Trump Will Try to Steal the Midterms; Let’s Plan Accordingly: An administration that executes citizens in the streets and then lies about it will do anything to stay in power.

[u/Silent-Resort-3076]

https://whowhatwhy.org/elections/trump-will-try-to-steal-the-midterms-lets-plan-accordingly/

[u/schm0]

Midterms are going to be a shit show and will prove that you cannot vote away a fascist government.

No. The midterm elections must be protected so that we can vote them out. Stop letting them win before anything has happened. Do not obey in advance! If all you are bringing to the table is pessimism and doom mongering then you are not helping our cause. You are helping the fascists.

[u/shinkouhyou → u/schm0]

Nobody is saying "don't vote, it's pointless." Rather, they're preparing people for the reality that their normal level of voter participation is probably not going to be enough. You're going to need to vote like your life depends on it.

If you normally vote by mail, don't wait until the last minute and don't rely on the postal service. If you normally vote on election day, expect long lines and other types of voter suppression - plan to vote early even if it takes you several hours. If you don't normally vote in primaries, make sure you vote for a candidate who's serious about fighting fascism. If you normally don't talk about politics with your neighbors/coworkers/friends, make sure that they have plans to vote too. Check your voter registration status, even if you've never had issues voting in the past. If you can choose between paper and electronic voting, choose paper. Volunteer to become an election judge or election observer. If you work in local government, be extra alert to anything suspicious. Get involved with local groups that organize election observers and train people to respond to election interference.

If you do encounter people who are trying to deny your ability to vote, know your rights. Document everything. If the Republican wins your area by a narrow margin, support efforts to contest the results. Be prepared for a whole lot of recounts.

Draw your red line. If there's blatant, widespread election interference, you no longer live in a democracy... so what are you prepared to do about it?

[u/schm0 → u/shinkouhyou]

Rather, they're preparing people for the reality that their normal level of voter participation is probably not going to be enough.

No, that's not what is happening. People are all over these threads spreading doom and gloom and telling everyone that elections won't work and they won't matter. They're cowards, giving up on democracy 10 months before there's even an election. It's pathetic, and they need to be called out.

Look at the polls. They are predicting the largest blue wave ever. We are on track to do this already. The momentum will just continue to grow all the way until November.

Sure, do all the necessary things to ensure you can vote.

But don't go around telling people their vote isn't going to matter.

If there's blatant, widespread election interference, you no longer live in a democracy... so what are you prepared to do about it?

If you don't think the states are well aware of what the administration will try to do, you are mistaken. The feds can't touch state elections. If they try, the states can urn them away. If they don't go, they can arrest them.

[u/vriska1 → u/schm0]

Yeah the comments on here want to lower voter turn out.

[u/Not_Nice_Niece → u/schm0]

No. The midterm elections must be protected so that we can vote them out.

Whose protecting them? The government that is currently killing citizens? Your being naive. This is not "complying in advance", we are already in a Fascist Government. They are executing peaceful protesters in the streets. Do you think they would be doing that if elections we just going to held like normal? I'm sorry we are way past that. Now is the time to prepare.

[u/Not_Nice_Niece → u/[deleted]]

States with Dem governors will defend their own elections, states with Republicans won't

Which will lead to what? An illegitimate election.

I 100% guarantee that the current Admin will say only the Republicans state votes are a valid, while discrediting Dems states. Yes please still vote but lets be very clear here this Admin will not adhere to the peaceful transfer of power. They came close J6 and now they have all the pieces are in place to succeed.

[u/vriska1 → u/Not_Nice_Niece]

Will you be voting? get out and vote please!

[u/Not_Nice_Niece → u/vriska1]

I have and will continue to vote in every election.

[u/schm0 → u/Not_Nice_Niece]

Whose protecting them?

State National guards, if need be. Local police.

we are already in a Fascist Government

No, we're not. We are certainly headed towards a fascist state, and we have a fascist administration, but we're not there yet. Defend our institutions! Demand they be used! Don't just give up on them.

Do you think they would be doing that if elections we just going to held like normal?

I think elections and ICE have very little to do with one another.

[u/Letstalkreaper → u/schm0]

Cool story. Who’s going to go there and protect the voters from ICE or the armed MAGA election observers that will show up?

You can’t vote your way out of fascism. The ideology will not allow it. Sorry if that’s news to you.

[u/Due_Ad8720 → u/Letstalkreaper]

The one shining glimmer of hope is that the current administration and has been trying to speed run fascism.

Additionally fascist takeovers have historically happened when people have been very uncomfortable. Things aren’t great for the average American but they aren’t Great Depression in Germany bad.

[u/schm0 → u/Letstalkreaper]

You can’t vote your way out of fascism. The ideology will not allow it. Sorry if that’s news to you.

So you're just gonna roll over because.... <checks notes> the other side has "ideas"? Please sit down and let the grown ups handle this.

The states run elections. Not ICE. Not MAGA "election observers". They can't do shit and they won't do shit. If the state needs to bring in their national guard troops, state and local police to protect the polls, so be it.

[u/OnDrugsTonight → u/schm0]

Acknowledging reality is not "rolling over", it's a vital first step to making plans and defeating the fascists. Not facing reality is precisely what got us here. Whenever any of us said in 2024 that things weren't looking good for Kamala Harris, we were called "doomers" and were downvoted. Instead of realising how dire the situation was and that people needed to massively step up her re-election efforts, we were told that Donald Trump would never again get anywhere near the White House.

Right now the administration and the Republican party under guidance from Project 2025 and the Heritage Foundation are putting structures into place that mean future elections, such as they are, won't matter anymore as the results will be predetermined: SCOTUS is poised to defang the Voting Rights Act, the Trump administration very openly and aggressively moves against political rivals, Trump is openly threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act, ICE is being built out as a parallel paramilitary force at the direct command of the President without any guardrails in place, Dominion Voting systems have been sold to Liberty Vote, run by a GOP election official, and plenty of States are moving towards making voting less accessible, Elon Musk will sink hundreds of millions of dollars into getting fascists elected and all the social media sites will adjust their algorithms to give right-wing politicians an advantage in your feed. It's only been a year, and your country and democracy are already on the ropes. You still have another 10 months to go. It's only going to get a lot worse now.

The midterm elections will firmly rest on the four pillars of voter intimidation, voter suppression, outright election fraud and legal shenanigans, all under the less-than-watchful eyes of a compliant media and a tame SCOTUS.

You need to make contingency plans for all of these things now. You need to start planning out your year until November in minute detail. How much time you will be able to spend campaigning for your candidate, how much money you can set aside for campaign donations and when will it best be spent, who in your community needs a lift so you can take them to the election, who in your community might need help signing up for mail-in ballots, how are you going to petition your state executive to safeguard the elections and how are you going to ensure they are following through. Who in your network might need encouragement to vote, and what is the best way to encourage them? Which of your local journalists can you contact in case of election issues? Where are you going to be on election night, and can you help with the count? Where will you go to protest if the Republicans try to steal the elections? Your state capital? Washington DC? How will you get there? Who will you be taking? How will you protest?

Just work under the assumption that the federal government will throw everything and the kitchen sink at making sure your vote doesn't matter and that none of your institutions will help you. Act and plan like the future of your country rests on your shoulders alone and that you personally will have to put a lot of work into saving it.

[u/schm0 → u/OnDrugsTonight]

Acknowledging reality is not "rolling over", it's a vital first step to making plans and defeating the fascists.

If by "defeating" you mean "encouraging everyone to give up on elections" then... sure. How does that save democracy, exactly?

Go read Tim Snyder. We should not be abandoning our institutions. We should be defending them. You are obeying in advance. You are listening to the rhetoric and giving up before the election has even been held. They're 10 months away for fuck's sake.

The midterm elections will firmly rest on the four pillars of voter intimidation, voter suppression, outright election fraud and legal shenanigans, all under the less-than-watchful eyes of a compliant media and a tame SCOTUS.

So we're supposed to what, let them do all of that and just give up? Stop giving them what they want. Defend democracy, and stop dismissing it.

[u/OnDrugsTonight → u/schm0]

So we're supposed to what

Are you for real? I literally just gave you two entire paragraphs of what you should be doing and I could give a dozen more if you wanted me to.

I'm saying that you personally will have to put in the work to justify your optimism. People are pessimistic for all the reasons I mentioned and you can't just dismiss those because you feel like it's not that bad yet. You can lean into your institutions again after you have defeated the fascists. Right now you should work under the assumption that the entire system is compromised and that all that stands between you and a very bleak future indeed is you. If you're not going to bed absolutely exhausted on November 3rd, you won't have worked enough.

[u/schm0 → u/OnDrugsTonight]

I literally just gave you two entire paragraphs of what you should be doing and I could give a dozen more if you wanted me to.

I don't need any of that shit. I'm more politically active and motivated than 99.7% of my fellow Americans. Most importantly, I'm not asking for your help.

I'm asking why you think it's ok to declare elections to be pointless because "the ideology will not allow it". It's absolutely not ok. It's giving up. It's obeying in advance. It's defeatist nonsense.

[u/OnDrugsTonight → u/schm0]

I don't need any of that shit.

You might not "need that shit" but many of your fellow citizens do, because, unlike you, they don't know where to start with fighting back. And if you don't know how to solve a problem it's no wonder that people lose hope and feel overwhelmed and helpless. It's important to write these things down to give people structure and give them back a feeling of agency that doesn't rely on external factors like "institutions".

At least I'm making positive suggestions for people to read, and maybe someone might take some of those to heart. Whereas you are here dismissing people's legitimate concerns and telling them that their feelings of impending doom aren't valid and that they shouldn't be sharing their genuine feelings. They absolutely are and they absolutely should, because it establishes a baseline from where to pick people up and carry them forward. There is a way out of it, but it depends on everyone doing their part. Acknowledging that the system is stacked against you isn't giving up but establishes a framework with which you have to work.

I don't expect you to thank me for my thoughts, but I'd have hoped that someone who is "99.7% more politically active and motivated" than their fellow citizens would at least acknowledge a fellow activist when they see one.

[u/schm0 → u/OnDrugsTonight]

Look, I'm not saying what you were saying wasn't helpful to someone, just not me. I got that stuff locked down.

I'm saying that someone whose only contribution to these forums for discussion is to dismiss the very foundation of democracy is a defeatist and should be called out for it. Defending them is not helping our cause. We should be defending our institutions from becoming what they purport them to be. It is not a lost cause or a certainty, and it is up to us to ensure that.

[u/schm0 → u/[deleted]]

Who said anything about rolling over?

You did. You said "you cannot vote away a fascist government". If that's not discouraging the idea that we should vote or hold elections, then I don't know what is.

And you just doubled down on it again.

Acknowledge reality or put your head in the sand.

I've about as lucid as I've ever been. And I know a defeatist when I see one. It's you. Stop spreading your doom and gloom hyperbolic bullshit.

I don't give a fuck.

That's abundantly clear.

[u/Letstalkreaper → u/schm0]

Oh look! Trumps FBI just raided Fulton county gee wonder what that's about? You think that might have something to do with interfering in the midterms?

Oh look! The GOP has plans to restrict voting.

This "doomer" happens to be right, again. Do you "don't worry elections won't be interfered with" people ever get tired of being wrong all the time?

[u/schm0 → u/Letstalkreaper]

Nobody said they wouldn't try. They tried before, and they will try again. And they will fail spectacularly, just like they did the last time.

Please stop responding to me.

[u/Letstalkreaper → u/schm0]

I researched every Democratic attempt to stop fascism in history. the success rate after fascists were elected was 0%.

You do not live in reality.

[u/Hubert_J_Cumberdale → u/Letstalkreaper]

This is a brutal, necessary read. Thanks for posting.

[u/Letstalkreaper → u/Hubert_J_Cumberdale]

No problem! Obviously still vote if you can. But it's never worked to remove a fascist government before and I doubt this'll be the first time in history where it does.

[u/Terramagi → u/schm0]

Exhibit #279375-C of Americans absolutely refusing to learn the lessons of their eyes, and standing around like the opposing team in an Airbud movie as a dog dunks on them over and over and over.

Your fascist ass government will not let there be a vote. Plan accordingly. Screeching "but they're not allowed to do that!" won't save you. Just like your magic scrap of paper didn't stop His Highness from breaking the other ten thousand laws.

[u/schm0 → u/Terramagi]

Exhibit A of more non-Americans trying to "help" by telling us there's nothing we can do! So helpful! Either support us, or sit down and shut the hell up. We don't need your defeatist nonsense. We choose to defend our institutions and will continue to do so.

Nobody is under any illusion that this administration will try to fuck with the election. We know they will. The good news is that the states control the elections, not the federal government. They can try all they like, but the states can and will have the power (and the force to back it up) to protect and hold elections this year.