What if Trump's campaign is cover for a slow-motion coup? Jan-Werner Mller - The Guardian

[erronis]

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/04/trump-campaign-election-coup-cover-up
Even if Trump can’t really mobilize large numbers of people to the streets, just prolonging a sense of chaos might be enough

This is a very well-written and scary article.

Whatever happens next, one day historians will have to explain why a candidate who earlier this year had been presented as disciplined started to veer off into unrestrained racist rhetoric and dancing for 40 minutes to his own playlist. Was it age, as plenty of commentators have speculated? Was it a brilliant attempt to balance dehumanizing attacks on minorities with an effort to make himself look human?

A much more sinister explanation must be taken seriously. We still assume that we are witnessing two campaigns for the presidency. But what if we are witnessing one campaign and one slow-motion coup, whose organizers need to go through the motion of campaigning for the plan to work? Since winning at the ballot box does not matter, taking a break to listen to Pavarotti isn’t a problem; conversely, a festival of racism and conspiracy theories, as at Madison Square Garden, is not about convincing any undecided voter, but motivating committed Trumpists to go along with another coup attempt.

To be sure, this can also sound like conspiracy theory. The point is not prediction, but to call for preparedness. After all, there is an overwhelming number of reasons why, should Trump lose, he will once more try to take power anyway. His followers have long been primed to assume that evil Democrats will steal the election. The unchecked racism fits into a logic of far-right populism more generally: far-right populists claim that they, and they alone, represent what they call “the silent majority” or “the real people” (the very expression Trump used on January 6 to address his supporters).

[Doodley]

1. I've wondered the same.

[FarPoint]

2. I have been thinking that all along...before the tRump Biden debate.

Useless, worthless campaign that only insights violence and hate, division in America...it's the distraction in full Monty mode.

[TwilightZone]

3. "this can also sound like conspiracy theory"

Because it is a conspiracy theory. If, more likely when, Trump loses on Tuesday, and particularly if he loses in a big way, people are going to pay little attention to 2020 Redux.

There isn't going to be a coup. There isn't going to be a civil war. He isn't going to amass an army of keyboard warriors or cosplayers or convince the US Military to stage a revolt.

The election matters to Trump much, much more than the author states. It is very likely the only chance Trump has to potentially avoid accountability.

"The point is not prediction, but to call for preparedness."

The author is not the only one who saw what Trump tried to accomplish in the 2020 cycle or what has occurred since. Everyone is aware. Authorities have been preparing for a redo for nearly four years.

Plus, a primary reason January 6th happened the way it did in the first place was because his followers believed that they would face no consequences and there would be no ramifications, and Trump would have their backs. That illusion is gone.

[Doodley]

10. The authorities haven't held Trump to account for his actions four years ago. He's a traitor to America running for

president and has brought fascism to the mainstream. How can there be any confidence the authorities are ready for his next coup attempt?

[bucolic_frolic]

4. The weird behavior at rallies are a signal to operatives

Non-verbal stand back and stand by.

[Hotler]

5. We have Merick Garland. nt

[Fiendish Thingy]

12. We have an Air Force with nukes. Nt

[orangecrush]

19. ....

[Sky Jewels]

21. Merrick Garland ... less useful than a potted plant.

[Conjuay]

6. I've grown quite tired of the "what if" nonsense.

If “they “ start some shit, we will end it. Plain and simple. I’ve been listening to their noise since the sixties and putting up with their bullying my entire adult life. Go ahead, start something…

Personally, I would love it.

[Ferrets are Cool]

8. They started something on J/6 and people died. That should not be what we are hoping for.

[Doodley]

11. Trump came near to stealing the election. That is more than noise.

[J_William_Ryan]

7. There is no 'far right.'

The unchecked racism, the contempt for democracy and the rule of law, the war on facts and the truth and the endless lies are part of mainstream conservatism – it’s who and what conservatives are: fascists.

[sboatcar]

9. I don't think t runs that deep

I think they overestimated his popularity and ability to keep it together til the end. I do, however, think that the plan was to get him elected, then grant him pardons in exchange for him stepping down and putting Vance in power so they could execute project 2025. This was the hard right's long shot hail mary, and its looking like an interception for a touchdown instead.

[mucholderthandirt]

20. I agree. Trump isn't what they want, he's just the key to the door.

Once they're in, it's over for democracy. So, we don't let them get in. It's no coincidence that Republican leaders for the last half century at least have been controllable. Reagan likely had Alzheimer's long before he ran, Bush the Lesser was a dry drunk, and Trump... Well, multiple issues they didn't realize were going to tank his election.

Also, what happened in 2020 can't happen today, because Trump's not in charge. He doesn't control the National Guard, or anything else. Joe Biden does. And the Supreme Court basically have him full immunity, not just Trump.

Conservatives have been planning a quiet coup for decades now. It's nothing new. History is full of them testing things, using the government to get people at each other, and not paying attention to what they're doing.

There's a reason education is so bad, that they discourage people from learning. A dumb population is a controlled population. "1984" took a bit longer to get started, but it's always been a work in progress. Reality TV, news all owned by the big money corporations, no true free press, the only way to get real news is through the Internet, and they've tried to control that.

Don't forget, they had PNAC long before Project 2025. None of this is new. It's the same old shit in a different wrapper.

I'm not saying there won't be things when he loses. They have to try, and the MAGA minions are stupid and thing they're going to be some kind of heroes that "saved" America.

Don't forget that Joe Biden isn't a fool. Neither is Kamala Harris. You can bet your life they've already gotten plans laid out, have intel about what could or would happen. They aren't going to let Trump and his masters stomp on America.

I trust them. And if they mess up, well, there's always that bloodbath Trump threatened us with. I'll go down fighting, you damn well better believe that.

[orthoclad]

13. "go through the motion of campaigning"

It's glaring that T rallies are performative kayfabe, rodeo clown distractions to take our eyes off the bull.

They rubbed our noses in it with that NY Nazi rally.

We must look over our shoulders. Watch Vance and Holy Mike. The stiletto is hidden.

Be wary.

[Tetrachloride]

14. there's no if about it. 20 years or more in the making

[rainin]

15. The difference this time is that President Biden is in control and Biden's not naive.

He's prepared for trump to act out. One of the scariest thing I've heard trump say is his lamenting that he left in 2021. He had ultimate power until January 20th. He could have taken total control. He just didn't know it then. He knows it now. He can never be given that power again.

[Wounded Bear]

16. What if? Was there ever any doubt?...nt

[Metaphorical]

17. BS

Here's what I see:

* Trump expected to win in 2020, and he came very close to doing it, in part with the help and support of Putin, who was ramping up the war with Ukraine at that point, a war Putin expected to be over in 6 weeks. Three years later, Putin's economy is teetering towards collapse, and while Russian disinformation continues to make its way into the US, the massive amounts of money that were fueling GOP political campaigns top down has turned into a trickle.
* There are a fair number of billionaires out there who are unhappy at the prospect of being taxed on unrealized capital gains, and they would prefer Trump. However, I think they also realize that THEY have to tread carefully there, given that being a billionaire when a lot of people are struggling is not necessarily a good time to seem too greedy. The amount of money going into the RNC coffers has been anemic, and too much of it has likely been siphoned off by Trump
* Heritage Foundation overplayed its hand, and has also gained a lot more visibility about their plans than I think they intended. I don't think their plans have changed, but increasingly their questioning whether they have enough support themselves to pull it off.
* Many of the lower-level J6 people have been prosecuted and are now in prison, some for many years. This means first that a lot of the organizational structure that made J6 possible has been severely compromised. It also means that people understand that their actions will have serious consequences. That tends to cool a lot of revolutionary fervor.
* Trump is now clearly aware that the electoral college is slipping away from him. His health is failing, he's burdened with nearly $2 billion in debt which his various grifts are not even beginning to touch, his bought judges, one-by-one, are slipping away. He doesn't have the cover of the presidency anymore, and he's about to lose what allies he has in Congress.

If there is a conspiracy going on here, it's pretty inept, especially since Trump has trouble keeping his own mouth shut.

[lees1975]

18. The fact that something like this can even be considered is evidence for why Trump should be defeated soundly.

Americans live under a blanket of freedom that we completely take for granted. We are oblivious to all kinds of ideology that has worked its way into our society, largely by exploiting the ignorance and lack of information provided through almost all of the usual sources, whether its education or the media.

We are susceptible to our prejudices and they run deep.

[Hekate]

22. Well, duh. That's been fully evident for years. Project 2025 lays it all out in 900 pages.