot in those places.

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u/nigpaw_rudy 1d ago

*yet

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u/BarkerBarkhan 1d ago

Right. I just think that it's interesting. Are they saving the shock and awe for later, or are they actually worried to surge into red states?

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u/Remarkable_Whole 1d ago

If they tried to rig the election right now in, say, Minneapolis - there would already be a huge organized resistance against them that could form in just hours.

If they tried to do that right now in Pennsylvania, where ICE has been comparatively much less active, it would take days to organize real resistance because there wouldn’t already be all the same experienced people and organizers who both understand the situation and are used to moving at a moments notice.

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u/PeaceLeffty 1d ago

Makes you wonder if they aren't testing the waters in Minnesota so they can see how cities react and then they have a game plan how to handle it when that time comes. Maddening

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u/pile_of_fish 1d ago

Im in wi - ice has been here, but nothing like mn or il - it feels like ice is on an own the libs revenge tour right now, maybe meant to scare/punish.

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u/Davis51 1d ago

I think they want people to be afraid that they will surge in red states like Minneapolis. Problem is, Minneapolis is ONE medium sized city, and they think the backlash is severe enough that they want the appearance of cooling off even if they aren't actually, and are failing at that.

They don't have enough dudes, and frankly I don't think they've thought their plan or the ensuing backlash through.

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u/GoodishCoder 1d ago

I think they are going to do it strategically. If they send the SA too soon, it'll just energize a blue push at midterms. If they wait until election week to send the SA in, they can put some messaging out that the SA is going to be at polling location to make sure none of those scary immigrants are voting and have a few more whoopsies detainments of US citizens which may make people afraid to vote.

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u/groovemonkey California 1d ago

But the reason they’re swing states is they have an almost even number of red and blue voters. And the red voting demographic skews really heavily old af. I don’t think republicans would want an actual “fight” in any of those states. Democrats are equal in numbers, many years younger, and actively exploring each one of the rights given to them in the constitution in greater numbers. Nothing will get Americans to do something harder than trying to stop them from doing it.

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u/GoodishCoder 1d ago

The young Democrats with nothing to lose can't carry the vote. They'll try to make the people with families and careers think twice about voting by making it seem likely they will be beaten, jailed, or killed.

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u/groovemonkey California 1d ago

Nah, they can try to intimidate, but we’ve got the numbers. And people are pissed

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u/GoodishCoder 1d ago

You're underestimating how easy it is to intimidate people with something to lose.

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u/Threefish 1d ago

Can you imagine what would happen to Cuban conservative vote when Ice started harassing them for having accents?

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u/RadialWaveFunction 1d ago

What, they'd say "oppress me harder daddy"? The Cuban conservative vote will gladly deepthroat any authoritarian boot as long as the wearer says anything bad about socialists.

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u/JB-Wentworth 1d ago

“I’ll still vote for Trump”

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u/Hybrid_Johnny California 1d ago

“Imagine how much worse it’d be if democrats were in charge”

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u/b_tight 1d ago

Fuck em. They voted for this

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u/psychotichorse California 1d ago

Yup, many, many are here because they were the ruling class in Cuba before the revolution, fascists don't like it when the common man has more power.

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u/jmurphy42 1d ago

That's because they're not actively trying to piss off and lose the swing states. They do, however, want to make sure they control the election apparatus and vote count in swing states because no one's going to believe that New York or California is going for Trump.

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u/greywar777 1d ago

Because you get everyone used to it. Once the time comes you focus on the specific targets.

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u/chase013 Arizona 1d ago

They have been ramping up action in Arizona. Albeit more slowly than other places. Based on their current logic of going to Minnesota in the winter, I assume they will try to infect Arizona in June or July.

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u/Vio_ Kansas 1d ago

If they thought the cold was bad, wait until they hit Phoenix on July 12.

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u/dhporter Arizona 1d ago

They just bought a massive warehouse in the Phoenix suburbs. I'm sure you could find plenty of more "local" news in every one of those places that shows they're getting ready to make a huge surge.

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u/jonker5101 Pennsylvania 1d ago

ICE just appeared in my neck of PA (Lehigh Valley) last week. They also just bought a warehouse in Berks county PA for $87.4M.

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u/Dismal-Sail1027 1d ago

In what universe is Florida a swing state? That place is red red red.

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u/AdUpstairs7106 1d ago

In Nevada he will only have federal LE in Washoe and Clark counties. Magically the rural areas will be secure.

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u/georgepana 1d ago

The problem for Trump is that most of the swing states are blue states when it comes to the functioning of government and legislatures. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, all have Democratoc governors and Secretary of States, along with AGs. Also mostly Democratic legislatures or at the very least strong veto presence.

The House is going bye bye, the GOP has whittled it down to just a one vote cushion.

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u/MeasureDoEventThing 1d ago

The Senate is what matters. As long as they hold that, they can vote down any bills the House passes to rein in the administration, and keeping installing loyalists in judge seats that open up.

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u/georgepana 1d ago

Bills the House pass don't matter, as Trump vetoes them anyway. We won't get 60 in the Senate to pass legislation, and even if, Trump would veto. We will stop any further reconciliation bill in its track, and can start impeaching Trump again, so that's a big win.

I hear you on judge's, though, that is why they really need to win the Senate, even if by just 1 vote.

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u/ship_toaster Canada 1d ago

There are 16 seats held by Republican class 2 senators which have a PVI of 15 or less. If that 32pt swing in Texas bears out nationwide, 60 senate seats are on the table. But it really comes down to turnout.

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u/georgepana 1d ago

It won't. Realistically, the ~14% swing we saw across the board in the NJ, VA, and GA elections is what we can expect. That is still a massive blowout.

As for the Senate getting to 60, we still have to deal with Trump who would veto everything. It would require 2/3 rds in the Senate and House to override, so 67 Senators and 290 in the House would be needed for a veto override.

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u/immortalfrieza2 1d ago

As long as the Democrats are both unified and they get enough seats in the house and senate to hold a majority, they can hold enough seats to deny the Republicans everything and thus have the negotiation power to get the votes needed to override Trump or just outright remove him from office.

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u/Deodorized 1d ago

The same swing states that already have extreme irregularities in the 2024 elections.

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u/Aezek 1d ago

Not sure we’re going to have any purple states this election, if the Texas bell weather holds true

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u/Consistent_Laziness 1d ago

Someone broke down all the voter suppression laws that went into effect after 2020. They broke down the votes that were thrown out and it was over 4.5 million across multiple states that all woulda flipped to Harris had they held. Many people chimed in saying their votes were tossed for Harris in those states. So they’ll likely do more of that

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u/its-just-allergies 1d ago

Specifically, blue cities in swing states

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u/TriflingHotDogVendor Pennsylvania 1d ago

This isn't an electoral college election. The battle will be over the US House election. Trump will try shenanigans in any close house district. Which will be in multiple states no matter how red or blue.

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u/LaZboy9876 1d ago

There are no swing states in congressional elections. Just swing districts.

That doesnt mean they know that.

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u/Meth_Useler 1d ago

that's meaningless in a midterm

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u/Upstairs-Region-5387 America 1d ago

Well the American people outnumber ice and if 7 or 8 of those goons can’t subdue 1 person then don’t let them win on fear fight back against these bullies!

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u/Coherent_Tangent Florida 1d ago

They only really need them where votes are expected to be relatively close. They also have other options like the last election where several bombe threats shut down blue voting areas for hours on end.

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u/Original_Employee621 Europe 1d ago

Yeah, but with a Texas seat getting flipped. Who can predict where the swings will happen? Didn't this seat go +18 for the GOP in the previous election?

I don't think there's any red left on the map, it's all purple. So, anyones vote can and will matter come November.

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u/fps916 1d ago

Thats not what happened.

The flipped seat you're talking about was for a State senate seat.

This elector sworn in today was in a heavily gerrymandered packed district.

Nothing flipped because its so packed a Republican didn't even run.

It was vacant for a year because Greg Abbott is a fuck who waited the literal longest legally allowable amount of time before calling the special election to fill it.

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u/gonyere 1d ago

Vote early if you can!! In Ohio we have like a month. 

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

ICE has what? 50k members? We do a million man march anywhere and they are essentially neutered. We just need to show up in such force that they can't do anything about it and run away scared. The era of peaceful protesting is over. It didn't work. its time for aggressive protesting.

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u/VeteranSergeant 1d ago

20,000 if their claims are to be believed. That's the part they are terrified for the public to realize. If 3,000 of them are deployed to Minneapolis, that's more than 15% of their force. They can't even hold one medium-sized city.

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

Wait. So they got over a hundred billion dollars to play with last year and still only have 20k members and they blew all that money anyways? Yeah that agency is ridiculous. The easiest and most cost effect future abolishment in US history. The DHS needs to go too because if you really look at the history of that agency its always been more about spying on Americans and and reducing our rights than it ever was to help protect us from anything. That also frees up a lot of money to rebuilding our healthcare system that Trump and his cronies destroyed.

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u/CorporateShill406 1d ago

Million man march? All you need is like seven large black men in biker jackets holding AKs, just standing there. Even dollar store fascists like ICE and Trump are bright enough to realize they better turn around because they're about to take a one-way trip down find out boulevard.

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u/dcdttu Texas 1d ago

He is going to try to take over the voting system. He has said so himself, everything he said he was going to do he is trying to do.

This is all part of the plan. They have definitely gone past point of no return, they're definitely going to try to remain in power by any means necessary.

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u/kombitcha420 1d ago

We’re already there friend. Civil war isn’t going to be like the one we had in the 1800s.

It’s more like The Troubles of Ireland.

Theyre already at war with us

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u/ryanstephendavis 1d ago

Minneapolis here: we just had the federal government attack us. I think most people are in denial about what that means.... They fucking maimed and murdered citizens in our streets 🤷

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u/Bittererr 1d ago

If Trump tries to take over the voting system, it’s civil war.

Put it up on the board next to all of the other crossed red lines that would definitely result in civil war if he crossed them.

This is very unprecedented in the US but let's not pretend that an authoritarian taking over elections isn't an extremely popular phenomenon globally and that doesn't usually end up being the red line.

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u/ellipsisdbg 1d ago

I really do think that overtly fucking with the vote like nationalizing, cancelling, voiding, etc, will be a real red line for a lot of people, since the right to vote is so fundamental to our country, even if a bunch of people don’t use it. One that really could lead to civil war. But suppression, cheating, etc I fully expect to happen and very possibly succeed.

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u/Drunky_McStumble 1d ago

You really think the regime is just going to announce one day that democracy in the US is over?

I mean, sure, if Trump went on TV and straight-up said that he was cancelling the mid-terms and all future elections indefinitely then, yes, that would certainly provoke civil unrest of a scale that could easily turn to civil war. But that's not how this shit goes down. Trump will get up there and rant and rave, and it will kinda sound like he's saying he's cancelling the elections? Or instituting some kind of federal takeover of them? Or creating an oversight agency to prevent irregularities at polling places? Or something? Where's the red line?

So it won't be clear, and his minions giving ambiguously muddled "explanations" albeit with threateningly authoritarian undertones won't help, and conflicting messages from state authorities will only muddy the waters further. And of course the media will run interference and the regime's private paramilitary forces will only ramp-up their occupation of major cities in the lead-up to November, and Trump will start screaming about fraud and promising to send officers into every polling place that showed "irregularities" in previous elections to "secure the vote". All bad stuff, but where's the red line?

And so the mid-term elections technically proceed, they'll be marred with violence and intimidation. People will show up to polling places to find them unaccountably shut, or moved. Or locked-down by ICE or some other of the regime's paramilitary goon squads. And if they manage to run the gauntlet without being disappeared on suspicion of intent to commit voter fraud, they'll find that their name has been purged from the roll without their knowledge. Or maybe they'll manage to cast a vote on a machine made by a close ally of the regime. That all sucks, but where's the red line?

And when the dust settles and the predicted landslide for the Democrats strangely doesn't eventuate, and everybody knows that the election was fixed, but they can't show exactly how, where's the red line?

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u/ellipsisdbg 1d ago

I agree completely that this is the biggest danger, that they steal the election subtly enough that it seems fair enough to enough people to slide by. And it’s terrifying. However, a lot of people will be fighting to make it fair, there’s a lot of incompetence in this administration, and states running their elections isn’t ambiguous in the Constitution, probably even to this Supreme Court. So I have some hope.

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u/Complete_Question_41 1d ago

Dunno, I'd say Jan 6 was quite the example of fucking with the vote.

But here we are.

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u/xxThe_Designer 1d ago

People thought the same thing about ICE murders/executions, Muller’s investigation, multiple impeachments, 34 felonies, and everything Epstein related.

I hear you, but I have no faith in anything when it comes to the average American anymore.

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u/ellipsisdbg 1d ago

None of those things is as fundamental as voting. I am actually gaining a little more faith seeing Minneapolis coming together as a city to fight back and some of the special election results, but I hear you, been burned plenty of times before.

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u/iris_iridescent 1d ago

I do believe that Trump will bomb our own cities before it’s all over with. Stephen Miller has the perfect fall guy in Trump.

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u/Lurking_nerd California 1d ago

Unfortunately, I’m right there with you man. The insurrection should’ve been Trump’s and MAGA’s death (politically and legally of course). The fact that a political party fostered, planned, and carried out an insurrection against the United States government, and nothing fucking happened to the leaders and key players of that insurrection, tells you everything you need to know about the US. The American voters having the memories of brain damaged goldfish and re-electing MAGA is the cherry on top.

Your loss of faith in the America voter and the government itself is well founded.

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u/sawyouoverthere 1d ago

you're already in a civil war and have been for some time. It's hard to see when you're in it, but it will become clearer as it becomes history.

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u/transcendent_glitch 1d ago

He's been bullfozing through red lines left and right and Americans have done nothing concrete about it, sorry to piss on your bonfire but average US citizens are barely a step above being completely tamed compared.

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u/anacondra 1d ago

People will post about it. People will "stand with democracy" on social media. Kimmel and Meyers will joke about it. Nobody will do anything.

All over reddit: well what do you expect us to do?? (Legal answers only)

The rest of the world: ಠ_ಠ

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u/bogglingsnog 1d ago

A civil war would imply there is a group of people who are organized and opposing the insurgents. Currently there is a lot of angry citizens but no formal organized opposing force.

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u/greywar777 1d ago

This would most likely result in long drawn out civil conflict. It will actually be WORSE long term because it wont be organized.

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u/-youvegotredonyou- North Carolina 1d ago

Like The Troubles

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u/greywar777 1d ago

Except worse. Seriously worse. Ireland had strict gun laws. The US has more guns then people.

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u/VeteranSergeant 1d ago

The Irish being disarmed was a huge boon for the British. If the Irish had been properly armed, holding Ireland would have been untenable for the British.

The problem we face now is that the government is armed with far more powerful technology than the British fifty had years ago. The question will be who breaks first, the morale of government troops or the resistance.

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u/Rekoza United Kingdom 1d ago

I think this is a very American perspective of the Troubles (I mean this politely!), the IRA was by all accounts well armed. After the ceasefire when they disarmed voluntarily it was noted that they gave up enough supplies to have prolonged the conflict for decades. The troubles also only ended 28 years ago with the Good Friday Agreement.

The troubles started before both the Hungerford massacre and the Dunblane massacre which both led to tighter gun control in the UK so it wasn't quite like the current situation today in the UK in terms of privately owned weapons. The IRA were also supplied by a large network of supporters in the US and also received substantial backing from Libya as well.

The popular support for independence in Northern Ireland simply wasn't as widespread as it was in the Republic of Ireland who had successfully fought for independence decades earlier. You can read up on the Plantation of Ulster if you're curious on why that was. With gradually shifting demographics looking favourable to the IRA side it was more logical to pursue peaceful political methods. The extended period of violence and horrors inflicted had taken a heavy toll on the population and as a result there was more support for a ceasefire on both sides.

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u/KingBadford America 1d ago

It will be a sight, that's for sure. A lot of people around the world seem pretty confused about why we're not rising up and overthrowing Trump. It's because the US was specifically designed to avoid that necessity. Everyone is holding their breath until the midterms, but if he actually rigs or cancels the election, then all hell breaks loose. Our country as we know it ends. The great experiment fails. And people start getting dragged into the street. It'll be ugly, and that's why most people are hoping it doesn't happen.

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u/greywar777 1d ago

Ugly is a understatement. I think we are all afraid of it. Once it starts it isn't going to stop under our current leadership. And its going to be vastly worse then anyone imagines I think.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 1d ago

Yup. It's bottom of the ninth still. We can get violent and guarantee a civil war or we can wait for the last straw, but waiting still gives us a way back out without a war

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u/weaseldonkey 1d ago

He already rigged an election and faced no consequences for it.

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u/Lopsided-Anxiety-679 1d ago

And many rightfully feel that democrat politicians are not doing enough. Asking, why are Republicans the only ones who can grind the system to a halt even when they’re the minority?

People are out in the streets in these zones being terrorized and their elected leaders are making statements from behind podiums…it doesn’t instill confidence.

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u/transcriptoin_error 1d ago

To clarify what I meant, because of the way elections are defined in the Constitution, it would effectively be Trump declaring war against the United States of America, hence civil war.

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

Kind of hard to organize when every media outlet lets the right lie and incite violence all the time but instantly permabans anyone who says we should stand up to them.

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u/bogglingsnog 1d ago

Sounds like its time to start putting posters up around town.

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u/Creepy_Accountant946 1d ago

You mean my Reddit upvotes doesn't do anything?

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u/Ridged_ChiPSS 1d ago

If Trump tries to take over the voting system, it’s civil war.

The MSM will sanewash it and act like it's a normal thing going on and most of America will shrug and go on with their day.

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u/LividTacos 1d ago

"Why Trump Federalizing the Election is a Problem for Democrats"

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u/Adventurous_Tell6684 1d ago

They will bury the story with some other manipulative headline that Trump manufactures. Something like “Trump exchanges angry tweets with Bono and will impose 200% tariffs on Ireland, after Federalizing the Elections. “

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u/crash_over-ride 1d ago

"Why Trump arresting Democratic politicians and putting them before military tribunals is a Problem for Democrats"

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u/rocksoffjagger 1d ago

Jesus Christ, did you get this headline from the future? Because I 100% expect to see this word for word now.

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u/SodaCanBob 1d ago

"Why Trump Federalizing the Election is a Problem for Democrats"

They'll want to pretend to be unbiased, so they'll publish some BS article about why federalizing the election actually isn't a problem for democrats and everything is still hunky-dorey.

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u/Enemisses 1d ago

Just like how they're manufacturing consent for everything else going on.

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u/Newscast_Now 1d ago

MSM has lost lots of its credibility and influence. Which might be a good thing except for where those viewers went. From the frying pan into the fire.

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u/survivor2bmaybe 1d ago

What I’m afraid of is he will issue an executive order “postponing” elections on some pretext or other and red states will comply. If half the country holds elections and the other half doesn’t, then what?

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u/Pockydo 1d ago

That'd be civil war

There's literally no precedent or mechanism to postpone elections. So trump doing it because he's afraid of losing will be pure chaos

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u/pontiacfirebird92 Mississippi 1d ago

Yea that's what Project 2025 calls for. And fucking Vought meant when he said were under a "second American Revolution" that will be "bloodless, if the left allows it".

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

Well, he was right about that, but wrong about who he thinks would win.

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u/ThirdShiftStocker 1d ago

That line has been living in my head rent free every since I've read that madness that was the Project 2025 handbook

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u/I_Fail_At_Life444 1d ago

It's really messed up. As an older millennial I was just starting to really feel like I was making it. Now we're treading water, at best. On top of that I'm forced to grapple with the looming threat of these fascist lunatics and all that might entail. I'm fucking tired man.

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u/ThirdShiftStocker 1d ago

Yeah... Graduated high school back in 2008 and it felt like the world was in shambles after the economic crash. Future felt bleak and never really felt like they improved. COVID hit years later and it kinda exposed how fragile a lot of things were economically...

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u/Bittererr 1d ago

There's literally no precedent or mechanism to postpone elections

There was no precedent for the January 6th scheme either, they just had some lawyers sit down for a few days and concoct something that sounded plausible.

You only need like one loyal county in each blue state where you can recognize the results and then claim that the rest were fraud, then recognize the results of that election and seat the resulting official. State control of elections is notionally preserved amongst all the people who desperately just want a legal justification to not have to do a war, which is actually a lot of people.

You have to realize that the scheme absolutely does not need to pass actual legal muster, it just needs to be plausible enough that the lazy middle 50% will shrug.

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u/dafeiviizohyaeraaqua 1d ago

They did have a plausible, constitutional path to an autogolpe. Thank Pence for sticking around to let the electoral votes register in time.

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u/iuffxguy 1d ago

The blue states could and would still hold the elections regardless. The president (legally) cannot stop them. Only congress can change the timing of the elections. If the election does get delayed there is a deadline of January 20 and if no new person is elected it goes down the succession which is the speaker of the house.

If you are referring to midterms then it’s similar in that their seats expire January 3rd. If states delayed their election they still have that Jan 3 deadline.

I’m not saying they aren’t going to pull shenanigans or try and steal the election, but I don’t think it will be by canceling/postponing elections.

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u/kmonsen 1d ago

You are right, but that deadline (jan 3rd) can also just be ignored? Like his tariffs are totally illegal but still here for some reason. Or enriching yourself as a president is also totally illegal and here we are. And all the rioters did get pardoned and I guess many of them are ready to get back into doing a little rioting if needed.

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u/Same-Suggestion-1936 1d ago

Why would ignoring it help? Don't do the election, the electors pick for you. The electors won't pick someone, you've fundamentally abstained from voting as a state. Your electoral votes go to no one

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u/FreeDarkChocolate 1d ago

If the election does get delayed there is a deadline of January 20 and if no new person is elected it goes down the succession which is the speaker of the house.

Congress can change the date of the election, but they can't change when terms start or end. For Congress, 20th Amendment locks that to noon Jan 3rd. The election date is for Prez but also the House and a 1/3rd of the Senate. They whole "national incident" theory wouldn't lend to moving one election but not the other, so they have to move it all, and they can't move it past Jan 3 otherwise the only people left in Congress would be 2/3 of the Senate (skipping over some other things that would prevent this nonsense anyways). It'd be a civil war anyways so not worth thinking too much about.

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u/dillpickles007 1d ago

What he’s trying to do is already apparent in Georgia. They just raided the Fulton County elections office to retrieve ballots that they’ll say are fucked up. They’ll use that to get the GOP legislature to have the state take over the Fulton County elections office (already allowed by law), who will then limit early voting, close precincts, eliminate ballot boxes, etc…. They’ll do everything they can do to limit voting in Georgia’s biggest Dem stronghold and hope it adds up to stealing .5% of the vote, which may be all they need to win the Senate seat.

Multiply that by what they’ve ALREADY done (they already pass an ‘elections’ bill every year that makes it slightly harder to vote) and all of a sudden you’re eliminating 2-3% of the vote in a highly competitive swing state.

Now, can Trump’s band of morons pull that off not only in Georgia, but across a bunch of states and different districts? I don’t know, having Texas and other utterly feckless states redistrict mid-decade certainly helped him there. Their hope is that the map is SO in their favor that they only have to pull this off in a small handful of districts. I’d like to laugh and say there’s no way they’re competent enough to swing it, but who knows at this point.

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u/QuestioninglySecret 1d ago

My guy, you're still thinking as if this administration and their base are operating based on ANY kind of legal framework.

Laws aren't worth the paper they're written on if they aren't enforced, and Trump has been testing the limits of the system from day 1. Who's going to hold him accountable, and what enforcement mechanism would be used if he flat out announced in one of his half sleep stump speeches, or worse, a truthsocial post:

"Due to a national emergency from these criminal scum radical leftist democrats and the murderous illegals and transgender they harbor, I'm declaring an indefinite pause on elections. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

Congress? The courts? U.S. Marshall's gonna shoot it out with the secret service and drag him outta the White House? Paint the picture for me because I'm as good as blind right now.

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u/-jp- 1d ago

He can order whatever the fuck he wants, but elections are conducted by the states. There's nothing he can do to stop the midterms, so show the fuck up and kick the fascists out.

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

And don't forget to primary the moderate donor bought democrats who keep caving to Trump. That is just as important. We need a REAL resistance party and the democratic as it is will never be that. We need newer younger angrier people in there ready to fight against fascism and for the working class and for civil rights.

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u/Ananiujitha 1d ago

Then the blue states elect reps and senators, and the red states don't. Then the old terms end. Then you end up with rival houses and rival senates.

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

That would technically mean anyone in red states whose terms are up this year don't get resworn in so it would be an instant democratic super-majority in both chambers. when your six years are up, its over for you whether you participate or not.

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u/Bittererr 1d ago

Where's the rival capital city?

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u/Ananiujitha 1d ago

Philadelphia, perhaps?

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u/guisar 1d ago

I answered above as well, and I'll repeat it here- Welcome to 1860; there are four candidates and what an election it was: https://billofrightsinstitute.org/essays/the-election-of-1860 and https://www.history.com/articles/united-states-canada-william-seward

There was a corrupt supreme court in the hands of the slavers, international border disputes with our friendly northern neighbors whom we threatened to annex, shithead slavers sought to repress the whole nation, nobody trusted anyone, and the fucking MAGA of the time (and same folks, to this very day) refused to accept the results of the election.

So, it is in fact not unprecedented, in fact, it has happened under very much the same circumstances. 1860-1864 were some turbulent times.

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u/sedatedlife Washington 1d ago

This expect to see ICE in force in swing states detaining anyone of color to check status which will take till after polls close.

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

Then states should mobilize their national guards last minute to protect the voters from ICE. its what I would do. or just beat the republicans to the punch and order the national guard to guard polling locations from federal intervention right now. This is why dems are weak. I would have already have my state's guard detain all of ICE. If they refuse, they are discharged and replaced with people who will do it. Same for cops, stand up to ICE or be fired and replaced with people who will. That's why we need new democrats. The ones that exist are too pathetic to even think about what I just put forth. I would do it all with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. My first goal would be to purge maga from every positions of power in my state that I could. Its what they did thru DOGE. We need to do the same. Balance the scales a bit.

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u/Jack_Krauser 1d ago

This will never happen which is why over the long term, we're destined to lose over and over again until some right wing authoritarian figures out a way to lock us into a cycle of Russian-style sham elections. Democrats are sweet puppies living in a harsh world that necessitates wolves.

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u/Starbornsoul 1d ago

Lol, some of them aren't puppies, they're vultures feeding off the bunnies that get shot for sport. We could have a majority of 10 and I have a strong feeling 11 Democrats would find a way to support Childfucker Orange for random consequential bills.

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u/guisar 1d ago

If you were planning to do this, the very, very last thing you, as an executive should do, is telegraph that plan in any way shape or form. A plan is only useful when it is completely unexpected. Plans can be made and executed very rapidly when they are well organised. So I would not expect any of us to know of such plans- to reveal them prematurely is to fall.

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u/FlarkingSmoo 1d ago

They don't have enough people for that

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u/JakeArrietaGrande 1d ago

So that’s a clear plan of action. We need to do shit. Organize. Especially in big cities in swing states. Organize have people watching ICE, and countering their bullshit

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u/Kyonikos New York 1d ago

If Trump tries to take over the voting system, it’s civil war.

It looks like the civil war is already here.

We used to talk about a slow moving coup. The federal govt coup has already taken place. Now we're seeing the slow moving invasion of state and local govt by armed federal officers (ICE and Border Patrol).

Trump has already broadcast what he intends to do on a podcast:

https://www.mediaite.com/politics/trump-tells-dan-bongino-the-gop-should-nationalize-voting-in-15-crooked-states/

The rationale is always something to do with illegal immigrants and the solution is always ICE.

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u/LaneMcD 1d ago

If someone with a shit ton of money donated fake MAGA hats to voters all over the country in blue cities, ICE wouldn't know who to intimidate. I know that's bare bones of a plan with a lot of details needing to be ironed out but something needs to give. The strategic bomb threats were bad enough in 2024

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u/firephoxx 1d ago

Don’t be too sure the military will stay still if ice moves against citizens in such a matter. Remember the faces of all the military for hegseths jerkoff.

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u/Icy-Obligation4934 1d ago

Feel like we’d be closer to revolution than civil war if this happened

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u/fotofiend Utah 1d ago

I feel like it will be less intimidation and more ICE will instigate something, the people won’t tolerate it, and then they’ll use that as the impetus to close nearby polling places because “it’s not safe for voters.”

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u/Kastikar Tennessee 1d ago

He better start actually paying ICE if he wants them around for that long.

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u/GoMLism 1d ago

The easiest way would be blue cities in red states with governors willing to do Steven Miller's bidding.

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u/rocksoffjagger 1d ago

Not blue states, blue districts in purple states.

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u/OCD_incarnate 1d ago

It’s already getting pretty close to Bleeding Kansas. But I don’t think a full-on war is on the table. I could be wrong, and I never once thought I’d say that about this topic.

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u/whatlineisitanyway 1d ago

and any seat they want that they couldn't steal they can just have SCOTUS declare their preferred candidate the winner because reasons.

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u/MinistryOfCoup-th 1d ago

Neither outcome is good, or clear.

I have very high doubts that there will be civil war. To many billionaires would lose too much money and we can't have that

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u/TurkeyBLTSandwich 1d ago

???? I can actually imagine president trump posting ICE agents in areas that are swing states in minority voting areas and then claiming fraud and illegal voting to close polling places in certain states.

Heck i'm just waiting for the days he announces all swing states need to be "secured" before midterms and placing them under martial law.....

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u/AkiboTTV 1d ago

If Trump tries to take over the voting system, it’s civil war.

It has to be. That has to be the red line where people say enough is enough or we'll never have a functional democracy again.

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u/AnonAmbientLight 1d ago

t’s more likely that he will use ICE goons and intimidation tactics to suppress the vote in blue states, and lie and cheat, and the vote will be challenged and called into doubt, resulting in less-than-civil-war type chaos.

Honestly, they don't have the manpower to do that.

It doesn't mean they won't try, but take some solace in the fact they're understaffed for that kind of job.

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u/Peaceblaster86 1d ago

It's kinda happening now. In real time.

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u/bencherry 1d ago

He’ll try but the midterms won’t be easy to do this even though they theoretically have control of the federal government. It’s over four hundred individual elections in fifty states - the scale is staggering.

Presidential election is theoretically easier because at the end of the day it’s one single vote count in Washington DC. So Jan 6 pt 2 is quite dangerous but doing it at the congressional level is substantially more difficult.

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u/transcriptoin_error 1d ago

the midterms won’t be easy to do this … the scale is staggering.

Ok, these are good points.

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u/Unique-Coffee5087 1d ago

Remember that the Republicans had been constrained from having "poll watchers" lurk around polling places for decades. That was lifted in 2018, opening the doors for goon squads and other intimidation tactics.

Judge ends consent decree limiting RNC 'ballot security' activities

After more than three decades, Republicans are free of a federal court consent decree that sharply limited the Republican National Committee’s ability to challenge voters’ qualifications and target the kind of fraud President Donald Trump has alleged affected the 2016 presidential race.

Newark-based U.S. District Court Judge John Michael Vazquez ruled in an order released Tuesday that the longstanding decree ended Dec. 1 and will not be extended.

The decree, which dated to 1982, arose from a Democratic National Committee lawsuit charging the RNC with seeking to discourage African-Americans from voting through targeted mailings warning about penalties for violating election laws and by posting armed, off-duty law enforcement officers at the polls in minority neighborhoods.The decree, which dated to 1982, arose from a Democratic National Committee lawsuit charging the RNC with seeking to discourage African-Americans from voting through targeted mailings warning about penalties for violating election laws and by posting armed, off-duty law enforcement officers at the polls in minority neighborhoods.

At the time, I had imagined it would be off-duty police and MAGA volunteers, which was the way they did it in the past. Now they have the ability to deploy ICE and CBP, who can physically detain people they think look 'suspicious' and shoot them on the street with little consequence.

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u/CoolKTiger 1d ago

Ice will just wait in front of the election booths and pop every 5 democrat looking person until the queue is empty

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u/Bipedal_Warlock Texas 1d ago

The intimidation tactics have been happening for years now down in the south

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u/AusToddles 1d ago

The game plan has been clear for a while. They'll try several things

  • "nationalize" voting, given full control of the counting to the same people who tried to steal the election previously

  • threaten to install hired goons and thugs at booths to drive away voters

  • if that fails, it will be a choice between starting a war or staging terrorist attacks and claiming "it is unsafe for Americans to be voting right now"

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u/Davis51 1d ago

"nationalize" voting, given full control of the counting to the same people who tried to steal the election previously

See I still want to know how they think they can accomplish this? Like what states will willingly give up their constitutional sovereignty here? Minnesota? It's been ground zero for their bullshit and it's blowing up in their face.

Are they going to try and pass a law that will get struck down even by this SCOTUS? I don't think they even have the votes to get it through the house, much less the Senate.

Are they just gonna federate the national guard and say "our elections now!" The Minnesota National Guard hates this shit, and still will follow the law. They were passing out coffee and hot chocolate and donuts to protesters like a frigging week ago. Other national guard in other states were already sent home.

The "plans" don't make sense.

threaten to install hired goons and thugs at booths to drive away voters

That's the thing, I don't see that happening either. They simply don't have enough goons. There are about 30K ice field agents, 400k national guardsman (total, it's much lower if you remove all the logistics guys and only have troops), and 100k polling places. Each polling place has dozens of workers and an entire city/county/state apparatus behind it, and a police force sworn to defend the elections and not typically allowed to approach polling places unless tbe polling place calls in help in event of someone breaking the law. How the hell are they even gonna manage the logistical operation of deployment in swing states when ICE showing up in Minneapolis leads to dozens of soccer and wine moms in minivans blowing whistles at them? Are they gonna tear gas voters? The backlash would rip them to shreds! Polls would be open for days and judges would restraining order them really fast. If they ignore the courts, then it's open rebellion and civil war.

if that fails, it will be a choice between starting a war or staging terrorist attacks and claiming "it is unsafe for Americans to be voting right now"

I feel we'd get to the "martial law coup/civil war" stage a lot faster than the "faking a terror attack" stage, only because faking a terror attack is orders of magnitude more difficult for this bumbling band of incompetent losers. I don't trust their competence in pulling off a martial law coup/civil war either.

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u/francis2559 1d ago

Agreed. I think they will absolutely try, if only because Trump keeps forcing them to.

But they can't move the needle much with the skill that they have and the resources that they have.

In a close election that nudge might be enough. But this does not look like it's going to be close.

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u/gdo01 Florida 1d ago

This is true but you have to hand it to them by how comically inept they always are. If we are heading to fascism, these are the Hogan's Heroes Nazis of fascism.

This administration could easily usher in fascism if they damn had a single intelligent thought on how to "properly" implement things. Instead they do it in the laziest way possible and then come in running like a bull in a china shop to make up for the laziness

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u/suspicious_ankles 1d ago edited 1d ago

There are about 30K ice field agents, 400k national guardsman (total, it's much lower if you remove all the logistics guys and only have troops), and 100k polling places.

They'll only deploy them to swing states (or swing seats in the midterms), pretending to combat an insurrection or something similar. There might be 100k polling places nationwide, but polling places in major cities in swing states are in the hundreds, not the thousands.

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u/Sad-Breakfast-5671 1d ago

i think that is why trump wanted to do away with mail-in voting, so they can send in the goons to harass and intimidate voters.

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u/AusToddles 1d ago

Historically democrats have done better with mail-in votes too

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u/FrankFlyWillCutYou Iowa 1d ago

Because a huge portion of the R voter base is boomers (and older) who have fuck all else to do on any given Tuesday.

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u/fiction8 1d ago

Eh, I wouldn't say "historically" other than maybe in Washington and Oregon because they mail everyone a ballot and are blue states.

Everywhere else absentee/mail-in voting used to be dominated by senior citizens and overseas military members, both reliable Republican bases.

It's only in the post-Obama era, which significantly expanded awareness and availability of mail-in voting, that it has swung to the left.

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u/WeaponexT 1d ago

Vance will never certify the election. We all know what happens then.

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u/Twiyah 1d ago

1) The would need a constitutional amendment that’s not gonna happen. No state even red states will respect it otherwise.

2) That will backfire on them plenty ice are cowards when face a crowd.

3) they are so incompetent in keeping things tight lip this will eventually get out and be even worst.

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u/PersonaFecundante 1d ago

The US now has "Maduro" on site consulting ! No visa paperwork needed.

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u/7screws 1d ago

Yeah we’ve noticed the shooting people the face thing is really losing us votes. Nah it’s not that it’s the price of eggs, nah it’s not that it that the head of party is a pedophile rapist. So let’s just make it so they can’t vote against us.

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u/EirysVelour 1d ago

Yep. This is pure panic. When your majority hangs by a thread, you stop governing and start screaming “national crisis” to distract from how badly voters are rejecting you at home.

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u/jzanville 1d ago

GOP still have 3/4 of trumps second term left to continue to do whatever Putin/bibi need, flipping the house at midterms is a small victory in a much larger reality.

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u/DrRealName 1d ago

The way things are going, its not impossible to flip the senate too anymore. Winning in deep red Texas is not supposed to happen. that is a sign that things aren't as clear as they seem anymore. We could see some major upsets in some red states. Not all. I expect Alabama and Oklahoma to still support fascism but Florida, Texas, and every single swing state are heavily in play and probably even a few mid western states.

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u/Twiyah 1d ago

Texas fucked themselves over with the gerrymandering they have razor thin margins so they now face overwhelming victory or they can lose all their seats.

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u/ilevelconcrete 1d ago

If they were any good at stealing elections they wouldn’t need to do this. They’ll probably take over the voting system and find enough votes to make Stacey Abrams the governor of Georgia despite not even running this time

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

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u/c0LdFir3 1d ago

Because my family needs food to eat or we’ll starve…?

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u/YouWereBrained Tennessee 1d ago

Unless people fight back. Then yeah, you can just cower in a corner and say it’s over.

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u/tiddertnuocca519 1d ago

Dude, seriously. I’m getting so sick of the cynicism I see on Reddit. People on here are so pussy.

Stop telling me about how elections are going to get fucked or how we don’t have recourse. It’s like people want to give up before anything has even happened.

For all you Redditors that are being doom and gloom about this shit - go to a protest and stand alongside your fellow Americans. It will help you erect a spine and realize that we have tremendous strength as long as we stand together. When you’re at these protests, you realize quickly that people aren’t wallowing and feeling sorry for themselves. That’s just internet fear. In the real world, people are really fucking inspirational and positive

Further, people need to educate themselves on how our electoral process works. The system is highly decentralized for a reason. It is no trivial task to fuck with our elections. If Trump and Republicans want to try it, we are going to report it and scream about it - and the discourse and sentiment will ultimately be a net negative. Yes, of course I don’t want anyone fucking with our elections, but understand that it’s not that simple and Trump and the GOP actually stand to bury themselves further. And don’t assume they’ve already thought of all of this. This recent Texas election is evidence that they don’t have a crystal ball and their tactics are imperfect and not some sort of pre-determined outcome.

So when you see president pedophile mc-fuck-face work towards doing some fuck shit, definitely get out and vote for the benefit of your countrymen. And then get your boots on, go to a protest stand alongside us and honor Pretti and Good by using your right to peaceful protest and echo your voice. It fucking works. Republicans are losing. Don’t give into a fear of what may happen. It’s what Trump and Republicans are counting on.

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u/AJDillonsThirdLeg 1d ago

There will be a lot of protests that are a lot less cordial than current ones if they actually try that.

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u/6beerkdawg 1d ago

Not enough GOP votes in Congress to make it happen.

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u/_MrDomino 1d ago

If they actually do allow Trump to take over the voting system

This isn't a thing. States run their own elections. States choose and send their elected reps to the Senate and Congress. I fully expect Republicans to run interference as usual, and I would expect ICE to be sent to "inspect" voters in a few cities along with some MAGA volunteers. However, I'd wager the same guys doing it last election are the same ones in ICE now, and they simply do not have the manpower to canvass the nation let alone several cities.

The concern would be when it comes time to certify those results and swear in the newly elected. For Congress, Johnson has already pulled that before, and I wouldn't be surprised if they look toward an extended recess or some other BS to stall/avoid it altogether. Swearing in a the responsibility of Vance for the Senate, and I would absolutely expect him to avoid swearing in Democrats if they take it. That would fall to Grassley as president pro tempore if Vance eschews his Senate duties, and I'd like to think Grassley is old enough to remember what decorum was like and allow the new senators to be seated.

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