Washington Post:
20 days of fantasy and failure: Inside Trump’s quest to overturn the electionIt's must-read, unless you're sick of reading about this shit. There's nothing in there that we didn't already know or suspect, but it's nice to get confirmation from primary sources, even if they're anonymous.
In June, during an Oval Office meeting with political advisers and outside consultants, Trump raised the prospect of suing state governments for how they administer elections and said he could not believe they were allowed to change the rules. All the states, he said, should follow the same rules. Advisers told him that he did not want the federal government in charge of elections.
Oof. I've long felt that the federal government should take a more active role in regulating how federal elections are conducted, but this has me questioning that stance. The President and Congress intentionally undermining access to the polls for partisan reasons isn't something that ever really occurred to me before the Trump Administration, but like many vulnerabilities in our system, that's one that I'm going to have to think about now. States (and municipalities) handling their own election processes is a deeply flawed system, but it
can act as a hedge against federal meddling. (Course, the reverse is true too; stronger federal control could act as a hedge against state meddling.)
I think a more robust federal role in federal elections would have prevented what happened in 2000 -- but I think it could also have prevented what happened in 2020. Food for thought.
More troubling to Raffensperger were the many threats he and his wife, Tricia, have received over the past few weeks — and a break-in at another family member’s home. All of it has prompted him to accept a state security detail.
“If Republicans don’t start condemning this stuff, then I think they’re really complicit in it,” he said. “It’s time to stand up and be counted. Are you going to stand for righteousness? Are you going to stand for integrity? Or are you going to stand for the wild mob? You wanted to condemn the wild mob when it’s on the left side. What are you going to do when it’s on our side?”
I hate to victim-blame, but...
you're complicit. You voted for Trump; you voted for
this. You never thought the leopard would eat
your face.
I respect Raffensperger's integrity in telling the truth instead of parroting the party line. But that's where we are now: the bar is so low that when a Republican says two plus two is four even though the president is demanding that he say it's five, that's notable and seems praiseworthy.
“If you were a Republican poll watcher, you were treated like a dog,” Trump complained, using one of his favorite put-downs, even though many people treat dogs well, like members of their own families.
“This election was lost by the Democrats,” he said, falsely.
*chef kiss*